Vitamin D Reduces Fibroids

Women who are prone to uterine fibroids now have another reason to keep their vitamin D levels stellar. A 2011 study has shown that fibroids have a particular sensitivity to vitamin D and fibroid growth may be inhibited when levels of the vitamin are plentiful.

The researchers bathed human fibroid cells in vitamin D3 and measured the rate of cell proliferation or growth and discovered that vitamin D was able to significantly slow the growth rate. The researchers stated that:

"Our findings suggest that vitamin D deficiency may be an important risk factor in growth and progression of uterine fibroids."

Uterine fibroids are estimated to occur in 20-25% of women of child-bearing age and can interfere with fertility depending upon their size and placement; interestingly African American women are especially prone to uterine fibroids and are also prone to vitamin D deficiency.

African American women have higher levels of melanin in their skin reducing the amount of vitamin D3 that is produced from sunlight exposure. This makes it doubly important that African American women get their vitamin D levels checked and optimized. African American women also tend to have lower levels of the enzyme lactase responsible for digesting dairy foods reducing their dietary vitamin D intake.

Vitamin D is know to be deficient in many women and a number of studies have indicated that vitamin D deficiency adversely effects IVF success and cause infertility. If you have a tendency to produce uterine fibroids ask your physician to check your vitamin D3 levels at your next visit.

There is considerable controversy regarding what an ideal level of vitamin D3 is as the range is extremely wide. Many experts feel that for optimum health and fertility vitamin D should be in the upper half of the reference range rather that the lower half.

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Reference:
Fertility And Sterility Vol 95, Issue 1 January 2011, Pages 247-253 Vitamin D inhibits proliferation of human uterine leiomyoma cells via catechol-O-methyltransferase
Chakradhari Sharan Ph.D.a, Sunil K. Halder Ph.D.a, Chandrasekhar Thota Ph.D.a, Tarannum Jaleela, Sangeeta Nair D.V.M., M.Sc.a and Ayman Al-Hendy M.D., Ph.D., a,