CHRONIC pain in women may be related to low levels of vitamin D, the nutrient made by the skin when exposed to sunlight.
Researchers who studied nearly 7000 British 45-year-olds found that almost 15 per cent of women with the lowest levels of the vitamin reported experiencing chronic pain - nearly twice the 8.2 per cent prevalence reported among women with higher readings.
However, vitamin D levels appeared to make no difference to the number of men who reported pain symptoms - leaving the study’s authors perplexed as to whether lack of vitamin D in women was the cause.
The authors noted that a disease caused by extreme vitamin D deficiency, osteomalacia, was known to cause bone pain.
The research concluded that further studies were required to establish whether pain would be lessened if patients increased their vitamin D intake.
For the study, published yesterday in the journal Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, the authors included medical data from 6824 Britons who were examined between 2002 and 2004, when they were aged 45. Information was collected on their smoking and alcohol habits, time spent outdoors, time spent watching television or at a computer and dietary supplements, including vitamin D.
Samples of their blood werealso analysed for
levels of 25-hydroxy-vitaminD (25(OH)D), which is a metabolised form of the vitamin and a marker for vitamin D levels.
The lowest prevalence of chronic widespread pain (8.2per cent) was reported in women with 75 to 99 nanomoles of 25(OH)D per litre of blood.
The rate was 14.4 per cent for women with less than 25nmol/l, and 14.8per cent for women with 25-49nmol/l.
John Eisman, director of the bone and mineral research program at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, said the study was interesting but by its design could not “unravel” whether lower vitamin D was causing the pain, or vice-versa.
Professor Eisman, who is also an endocrinologist at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital, agreed that more studies were required.
In the meantime, if doctors were faced with patients battling chronic pain, “it might be worth giving them vitamin D, to see if it makes a difference”, he said.
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