Do you need to take Vitamin D?

There are folks today that say you do not need to take vitamin D. This is surprising to me given the mountain of evidence that shows otherwise. This article will discuss just a little of that evidence.

 

First of all, a few weeks ago I wrote an article about Essential Nutrients. The term essential means that according to your genetic code, you must have it and your body does not manufacture it. There are many essential nutrients but Vitamin D is one of them that according to the evidence, people in industrialized countries are deficient in.¹

 

The good news is that with all of the overwhelming evidence regarding vitamin D, most medical doctors are testing for appropriate levels and recommending reaching the “sufficient” range, which according to many is adequate at 30ng/mL. The bad news is that there is evidence that makes it clear that sufficiency is not reached until levels reach at least 50 ng/mL.²

 

One of the biggest obstacles in achieving pain relief for people in my office is Vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D plays a major role in shutting off chronic inflammatory responses.³ So it would be wise that if you have chronic pain and you are not supplementing with Vitamin D3 to start.

 

Another study showed that 95% of pain symptoms were relieved in patients that supplemented with 5000-10,000 IU/day for 3 months.⁴ In this study, larger patients took the higher doses because adipose tissue is a storage site of Vitamin D.

 

Some researchers have found that Vitamin D deficiency to occur in up to 85% of chronic musculoskeletal pain cases, especially those involving the lower back.⁵

 

Researchers have found that Vitamin D receptors have been found in many different tissues of the body including brain, heart, pancreas, prostate, lymphocytes, bone, intestine and other tissues. This implies that vitamin D is required for a multitude of physiological functions. Throughout the body.⁶

 

How much Vitamin D3 do you need to take in order to reach sufficient levels? As a general rule, most people will reach sufficiency by taking 4000 IUs per day for 3 months.

 

I hope from this information you can see that absolutely every person should supplement with Vitamin D3 every day for the rest of their life.

 

 

1. ^{Journal of Endocronology and Metabolism. 2010;D01: 10.1210/jc.2009-2309}
2. ^{Cannell et al. (2009) Athletic Performance and Vitamin D. Medicineand Science in sports and Exercise. 41 (5) 1102-1110.}
3. ^{Pederson LB, et al. 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 reverses experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis by inhibiting chemokine synthesis and monocyte trafficking. J Neurosci Res 2007;85:2480-2490.}
4. ^{Al Faraj S, Al Mutairi K. Vitamin D deficiency and chronic low back pain in Saudi Arabia. Spine 2003;28:177-179}

^{5,6.   Stewart Leavitt, Ph.D. Vitamin D—A Neglected ‘Analgesic’ for Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain. Pain Treatment Topics June 2008}