Published on July 12, 2021
Study concludes that vitamin D and calcium supplementation decrease chronic non-specific musculoskeletal pain
Vitamin D provides many benefits to musculoskeletal health, including having a role in muscle function, coordination, balance, inflammation, and tissue repair and healing after an injury. Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with neuromuscular diseases, muscle weakness and increased risk of injury, as well as chronic pain. In fact, an analysis of GrassrootsHealth participants showed a decrease in reported pain scores with increasing vitamin D levels.
What is Chronic, Non-Specific Musculoskeletal Pain?
Chronic, Non-Specific Musculoskeletal Pain (CNMP) is pain that is present in the bones, muscles, joints, or connective tissue of more than one region of the body that has been present for three months or longer. The cause or origin of the pain is usually unknown, and it often affects both the mental and physical wellbeing, as well as overall quality of life for those suffering from it.
Could Vitamin D Help with CNMP?
A study by Goyal and Agrawal enrolled 50 patients suffering from chronic, non-specific musculoskeletal pain to see how vitamin D and calcium supplementation affected their pain levels. All patients were between the ages of 30-60 years old, and were given doses of 60,000 IU vitamin D each week for the first month, followed by 60,000 IU vitamin D once per month for the next two months. 1000 mg calcium was given on a daily basis for the entire 3 months. Along with pre- and post- intervention levels of vitamin D, calcium, and pain, levels of physical activity, fatigue, mood, and sleep were also compared.
Pain was measured on a scale of 0 (no pain) to 10 (worst pain), with 2 or less categorized as low, 4-6 as moderate, and 8-10 as severe pain. At the beginning of the study, 36% of the participants had severe chronic pain and 56% had moderate chronic pain, with an average pain score of 6.22 and an average vitamin D level of 17.38 ng/ml (43 nmol/L).
After three months of supplementation, the average pain level decreased significantly (by 43%) to 3.52, with an increased average vitamin D level of 39.40 ng/ml (98 nmol/L). Physical activity levels also increased significantly, while weight and waist to hip ratio decreased significantly among the participants. Other noticed changes post-intervention included improvements in fatigue, sleep, and mood.
This study showed that the risk of vitamin D deficiency was high among those experiencing persistent, nonspecific musculoskeletal pain; in fact, the authors suggest that the pain could be due to vitamin D deficiency itself.
Make Sure You Are Getting Enough Vitamin D and Other Important Nutrients
Having and maintaining healthy vitamin D levels and other nutrient levels can help improve your health now and for your future. Choose which to measure, such as your vitamin D, omega-3s, and essential minerals including magnesium and zinc, by creating your custom home test kit today. Take steps to improve the status of each of these measurements to benefit your overall health. You can also track your own intakes, symptoms and results to see what works best for YOU.
Enroll and test your levels today, learn what steps to take to improve your status of vitamin D (see below) and other nutrients and blood markers, and take action! By enrolling in the GrassrootsHealth projects, you are not only contributing valuable information to everyone, you are also gaining knowledge about how you could improve your own health through measuring and tracking your nutrient status, and educating yourself on how to improve it.
Help everyone Move Research into Practice with vitamin D and other nutrients! As a special birthday gift to everyone, in honor of the science, we have created a special scholarship fund for anyone to donate to that will go towards helping others participate. Your donation will allow anyone to get help with funding their participation when they need it.
Text-to-give: Text Daction to 44321 to add to our Scholarship Fund.