Vitamin D & Muscle Pain

As a Chiropractor people often ask me about back, neck and joint pain and how they can help to relieve their symptoms. Fortunately and unfortunately, the majority of back pain can attributed to incorrect biomechanics and physiology issues that can be corrected. The unfortunate part of that statement is that people are often deficient in the common vitamins and nutrients that can go a long way in relieving musculoskeletal pain.

Living in the Northern Hemisphere, as far North as the Rockford region, we experience a strange season that lasts approximately 6 months termed winter. During this time we experience a shortage of sunlight, and often times a Vitamin D deficiency. Vitamins come in many forms and the primary form of Vitamin D that body uses in it's multitude of functions is D3 - termed Cholecalciferol. Approximately 80-90% of the Vitamin D used in the body comes from a hormone located in the skin that when combined with UV light from the sun forms Vitamin D3.

The lack of adequate sunlight, when combined with diets deficient in Vitamin D and hidden diseases can result in Vitamin D deficiencies. One of the most common complaints of patients deficient in Vitamin D is joint and muscle pain, better known as the conditions that Chiropractors most often treat.

So, it would seem that supplementing with Vitamin D would be a smart choice right? But then the question of which Vitamin D supplement should I take arises and we all know that there is no shortage of options. Unfortunately, the Food & Drug Administration does not regulate vitamins or supplements so who knows if what you're buying is actually effective in providing the correct amounts. In fact, a study conducted by the Consortium of Multiple Sclerois Centers found that "The mean vitamin D content from 10 OTC brands was only 33% of what the label claimed, with the actual content ranging from less than 1% to 82% of the advertised level....The labeled doses ranged from 400 IU to 10,000 IU, but the mean actual dose was only 33.5% of the labeled dose, with a range from 0.24% to 81.7%. Lower-dose products tended to be closer to their labeled dose than higher-dose products, with the three 400-IU products averaging 51.5%, the two 1000-IU products averaging 34%, and the three 10,000-IU products averaging 29.9%. On the other hand, the single worst sample -- the one with only 0.24% of what it claimed -- was a 400-IU sample."

The vitamins utilized at Rehabilitation & Spinal Care of Rockford SC are from USANA and were chosen because they guarantee the quality of their product, so much so that they willing submitted to rigorous FDA policy to obtain a "Drug Establishment Registration," holding it to a standard well above most traditional nutritional supplementation companies.