A Painful D-ficiency

Author: Ned McCrum

Could something as simple as vitamin D relieve your chronic pain?

In modern nutritional science if there was one nutrient that might fulfill the criteria of panacea, it would be vitamin D; and we continue to learn more and more about the far-reaching health effects of this hormone-type compound. Often, it is a deficiency of a nutrient like vitamin D that leads researchers to understand the profound way in which nutrients affect our bodies, and now, research is linking a deficiency of vitamin D with generalized symptoms of chronic pain, which affects nearly 50 percent of Americans.¹ The good news? Supplementing with vitamin D is proving to reduce the pain.

Studies have demonstrated that those who suffer from chronic pain, including musculoskeletal pain, chronic headaches, menstrual pain, fibromyalgia pain, and even pain associated with sickle cell anemia have low levels of vitamin D, and that increasing those levels lead to pain relief.^{2 3 4 5 6 7 8}

A study conducted at an inner city community clinic in Minneapolis, Minnesota evaluated the vitamin D levels of the patients complaining of persistent, nonspecific musculoskeletal pain. The patients included a wide range of ages (10-65), both sexes, and six different ethnic groups. One hundred percent of the African American, Hispanic, and Native American patients were deficient with levels less than 20 ng/mL, and it was found that 93 percent of all patients were deficient with an average vitamin D level of 12 ng/mL.³ A more recent study had similar findings, however, this study followed up by giving patients oral vitamin D supplements. Eighty-five percent of the patients responded favorably to supplementation with a decrease in pain symptoms. Interestingly, the patients who did not experience a decrease in pain also did not see a significant rise in their vitamin D blood levels. Biochemical individuality means that it may take some people longer to see their vitamin D levels increase with supplementation; the authors concluded that if a patient does not respond to this therapy then their vitamin D levels should be checked again.⁴

Adequate vitamin D levels are considered to be above 30 ng/mL, with optimal levels being closer to 50 ng/mL. A deficiency is defined as less than 20 ng/mL while 21-29 ng/mL is considered insufficient.⁵

Could something as simple as getting your vitamin D levels checked help determine an underlying cause of your chronic pain? Vitamin D testing is affordable and widely available; with vitamin D’s far-reaching health effects, wouldn’t it be a good idea to know what your levels are? If they are low, it is certainly an easy, and affordable, fix.