400,000 IU of vitamin D reduced adult pain and improved quality of life – March 2014

Vitamin D supplementation for diffuse musculoskeletal pain: Results of a before-and-after study.

Eur J Gen Pract. 2014 Mar;20(1):3-9. doi: 10.3109/13814788.2013.825769. Epub 2013 Sep 9.
Le Goaziou MF mf.legoaziou at medsyn.fr, Kellou N, Flori M, Perdrix C, Dupraz C, Bodier E, Souweine G.
Département de Médecine Générale, Faculté de Médecine Lyon-Est, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 , Lyon , France.

Background: Several studies have shown that vitamin D supplementation could be useful for treating diffuse musculoskeletal (DMS) pain in adults.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of correcting a vitamin D deficiency (≤ 50 nmol/l) on DMS pain and quality of life in adults.

Methods: A pragmatic prospective study was conducted in a general practice setting in the Rhone-Alps area between 1 February and 30 April 2009. Patients between the ages of 18 and 50 years old who consulted their general practitioner (GP) for DMS pain or chronic unexplained asthenia and had a deficient serum 25 (OH) D level with no signs of any other disease were enrolled in this study. The patients received high doses of vitamin D supplements (400 000 to 600 000 units). Mean pain evaluation scores were evaluated before and after vitamin D supplementation using mixed models and accounting for repeated measures.

Results: Before vitamin D supplementation, the adult study cohort (n = 49) had an adjusted mean serum 25 (OH) D level of 23.7 nmol/l, a mean pain evaluation score of 5.07 and a mean quality of life score of 3.55. After vitamin D supplementation, the adjusted mean serum 25 (OH) D level increased to 118.8 nmol/l (P < 0.001), the mean quality of life score increased to 2.8 nmol/l (P < 0.001) and the mean pain evaluation score decreased to 2.8 (P < 0.001). Conclusion: In this small before-and-after study, vitamin D supplementation decreased pain scores in adult patients with diffuse musculoskeletal pain and vitamin D deficiency. These results must be confirmed by further studies.

PMID: 24576123
 Download the PDF from Vitamin D Life

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Previously published in French April 2013, which has the following conclusion
The correction of vitamin D deficiency resulted in a significant decrease in the level of pain intensity according to

• verbal rating scale (P=0.034) and the
• Digital Scale (P<0.001),
• consumption of analgesics (P=0.002) and
• discomfort in carrying out activities of daily living following: the shopping, cleaning,
• walking for more than a kilometer (P<0.001) and
• dressing (P=0.012)

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Summary by Vitamin D Life of adding 400,000 IU of vitamin D

	Before	After
Vitamin D level	10 ng	46 ng
Pain score	5.1	2.8
Quality of life	3.6	2.8 ?

Note: The abstract gives Quality of Life in units of nmol/liter, which is incorrect, and the number should be higher than 3.6
The author has not responded to a request for clarification.

Type of visual pain chart which might have been used - a change of 2 is significant

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