Vitamin D Levels Must Be Corrected

Vitamin D levels were shown to be low in up to 50% of fibromyalgia patients in the following articles.


Why are Vitamin D levels low in fibromyalgia?

• The chronic pain limits the outside activity and the time spent in the sun (the sun is the main factor for Vitamin D production by the body).
  
  
• Many fibromyalgia patients have sudden onsets of feeling very hot. This makes them unhappy to expose to the sun
  
  
• Many fibromyalgia patients have skin hypersensitivity and avoid exposure to the sun

Low vitamin D symptoms:

• Diffuse musculo-skeletal pain
  
  
• Increased incidence of myalgias if you are on a statin to decrease your cholesterol
  
  
• Osteoporosis. This is compounded in fibromyalgia because of increased ferquency of smoking, low magnesium, poor circulation, decrease activity. It does cause further pain and increases the risk of fracture
  
  
• Fatigue
  
  
• Muscle weakness
  
  
• Cardiovascular problems: High Blood Pressure, Cardiac risk, Peripheral vascular disease
  
  
• Decreased immunity
  
  
• Increased cancers
  
  
• Increased MS and Parkinson's disease
  
  
• Memory loss and foggy brain
  
  
• Decreased magnesium absorption (increasing further the magnesium deficiency in fibromyalgia)
  
  
• Increased aging
  
  
• Increased mortality of all causes
  

Low vitamin D symptoms add to the already long list of fibromyalgia symptoms.

Is it absolutely necessary to make your fibromyalgia worse by adding the low Vitamin D symptoms? Certainly not!

Ask your doctor for vitamin D levels. They must be > 50 nmol/l

1. Vitamin D levels in women with systemic lupus erythematosus and fibromyalgia.
   Huisman AM, White KP, Algra A, Harth M, Vieth R, Jacobs JW, Bijlsma JW, Bell DA.
   J Rheumatol. 2001 Nov;28(11):2535-9.
   
   
2. Bone health in patients with fibromyalgia
   A. W. Al-Allaf, P. A. Mole, C. R. Paterson and T. Pullar1
   Rheumatology 2003; 42: 1202-1206