Hi everybody. I'm curious if anyone can comment on an idea I've been rolling around in my head.

It seems to be generally accepted that having one of the high-risk forms of human papilloma virus (HPV) is one factor that causes oral (and cervical) cancer, but having high-risk HPV does not guarantee you will get cancer. This suggests that some other factor or factors are at play.

It is also becoming accepted that vitamin D deficiency may contribute to certain cancers (notably breast and colorectal).

I also have read (somewhere) that certain people may be genetically predisposed to vitamin D deficiency, and it's generally accepted that as we age our skin looses the ability to generate vitamin D from sunlight. In the western world, we are also getting less and less sunlight as our modern lives keep us indoors, and as fear of skin cancer encourages us to use sunscreen. I find the Vitamin D Council web site to be a very interesting resource, and I don't *think* that including it here will violate any sort of promotion exclusion: http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/

When my father was 70 he was diagnosed as severely vitamin D deficient, despite living an active lifestyle, and began supplementing with D3, which seemed to improve his sciatica (leg nerve pain/weakness) almost immediately (those of you limping around with a cane, take note!).

Unfortunately I began supplementing with vitamin D3 before I had my blood levels tested, so I cannot say if I may have been vitamin D deficient. It's worth noting also that I started supplementing with D3 before I was diagnosed with my tonsil cancer, but I *think* I had been experiencing the swollen lymph glands well before then. I've been taking 6,000 IU/day for several years, and my blood levels of 25(OH)D were 149 nmol/L most recently, nicely within the range recommended by the Vitamin D Council.

So it is my fantasy that maybe, by removing a vitamin D deficiency, even in the presence of high-risk HPV, one might avoid the initiation (or recurrence) of oral cancer.

Thoughts?