Can vitamin D overcome chronic pain? In many cases the answer is yes!
Some time ago an acquaintance of mine listened to one of my presentations and purchased a copy of my book. On reading the section about pain, he remembered a lady friend of his whose teenage daughter was suffering from chronic pain. The condition had progressed to the point that in order for her to survive without excruciating agony, her doctors were giving her maximum doses of the most potent pain killers. These drugs were not sufficiently effective to stop the pain, so they also gave her equally potent sleeping pills. You can probably imagine her physical and mental state at that point.
My acquaintance then took my book to the young lady’s mother and asked her to read the pain section. She complied and then gave her daughter 5,000 IU of vitamin D daily. Within three days, the pain was gone and the young woman had her life back.
This is all very impressive, but there is one more very important aspect of the story: the young woman never ventured out into the sunlight. Her need for vitamin D could probably have been prevented if she had been doing some tanning in the summer sunlight around noon each day, or at least leading an outdoor lifestyle.
The results obtained by this girl were no surprise to me, because I have seen pain subside in may people who have taken vitamin D. The research also corroborates the efficacy of vitamin D—whose only natural source is UVB light from sunlight or sun lamps—in reducing pain. A most impressive result comes from a clinical observation of five vitamin D-deficient patients who suffered from myopathy, a disease of bone and muscle tissue. They were confined to wheelchairs and experienced severe fatigue, weakness, and chronic pain. After receiving 50,000 IU per week of vitamin D, all regained enough strength and energy within four to six weeks to be mobile and functional, and their aches and pains disappeared.[1] In another study, five chronic-pain patients at John Hopkins University Medical School were treated with vitamin D, and their pain resolved within a week.[2] The study was conducted in
Many other pieces of research indicate a close relationship between vitamin D levels and various types of pain. Remember that the cause of vitamin D deficiency is sunlight deprivation or lack of exposure to other types of UVB light such that produced by sun lamps. Be careful when tanning and never burn.
