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Vitamin D can reverse low-grade prostate cancer

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Vitamin D

New York: Taking vitamin D supplements could slow or even reverse the progression of less aggressive, or low-grade, prostate tumours without the need for surgery or radiation, new research has found.

“We do not know yet whether vitamin D treats or prevents prostate cancer,” said Bruce Hollis from the Medical University of South Carolina.

“At the minimum, what it may do is keep lower-grade prostate cancers from going ballistic,” Hollis noted.

The findings were presented at the 249th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society, in Denver, US.

In cases of low-grade prostate cancer, many urologists do not treat the disease, but instead do what’s called “active surveillance,” Hollis explained.

As a man must wait 60 days from the time of his biopsy before he can undergo a prostatectomy, so that inflammation from the biopsy can subside, Hollis wondered if giving these men vitamin D supplements during the 60-day waiting period would affect their prostate cancer.

In a new randomised, controlled clinical trial, his team assigned 37 men undergoing elective prostatectomies either to a group that received 4,000 unit of vitamin D per day, or to a placebo group that did not receive vitamin D.

The men’s prostate glands were removed and examined 60 days later.

Preliminary results from this study indicated that many of the men who received vitamin D showed improvements in their prostate tumours, whereas the tumours in the placebo group either stayed the same or got worse.

Also, vitamin D caused dramatic changes in the expression levels of many cell lipids and proteins, particularly those involved in inflammation.

“Cancer is associated with inflammation, especially in the prostate gland,” Hollis noted.

“Vitamin D is really fighting this inflammation within the gland,” Hollis added.

Corona

Covid toll in Karnataka is a worrying sign for state government

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Even though Karnataka recorded the lowest number of Covid deaths in April since the virus struck first in 2020, the state is recording a rise in the positivity rate (1.50 per cent). Five people died from the Covid infections in April as per the statistics released by the state health department. In March, the positivity rate stood around 0.53 per cent. In the first week of April it came down to 0.38 per cent, second week registered 0.56 per cent, third week it rose to 0.79 per cent and by end of April the Covid positivity rate touched 1.19 per cent.

on an average 500 persons used to succumb everyday in the peak of Covid infection, as per the data. Health experts said that the mutated Coronavirus is losing its fierce characteristics as vaccination, better treatment facilities and awareness among the people have contributed to the lesser number of Covid deaths.

During the 4th and 6th of April two deaths were reported in Bengaluru, one in Gadag district on April 8, two deaths were reported from Belagavi and Vijayapura on April 30. The first Covid case was reported in the state in March 2020 and three Covid deaths were recorded in the month. In the following month 21 people became victims to the deadly virus, and May 2020 recorded 22 deaths. The death toll recorded everyday after May crossed three digits. However, the third wave, which started in January 2

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