I recommend it all day long for people who have pain. Studies show that many people who are in pain are low in Vitamin D. Other studies show that pain patients low in Vitamin D typically require twice as many opiates to help manage their pain. Vitamin D has been shown to help low back pain. Physicians at the Mayo Clinic recommend checking Vitamin D levels in people who have pain and treating it appropriately.
In a study of 1500 people used a loading dose of 10,000 iu/day for three months and a maintenance dose of of 5000 iu/day for the remainder of the year resulted in only 46% of the people reached optimal levels of Vitamin D.
TAKE HOME MESSAGE
People in pain may benefit from Vitamin D supplementation. Safe levels appear to be between 5000-10000 iu/day.
Some References:
http://newsblog.mayoclinic.org/2009/03/20/mayo-clinic-researchers-link-vitamin-d-and-chronic-pain-relief/
J Am Board Fam Med. 2009 Jan-Feb;22(1):69-74.Improvement of chronic back pain or failed back surgery with vitamin D repletion: a case series.
Schwalfenberg G.Department of Family Medicine, University of Alberta, Canada.
Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2003 Jan 15;28(2):177-9.Vitamin D deficiency and chronic low back pain in Saudi Arabia. Al Faraj S, Al Mutairi K.
Department of Medicine, Riyadh Armed Forces Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.Clin Rheumatol. 2007 Nov;26(11):1895-901. Epub 2007 Mar 22.Hypovitaminosis D in female patients with chronic low back pain.
Lotfi A, Abdel-Nasser AM, Hamdy A, Omran AA, El-Rehany MA. Rheumatology and Rehabilitation Department, Faculty of Medicine, Minia University, 13 Botros Ghally Street, 11341, Heliopolis, Cairo, Egypt.
