Vitamin D supplemenation helps fibromyalgia patients manage pain

Wednesday, January 22, 2014 by: L.J. Devon, Staff Writer
Tags: vitamin D, fibromyalgia, nutritional supplements

(NaturalNews) Fibromyalgia is a state of inflammation and fatigue that causes muscle pains and sensitivity. It's a condition that tears down one's quality of life, bringing anxiety and depression. It's a condition that more people are experiencing; estimates show that 1 in 25 now suffer from this painful condition. The CDC reports that a whopping 5 million people are hurting in this way every year. Professionals believe the condition is brought on by a sensitive nervous system. Sleep disturbances and abnormal pain processing play a major role. Common symptoms include morning stiffness, tingling or numbness in hands and feet, migraine headaches and even irritable bowel syndrome.

A new study from the Orthopaedic Hospital Speising in Vienna, Austria, brings hope for those suffering from fibromyalgia, finding that vitamin D supplementation may ease the nerves, bringing down inflammation in the body. This is great news for women especially, since they suffer from fibromyalgia the most.

The lead researcher, Florian Wepner, says, "We believe that the data presented in the present study are promising. FMS [fibromyalgia syndrome] is a very extensive symptom complex that cannot be explained by a vitamin D deficiency alone; however, vitamin D supplementation may be regarded as a relatively safe and economical treatment for FMS patients and an extremely cost-effective alternative or adjunct to expensive pharmacological treatment as well as physical, behavioral, and multimodal therapies."

Vitamin D helps with fibromyalgia, study

Wepner's study involved 30 women with clinically documented fibromyalgia. They routinely experienced morning fatigue, periods of depression and high experiences of pain.

The women, all vitamin D deficient, were either given a placebo pill or a vitamin D supplement.
The women then went about their normal lives, recording their symptoms and pain levels using a standard scale.

The findings, published in the journal Pain, were significant.

Over the course of 25 weeks, the women's symptoms steadily improved. Reported pain levels slowly diminished. Vitamin D alone was easing the inflammation throughout their bodies and giving them more energy in the morning.

According to the study records, boosted vitamin D levels led to dramatic reductions in the treated group's experience of pain. Placebo groups reported no changes.

When the vitamin D supplementation period ended, those women who were showing improvements began to report pain creeping back into their lives.

Throughout the study, depression symptoms generally stayed about the same in the women's minds, yet morning fatigue lifted dramatically.

Study leader Florian Wepner was excited about the results, suggesting, "Vitamin D levels should be monitored regularly in FMS patients, especially in the winter season, and raised appropriately."

Locating a whole food source of vitamin D

While the body produces its own Vitamin D3, cholecalciferol, many are lacking this crucial vitamin due to long winter habitats, sedentary lifestyles or use of sunscreen in the summer.

Supplementing with vitamin D is necessary when the body is deprived of sun, but many supplements are made with vitamin D from synthetic sources. Irradiated lamb's wool is one of those sources; the label will typically read lanolin, which is vitamin D synthesized from oil in lamb's wool.

When choosing a vitamin D source, its best to go with whole food, instead of animal derivatives.
Some companies choose to go plant-based, obtaining vitamin D from natural substances like organic mushrooms. This is a more wholesome source.

GMOs depleting people of nutrition

In the 21st century, as fibromyalgia persists, it seems as though the food that people are eating is lacking real nutrition. It seems that today's American diet fails to provide adequate nutrients that keep the body flexible, pain-free and strong. Seed science and chemical agriculture has welcomed genetically modified food that is grown in nutrient-ravaged soil. This has weakened the nutrition content of crops and vegetables, which now provide less nutrition than what used to be in them many years ago.

Without the proper level of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and antioxidants, the body seems to struggle, sending out signals of pain and fatigue.

In this new study, vitamin D has been found to help alleviate pain signals, nourishing the cells and restoring a sensitive nervous system.

Sources for this article include

http://www.timesofmalta.com

http://www.cdc.gov

http://science.naturalnews.com

http://science.naturalnews.com