Blogs / 80beats

Researchers have found that several moisturizers are linked to an increased skin cancer risk in hairless mice, but caution that there’s no reason for people to panic. Mouse skin is very different from human skin, they say, and the mice also developed a very curable type of cancer called squamous cell carcinoma, not the more lethal melanoma.

Lead researcher Allan Conney says the team discovered the risk while testing a theory that caffeine could prevent skin cancer. “We sort of got into this by accident,” Conney said in a telephone interview. “We wanted a safe cream that we could put the caffeine into” [Reuters].

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The news just keeps getting better about vitamin D. Earlier this year, studies linked proper levels of the “sunshine vitamin” to a decreased risk of diabetes, heart attacks, and cancer; that’s in addition to the previously understood role that vitamin D plays in keeping bones strong. Building on all these findings, a new study suggests that maintaining proper levels of the nutrient can even stave off death from heart attacks and other causes.

Researchers point out that they haven’t yet demonstrated a causal relationship, just a connection. The study’s lead author, Dr. Harald Dobnig of the Medical University of Graz in Austria, said the results don’t prove that low levels of vitamin D are harmful “but the evidence is just becoming overwhelming at this point” [AP]. Researchers aren’t sure what the connection is but they speculate that the nutrient may play a role in regulating the immune system, and may also have an anti-inflammatory function that keeps the heart healthy.

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For decades, doctors have warned the public about the dire risks of too much sunbathing and ultraviolet radiation, and the public has responded by slathering on sunblock. Now, medical advice is swinging back in the other direction.

A host of new studies have indicated that vitamin D, which is produced by the body when exposed to the sun’s ultraviolet rays, helps reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and other diseases.

The latest study followed over 18,000 men and found that men with vitamin D deficiency were more than twice as likely to have a heart attack than those with normal levels of the nutrient. They were also more likely to die as a result of heart disease. The study was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine [subscription required].

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