We’re frequently asked in our comment section about: vitamin d and chronic pain. Truth is we’ve been delaying this article for a while until we had enough information & facts to allow us to enlighten our readers.
Abstract
Pain is highly prevalent in the developed world, and levels of vitamin D are often lower among those with chronic pain conditions than those without.
Boosting Vitamin D, Easing Pain
“She had weakness, achiness, fatigue — three pages worth of symptoms. Doctors had offered her antidepressants and seizure medications and all kinds of things that didn’t work.
Her case doesn’t mean vitamin D will erase pain for everyone. However, Plotnikoff published a study in 2003 on 150 people in Minneapolis who came to a community health clinic complaining of chronic pain. Virtually all of them — 93% — had extremely low vitamin D levels.
Vitamin D blood levels of 30-40 ng/mL are considered ideal. The average level in Plotnikoff’s study was about 12, and some people had vitamin D levels so low they were undetectable. “Most of them were dismissed by their doctors as depressed or whiners.
Vitamin D Absorption, Biosynthesis And Tissue Distribution
Recent evidence, however, advocates a role for vitamin D that extends beyond bone metabolism (6). Vitamin D3 is the natural form of vitamin D and is produced from 7-dehydrocholesterol in the skin.
Uvb irradiation helps convert 7-dehydrocholesterol, the precursor in the skin, into pre-vitamin D3 and then to vitamin D3. Synthesis in skin serves as an essential source of vitamin D3 and depends crucially on season and geographical latitude (17). Distribution of 25-(OH)D3 was somewhat similar within compartments (serum, 30%; muscle, 20%; fat, 35% and 15% in other tissues) (18).
The body fat content has also been reported to inversely correlate with serum levels of 25-(OH)D3, which could indicate that those with high body fat content (obese populations) might be at risk of vitamin D3 deficiency (19, 20).
Vitamin D Absorption And Metabolism
The central role of vitamin D is to maintain normal blood levels of calcium and phosphorous, thus helping to prevent osteoporosis and reducing risk of fracture. Briefly, with sunlight exposure 7-dehydrocholesterol in the skin is converted to previtamin D 3 , which is thermally transformed to vitamin D 3 (cholecalciferol).2 Vitamin D 3 enters the circulation and is metabolized in the liver to 25-hydroxyvitamin D 3 (25(OH)D3), which is converted in the kidney to 1, 25(OH)2D3.