Can Low Vitamin D Cause Pain?
Clearly yes. One study showed that 93% of persons 10-65 years of age who were admitted to a hospital emergency department with muscle aches and bone pain--and who had a wide variety of diagnoses, including Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and depression--were deficient in vitamin D.1
A second study confirmed a strong correlation between low serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) levels in the blood and higher rates and longer duration of generalized bone and/or muscle aches and pains.2
A third study looked at chronic pain patients at a tertiary care pain clinic. They documented that those patients with serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels </=20 ng/mL used almost twice as much morphine, were on opioid medications almost twice as long and generally were in more pain then those with higher vitamin D levels.3
Understanding the antecedents, triggers and mediators of pain is one of the most important things a clinician can do to help their patients. The origins, manifestations and treatment of pain cuts across disciplines and organ systems. Appreciating the underlying pain processes from a functional medicine perspective allows the clinician to better treat a variety of pain disorders.
2. Erkal MZ, Wilde J, Bilgin Y, et al. High prevalence of vitamin D deficiency, secondary hyperparathyroidism and generalized bone pain in Turkish immigrants in Germany: identification of risk factors. Osteoporos Int. 2006;17(8):1133-1140.
3. Turner MK, Hooten WM, Schmidt JE, Kerkvliet JL, Townsend CO, Bruce BK. Prevalence and Clinical Correlates of Vitamin D Inadequacy among Patients with Chronic Pain. Pain Med. Mar 11 2008.
