Vitamin D may help protect against certain cancers, according to a study.
Researchers looked at data from nearly 34,000 men and women and found higher vitamin D levels were associated with a lower (30-50 per cent) relative risk of liver cancer.
The vitamin helps maintain calcium levels in the body which helps with the health of bones, teeth and muscles - but may also have further benefits.
The human body produces vitamin D during exposure to sunlight, although other sources include oily fish, red meat, liver and egg yolks.
The vitamin is also added to some breakfast cereals and spreads and can be taken as a supplement.
More than 33,000 people aged between 40 and 69 were analysed in the Japanese study published in the British Medical Journal, with blood samples taken to measure Vitamin D levels.
Cancer cases were recorded in 3301 cases among the participants who were monitored for an average of 16 years.
After adjusting for several known cancer risk factors - age, BMI, and smoking among others - the researchers found that a higher level of vitamin D was associated with a lower (around 20 per cent) relative risk of overall cancer in both men and women.
The researchers said they could not rule out the possibility that unmeasured factors may have affected the results.
They added the findings "support the theory that vitamin D may protect against the risk of cancer, but that there may be a ceiling effect, which may suggest that there are no additional benefits beyond a certain level of vitamin D".
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