Vitamin D And Your Pain

It might not surprise you to hear that I've treated a lot of low back pain in my practice, but what might surprise you is that a vitamin deficiency might be contributing to the pain that many people experience.  


A recent study out of Canada looked at patients who had chronic back pain and found that there was a significant rate of vitamin D depletion in these patients.  When given Vitamin D supplementation patient showed improvement in reported pain levels.


Who is deficient is Vitamin D?


It is estimated that 60% of people are  deficient in vitamin D.  


Why is this?  


Vitamin D is obtained from two sources: the sun and food.  
Because we are spending more time indoors and in the Winter there isn't much sun, people are not getting exposed to the sunshine and therefore not getting vitamin D.   


As far as food sources go, the good news is that fish is one of the best sources of vitamin D and most Norwegians consume fish on a regular basis but it still might not be enough.


Are you deficient?


Most people don’t know if they are vitamin D deficient.  You can obtain a blood test that will test your levels of vitamin D.  You can ask your medical doctor about this test next time you see them or your next physical.


What can you do?


You might considering increasing your vitamin D intake.  Prevention is better than cure.  As we get more into the winter it is going to be harder to get outside and more of our bodies will be covered preventing sun exposure.   Vitamin D can easily be obtain in food and supplement form.   You need to supplement for a couple of months in order to feel any difference.  Vit D is fat soluble so it takes time to build up in the body.


For a list of foods with the highest levels of vitamin D click HERE.  


If you don’t find yourself eating many of the foods on the vitamin D list you can get vitamin D through supplementation.  Vitamin D3 has been found to be the most beneficial.  
Most of the studies done on vitamin and pain have looked at lower back pain, but it would stand to reason that if you have other pains such as neck, upper back and shoulder pain that vitamin D might also help.  There are numerous benefits from getting a healthy dose of vitamin D and very few risks if taken appropriately.