Chronic Pain Linked to Low Vitamin D

Inadequate vitamin D may represent an under recognized source of nociperception and impaired neuromuscular functioning, say researchers.

"Physicians who care for patients with chronic, diffuse pain that seems musculoskeletal — and involves many areas of tenderness to palpation — should strongly consider checking vitamin D level," Michael Turner, MD, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, said in a news release issued March 25, 2009.

"For example," he added, "many patients who have been labeled with fibromyalgia are, in fact, suffering from symptomatic vitamin D inadequacy. Vigilance is especially required when risk factors are present, such as obesity, darker pigmented skin, or limited exposure to sunlight."

Dr. Turner was lead investigator of a study published in the journal Pain Medicine in November 2008. The work suggests a correlation between inadequate vitamin D levels and the amount of narcotic medication taken by chronic pain patients, with those who were vitamin D deficient needing approximately twice the narcotic dose for pain relief as those who were not.

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Click here for more on this study (free registration required).