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Today's Info:
You may have heard various reports that Vitamin D can help fight cancer.. And other reports that find that it doesn't.

Now a new. Large study from the national cancer institute finds no sign that Vitamin D lowers the overall risk of dying from cancer.. But that isn't clearing up the question completely. Researchers analyzed Vitamin D levels in almost 17,000 people and tracked their health. 10 years later a little more than 500 people died from cancer. And there was no correlation to their Vitamin D levels. But, those with high levels of Vitamin D appeared 72 percent less likely to die of colorectal cancer than people with the lowest Vitamin D levels.

So the question is. Should we be taking extra Vitamin D?

Vitamin D is important to help build strong bones.. And it's made a lot of headlines.. Which has prompted people to run out and take Vitamin D supplements. 200 to 400 international units a day is enough. And we get most of that through foods - like dairy products - that are supplemented and sunlight. But at this point people should not run out and take high doses of vitamin D. There may be a cancer Vitamin D connection, but researchers have not nailed down exactly what that connection is. And they certainly don't know what the optimal dose is.

In other news. It seems like everyone is taking cholesterol lowering drugs these days.

And they're getting younger and younger. Researchers say the number of younger adults who take cholesterol and blood pressure medicines is rising at a faster rate than among senior citizens.

According to the report.. The use of cholesterol lowering drugs among people 20 to 44 jumped 68 percent over a six-year period. Overall the numbers are still low.. Only 4 percent.. But that's a significant jump. The use of blood pressure medicines increased 21 percent. To 8% of adults 20 to 44.

What's the explanation? And is it a good thing?

It's good and bad. The culprit of course is the obesity epidemic. More and more younger adults are overweight.. With high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels. It's bad that we have this problem.. But it's good that we're treating it. It would be worse if we had a large number of people who were overweight... With high blood pressure and high cholesterol and we weren't treating them. Because we know that these are risk factors for heart disease, heart attack and stroke. What we need to do is make losing weight a priority. Give them the tools to lose weight through diet and exercise. Then they can dump the medication.