Vitamin D for Fibromyalgia?

There is some new research claiming that taking Vitamin D supplements may reduce pain in fibromyalgia sufferers. Using Vitamin D can be a low cost way to compliment your other fibromyalgia treatments. This research has shown that many of the fibro patients suffering from chronic pain and fatigue also have low levels of vitamin D and find pain relief with taking supplements to bring those levels back to normal.

“Vitamin D supplementation may be regarded as a relatively safe and economical treatment for people with fibromyalgia.” – Dr. Florian Wepner (Study researcher and orthapaedist at Vienna’s Orthopaedic Hospital Speising)

Dr. Wepner among researchers find that sufferers often had low levels of calcifediol. Calcifediol also known as 25-hydroxyvitamin D, 25-hydroxycholecalciferal, or calcidiol, is created in the liver by the enzyme cholecalciferal, or vitamin D3. The vitamin D3 is then converted by the liver to calcitriol which is an active form of vitamin D. Levels of calcifediol in the sufferers blood offers the best indication of the current level of vitamin D found in the suffer. When they found low levels of calcifediol common in patients with more severe pain and symptoms of fibromyalgia, they began to believe that a vitamin D supplements might help in reducing chronic pain.

“Low blood levels of calcifediol are especially common in patients with severe pain and fibromyalgia. But although the role of calcifediol in the perception of chronic pain is a widely discussed subject, we lack clear evidence of the role of vitamin D supplementation in fibromyalgia patients.” – Dr. Florian Wepner

According to Dr. Wepner, Researchers began a quest to see if raising  calcifediol levels would actually alleviate chronic pain and possibly cause an overall improvement for the patients condition.

The study was a random and controlled trial of 30 women with FMS that had low serum calcifediol levels of below 32ng/ml. The group’s levels were monitored at five weeks, 13 weeks, and 25 weeks into the study, while the FMS group took vitamin D supplements for 20 weeks. The monitoring allowed the researchers to adjust the oral dosage in the group to help maintain levels of calcifediol between 32 and 48ng/ml. The patients would also be monitored for an additional 24 weeks after stopping the supplements.

After 24 weeks of finishing the supplements, patients reported a marked reduction in their chronic pain levels. The patients all showed a significant improvement in chronic pain reduction during the first part of the study when the patients began taking the supplements, while the pain levels in the study’s placebo group remained unchanged.

Overall the group taking the vitamin D supplements scored better on a fibromyalgia impact questionnaire with symptoms like chronic morning fatigue. However, there were not any significant improvements with the group’s anxiety or depression.

Dr. Wepner believes the data they presented looks very promising for vitamin D helping to reduce the chronic pain suffered by patients with more severe cases of fibromyalgia syndrome. Dr. Wepner advises FMS patients to have their calcifediol monitored regularly by their doctors especially in the winter season when the hours of sunshine are reduced.

Sources:
Live Science
WebMD
Science Daily
GuardianLV
Kiran Patel, M.D., pain medicine specialist, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City; Houman Danesh, M.D., director, integrative pain management, The Mount Sinai Hospital, New York City; Elsevier, press release, Jan. 17, 2014.