Nutrition: A New Paradigm in Pain Relief is Here

Saturday, August 08, 2009 by: Kerri Knox, RN
Tags: pain relief, health news, Natural News

(NewsTarget) Chronic Pain is a devastating worldwide epidemic. With nearly 1/3 of the population of the US suffering from chronic pain at any one time, it is one of the single biggest reasons for a visit to a physician's office or an emergency room. But it doesn't have to be that way. With many simple nutrients alleviating or even eliminating pain from a variety of conditions, it's worth it to look at pain with fresh eyes as really just a sign of nutritional deficiency.

Everyone has experienced pain at one time or another, but for those who experience chronic pain it can take away their lives. For many, pain is the center of their entire life and everything else revolves around it. For others, it is simply a constant nuisance, and they worry that the next time they pick up their child, turn in bed the wrong way or eat the wrong food their pain will flare up again with a vengeance and require medication at the best, or a trip to the emergency room at the worst. But many chronic pain conditions are simply unrecognized nutritional deficiencies. And so many chronic pain sufferers could improve or even eliminate their pain with some inexpensive vitamin supplements. Several nutrients are absolute champions in alleviating and even reversing some severe and longstanding chronic pain conditions.

Vitamin D

Up to 85% of the population, according to several different studies, is deficient in this fat soluble 'Sunshine Vitamin'. Among those deficient are people that you would least expect to have a vitamin deficiency, such as teenage girls and pregnant women- even young people in Hawaii who tan regularly! And it's not a coincidence that so many people are vitamin D deficient and so many people are in pain.

Not only does Vitamin D deficiency cause painful conditions, but Vitamin D is a clear winner as a nutrient to relieve chronic pain. The amazing thing about Vitamin D is that is can CLEARLY reduce pain and that even MILD deficiencies can cause widespread pain. From 'bone pain', musculoskeletal pain, back pain to migraine headaches, study after study shows statistically significant relief from pain when vitamin D deficiencies are corrected.

Unfortunately, with few exceptions, physicians are not recognizing Vitamin D deficiency, and even when they do, they are using outdated vitamin D levels where a previous 'low normal' level would be considered 'insufficient' by the most up to date science. Since vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin, many doctors worry that they will give too much and overdose their patient, so people with pain are often given dosages that are simply too low to provide any benefit, or are given none at all when their pain could be easily remedied with just a simple pill.

Magnesium

Magnesium is another excellent choice when it comes to pain relief. Particularly in headaches, migraines, cramps or any chronic muscle aches and pains; magnesium could benefit a large number of people if this safe and inexpensive supplement were used more frequently. Every muscle in the body requires calcium in order to Contract while magnesium is required to make them Relax. And painful conditions like cramps and spasms can be due to a lack of magnesium. While most of us think of muscles as being skeletal muscles like the bicep, even smooth muscles such as the arteries in the heart can be unable to relax with a deficiency of magnesium- leading to painful conditions such as coronary artery spasms.

Like vitamin D, most of us are deficient in this vitamin as well. Unlike Vitamin D, however, magnesium blood testing techniques "are worse than worthless" according to Dr. Carolyn Dean of 'The Magnesium Miracle'. Since the standard magnesium blood tests only detect the most severe magnesium deficiencies, doctors have a false sense of security that their patients are magnesium sufficient when they are actually quite deficient.

B-12

Vitamin B-12, also called many different names all ending in Cobalamin, has been found to be an analgesic in some of the toughest chronic pain cases. Studies done on Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia sufferers, found that these patient populations were often Greatly improved with the addition of Very Large amounts of Vitamin B-12. The fact that some studies that found that Cobalamin did NOT relieve pain, could simply be due to researchers not having used high enough dosages to achieve the desired effect. Vitamin B-12 worked so well to relieve pain, that Dr. Melvyn R. Werbach states, "As a drug, vitamin B12 seems to have substantial analgesic properties."

And these are only a few nutrients that showed positive effects with chronic pain patients. Vitamin C, zinc, certain fatty acids, carnitine, l-tryptophan and others have all been shown to alleviate pain in a wide array of conditions. So, while doctors seem to only be looking for Structural problems that cause chronic pain, a slipped disk or 'arthritis' may only be part of the problem. Looking at pain through a new paradigm as a nutritional deficiency could just be the answer to the suffering of tens of thousands of chronic pain patients.

Resources
http://www.thorne.com/media/chronicfatiguesy...
http://www.easy-immune-health.com/vitamin-d-...
http://www.easy-immune-health.com/magnesium-...

About the author

Kerri Knox, RN is a Registered Nurse and Functional Medicine Practitioner.
With over 14 years of experience in health care, she has the unique perspective of being solidly grounded in Conventional Medicine and being well versed in Alternative Medicine.
She can help you to to find and repair the UNDERLYING CAUSES of illness using cutting edge in home lab testing that finds nutritional deficiencies, hidden infections and chemical and metal toxicities that contribute to ill health.
She can be reached through her websites at:
Easy Immune System Health.com
Side Effects Site