The Gary Null Blog

Researchers at McGill University have discovered a molecular basis for the cancerpreventive effects of vitamin D, whereby its active form essentially shuts down cancer cells. People with higher blood levels of vitamin D live significantly longer than people who have low blood levels of the vitamin. The team, led by McGill professors John White and David Goltzman, of the Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Physiology, discovered that the active form of vitamin D acts by several mechanisms to inhibit both the production and function of the protein cMYC. cMYC drives cell division and is active at elevated levels in more than half of all cancers. Their results are published in the latest edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.