If you are in chronic pain, including back pain, please check your Vitamin D level now!

Michael Turner M. D. from the Mayo Clinic issued a news release this past Friday based on research he had done several months ago.  That study indicated a correlation between inadequate vitamin D levels and the amount of narcotic medications taken by patients with chronic pain.  This research found that patients with chronic pain who had inadequate vitamin D levels were requiring twice as much of narcotic pain medication compared with patients who had normal levels of vitamin D.  In addition,  patients with low vitamin D in that study also reported worse overall health perception and worse physical function.

The study looked retrospectively at 267 patients admitted to the Mayo Clinic pain center.

In this study they considered patients below 20 ng per milliliter to have inadequate amount of vitamin D. As my readers know, from my book, I as well as  most vitamin D researchers now consider 30 ng/ml  to be the minimum amount we need.  I wonder if the results of this study would have even been stronger if they had used 30 ng/ml as their normal.

Dr. Turner is planning prospective trials to look at the effects of vitamin D supplementation on pain outcomes, in patients with chronic pain.  Dr. Turner is recommending to doctors who take care of chronic pain patients to be sure to test their patient’s  vitamin D levels.

Dr. Turner has stated in an interview "“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.” I am delighted to see him saying this as is exactly mirrors what I have discussed in the Vitamin D Revolution.

 

 

Reference :

 

Pain Med. 2008 Nov;9(8):979-84. Epub 2008 Mar 11