Can Vitamin D Can Help Chronic Pain?

Vitamin D deficiency is associated to less cognitive performance [1,2]. Then again, pain is also associated with lower cognitive performance.

 So vitamin D deficiency and pain have in common that low cognition.   It is a stretch to hope that  bringing Vitamin D  to “normal” levels might help pain, but:

Some in the medical community think it is worth a try, for example  WebMD’s Gina Shaw[4]

If you have chronic pain, her article suggests checking your Vitamin D level with your Doctor, with this warning:

“….Too much vitamin D can be dangerous and lead to an excess accumulation of calcium in your blood, which can lead to kidney stones…”

But what is the appropriate vitamin D level?

Mesdcape suggest levels of

• “.. a healthy level of 25(OH)D, the recommendation is that it should be above 30 ng/mL.
• A multivitamin containing 400 IU of vitamin D is inadequate to satisfy the body’s requirement.[32] It is estimated that at least 1,000 IU of vitamin D per day is needed to satisfy the body’s requirement”

Talk to your Doctor

Sources:

1. Pain ; “Chronic widespread pain is associated with slower cognitive processing speed in middle-aged and older European men.”; Oct 2010
2. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. ; “Association between 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and cognitive performance in middle-aged and older European men.”
3. medinewsdigest ; “In Brief: Vitamin D intake associated with cognitive performance in older women (Neurology)” ; 2010
4. WebMD ; “Chronic Pain: Does Vitamin D Help?” ;
5. Medscape ; “Vitamin D: Evaluation and Treatment of Vitamin D Deficiency”;