Fibromyalgia and Vitamin D Connection?
Here are some key findings from the book “The Vitamin D Solution” by Dr. Michael F. Holick. Dr. Holick is one of the leading vitamin D experts in the world.
He is a PhD who discovered and characterized the active form of vitamin D in the bloodstream and who has more recently shown the many cells in the body can make it. He is also an MD who has been able to put his scientific discoveries to good use by relieving the suffering of many patients with undiagnosed vitamin D deficiencies.
In Chapter 1 of his book, he compares the life of a 10 year old girl growing up in the US with a 10 year old girl growing up at the equator assuming that sun
exposure was the only significant difference between the two.
“…the equatorial girl will be at least half as likely to get cancer during her lifetime as her northern counterpart. She will have an 80 percent reduced risk of developing type 1 diabetes in the first 30 years of her life…”
“The northern girl, on the other hand, faces a host of increased health risks throughout her life, from breast and ovarian cancer to depression, obesity, type 2
diabetes, osteoporosis, arthritis, high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke.”
“If she complains of muscle weakness and wide-spread muscle and joint pain later in adulthood, her doctor will likely diagnose fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome when tests don’t turn up anything specific. The equatorial girl may never experience such debilitating aches or chronic pain…”
In an interesting chapter of the book he discussed fibromyalgia as a possible symptom of vitamin D deficiency.
Fibromyalgia is the diagnosis often given to people who experience chronic pain (bone and muscle pain) and weakness with no apparent cause.
Dr. Holick reports that 40-60% of the patients who are referred to his office with symptoms of fibromyalgia are vitamin D deficient, and those patients who are
vitamin D deficient respond well to vitamin D supplementation.
Dr. Holick also referred to a study by Dr. Gregory Plotnikoff of the University of Minnesota that said 93% of children and adults who come to his emergency room with nonspecific muscle aches and pain were found to be vitamin D deficient.
So, what is the bottom line if you or someone you know has fibromyalgia?
Do not think of vitamin D as a magic bullet. There are many other things involved in fibromyalgia, such as inflammation and possible autoimmune responses. Your holistic approaches to managing your disease should cover all the bases.
However, vitamin D supplements are cheap, easy to use and practically risk free (You would have to take huge amounts on a daily basis to develop vitamin D toxicity). If you are experiencing bone and muscle pain for no apparent reason, it would make good sense to add some vitamin D to your daily regimen.
If you want to discover “everything you ever wanted to learn about vitamin D” first hand, get the book. The publisher is Hudson Street Press.
Take the Vitamin D-ology quiz HERE to see if you are getting enough of this important nutrient. Wait for the quiz to “pop” up.
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