Recently Diagnosed or Relapsed? Stop Looking For a Miracle Cure, and Use Evidence-Based Therapies To Enhance Your Treatment and Prolong Your Remission
Multiple Myeloma an incurable disease, but I have spent the last 25 years in remission using a blend of conventional oncology and evidence-based nutrition, supplementation, and lifestyle therapies from peer-reviewed studies that your oncologist probably hasn't told you about.
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Is Vitamin D Important for Myeloma?
It’s no wonder that average newly diagnosed myeloma patients get confused by medical doctors when they talk about nutritional supplements. Is vitamin D important for myeloma patients?
In the Medscape article linked below Dr. Kenny Lin writes about vitamin D supplementation. Dr. Lin begins his post with “Who was buying and consuming all of this vitamin D, I wondered, given the limited proof of its health benefits?”
Conventional medicine doesn’t study non-conventional therapies like vitamin D so I have to give Dr. Lin a pass when it comes to multiple myeloma. After all, MM is a comparetively rare cancer comprising less than 2% of cancer diagnoses in the U.S. annually.
However, I think it’s important that MM patients and survivors understand the many possible benefits of vitamin D supplementation.
How does vitamin D3 benefit multiple myeloma patients?
- Bone Health: Multiple myeloma often leads to bone damage and increased risk of fractures. Vitamin D3 helps maintain bone density and strength, which can be beneficial in reducing skeletal complications in these patients.
- Immune System Modulation: Vitamin D3 plays a role in modulating the immune system. It can enhance the body’s ability to fight infections, which is particularly important for multiple myeloma patients who often have weakened immune systems.
- Cancer Cell Regulation: Some studies suggest that vitamin D3 might have anti-cancer properties, including inhibiting cancer cell growth and inducing apoptosis (programmed cell death) in cancer cells. This can potentially help in controlling the progression of multiple myeloma.
- Anti-inflammatory Effects: Vitamin D3 has anti-inflammatory properties, which might help reduce inflammation associated with multiple myeloma and its treatment.
- Quality of Life: Adequate levels of vitamin D3 are associated with better overall health and well-being. Ensuring sufficient vitamin D3 levels might help improve the quality of life for multiple myeloma patients by enhancing mood and reducing fatigue.
I am a long-term MM survivor. I supplement with vitamin D daily. I undergo blood testing regularly to check my serum levels of vitamin D. I think it is important for MM patients to undergo conventional therapies but it’s also important to include evidence-based non-conventional therapies like vitamin D as well.
Email me at David.PeopleBeatingCancer@gmail.com with your questions about MM and nutritional supplementation.
David Emerson
- MM Survivor
- MM Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Vitamin D? ‘Save Your Money’
“The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) examined the former approach in 2021 and found insufficient evidence that assessing vitamin D status and treating vitamin D deficiency improved any outcomes. Last year, the Endocrine Society chose the latter strategy in recommending routine supplementation for children, adults older than 75 years, pregnant patients, and adults with prediabetes, but I felt that the only convincing case was supplementing to reduce mortality in older adults…
So, what will I say to my next patient without obvious symptoms of a vitamin D-mediated disease who asks if it’s a good idea to take a supplement? Three words: “Save your money.” In general, I trust guidelines written by and for primary care clinicians more than those authored by subspecialists. I also do my best to adhere to the maxim to “do no harm,” even if the harm is a small portion of an older person’s monthly budget that could otherwise be allocated to life’s essentials or an activity that is more likely to improve health…”
Vitamin D May Lower Blood Pressure in Seniors With Overweight
“Supplementation with vitamin D and calcium can reduce systolic and diastolic blood pressure in older individuals with overweight, particularly in those with a body mass index (BMI) > 30 and those diagnosed with hypertension…”
A ‘Nagging Gap’: Screening Men for Osteoporosis
Earlier this month, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) released updated screening recommendations for osteoporosis. The task force reaffirmed their 2018 recommendations that all women aged 65 years or older and postmenopausal women younger than 65 years at increased risk for osteoporotic fracture should be screened. Notably, there were no recommendations around screening men.
“Due to a lack of available data, the USPSTF concludes that the evidence is insufficient, and the balance of benefits and harms for screening for osteoporosis to prevent osteoporotic fractures in men cannot be determined,” according to the recommendation statement published on January 14, 2025. Importantly, they emphasized that this should not be interpreted as a recommendation against screening men, but rather that there is a lack of evidence, and more research is needed.
“[It’s] unfortunate, frankly, that this same position is held year after year after year because it is a barrier to disease identification,” said Dolores Shoback, MD, an endocrinologist and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.