NOW Foods - Vitamin D Deficiency Common in Chronic Pain

Vitamin D Deficiency Common in Chronic Pain

By Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS, October 16, 2007, abstracted from “Prevalence and Clinical Correlates of Vitamin D Inadequancy among Patients with Chronic Pain” presented at the 2007 annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists

Chronic pain permeates all areas of our healthcare system. According to Healthy People 2010, we spend $1.9 trillion on healthcare each year and “much of this spending is for care that controls or reduces the impact of chronic diseases and conditions affecting an aging population.” In 2004, 32% of those 75 years of age and over reported fair or poor health (due to chronic pain), compared with 22% of people age 65–74 and 6% of young adults age 25–44 years¹.

Chronic pain is present in all areas of chronic disease, from arthritis to cardiovascular disease to diabetes. Now a new study² has found that chronic pain may have an underlying commonality and that is a deficiency in vitamin D. The health benefits of this antioxidant are numerous, including helping with immune system health³, pregnancy health⁴ and heart health⁵ while helping decrease falls in the elderly⁶ and helping increase physical activity in the elderly⁷. In fact, Vitamin D has become such an important vitamin that it may be necessary to start vitamin D supplementation in children⁸.

As an antioxidant whose benefits in research have ranged from 400 IU⁹ to 700 IU¹⁰ per day, new research has started to recommend 2000 IU per day “for all individuals 12 years and older” and 1000 IU per day for children age 6 months to 11 years¹¹. No adverse effects of vitamin D have been observed with dosages up to 10,000 IU per day^{(12, 13)}.

In the study, researchers drew blood samples from patients admitted to a local hospital from February 2006 through December 2006 who were seeking treatment for chronic pain. Classifying vitamin D deficiency as having a vitamin blood level below 20 nanograms per milliliter, they found that more than 1 in 4 of these chronic pain patients had a vitamin D deficiency. And those with vitamin D deficiency who were taking pain medications used their medications 62% more than those without a deficiency.

For the researchers, “vitamin D [deficiency] may represent an under recognized source of [pain] and impaired neuromuscular functioning among patients with chronic pain.”

Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Danville, CA. You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at mailto: PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.CompleteChiropracticHealthcare.com

Reference:

¹ Healthy People 2010 www.healthypeople.gov/

² Hooten WM. Prevalence and Clinical Correlates of Vitamin D Inadequancy among Patients with Chronic Pain. Abstracft A1380. Presented October 15, 2007 www.asaabstracts.com/strands/asaabstracts/abstract.htm;jsessionid=322B71A1205E5A48DE86C59DD815D36A?year=2007&index=3&absnum=1501

³ Martineau AR. A Single Dose of Vitamin D Enhances Immunity to Mycobacteria. Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. 176: 208-213. First published online as doi:10.1164/rccm.200701-007OC

⁴ Maternal vitamin D status during pregnancy and childhood bone mass at age 9 years: a longitudinal study. The Lancet 2006; 367:36-43

⁵ Poole KE. Reduced vitamin D in acute stroke. Stroke. 2006 Jan;37(1):243-5

⁶ Flicker, L. (2005). "Should older people in residential care receive vitamin d to prevent falls? Results of a randomized trial." J Am Geriatr Soc 53(11): 1881-8

⁷ Bunout D. Effects of vitamin D supplementation and exercise training on physical performance in Chilean vitamin D deficient elderly subject. Exp Gerontol 2007; 41(8): 746-752

⁸ Zipits CS. Vitamin D deficiency: primary or tertiary prevention? Arch Dis Child 2006;000:1–5

⁹ Pratt T. Bone mass and density response to a 12-month trial of calcium and vitamin D supplement in preadolescent girls. J Musculoskelet Neuronal Interact. 2003 Mar;3(1):63-70

¹⁰ Harris SS. Effect of calcium and vitamin D supplementation on bone density in men and women 65 years of age or older. N Engl J Med. 1997 Sep 4;337(10):670-6

¹¹ Hathcock JN, Shao A, Vieth R, Heaney R. Risk assessment for vitamin D. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007;85: 6–18

¹² Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine. Dietary Reference Intakes for Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Vitamin D, and Fluoride. Washington, DC: National Academies Press; 1997. Available at: www.nap.edu/books/0309063507/html

¹³ Vieth R. Why the optimal requirement for Vitamin D3 is probably much higher than what is officially recommended for adults. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2004;89-90:575–579