Achiness May be Due to Vitamin D Deficiency

By Gregory Plotnikoff
(Feb. 5, 2004; Reviewed Nov. 15, 2005)

Are you getting too much sun? Or too little sun? Either may place your health at risk. Sunburns may cause skin cancer. But sun is the best means for your body to make vitamin D. And vitamin D is crucial for healthy bones and much, much more.

In fact, too little sun increases the risk for many types of cancer, including breast, colon, and prostate. Additionally, low vitamin D increases the risk for diabetes, hypertension, multiple sclerosis, bone marrow problems, and many other serious illnesses.

Who should be tested for vitamin D deficiency? People with persistent, unexplained musculoskeletal pain. Recently, researchers at the University of Minnesota demonstrated that people of all ages and races with muscle and bone pain have seriously low levels of vitamin D.

In fact, the doctors were shocked to find that of 150 people with such pain at the University's Community-University Health Care Center, 93 percent were deficient in vitamin D. This included 100 percent of the African American, Native American, East African, and Hispanic people with such pain. It also included five people with levels so low they could not be measured. Four of these people were 35 or younger. Nearly half the women of childbearing age with such pain were severely or even profoundly deficient.

Patients with low vitamin D feel pain because a low level of the vitamin causes bones to weaken and become more rubber-like. That means that everyday stresses and strains affect people who lack vitamin D differently than they would people with strong bones.

Vitamin D deficiency is a worldwide phenomenon. Even though milk in the United States is supplemented, people still aren't getting enough vitamin D.

In northern climates like Minnesota, our bodies only generate vitamin D from sunlight from April to September. So it's important to get outside in the daylight for some time every day during spring and summer to build up stores to last throughout the fall and winter. Just be careful: don't get burned.

The government recommends 400 IU of vitamin D a day, and 600 IU every day for people 70 and older. This means drinking at least a quart of milk daily. Other food sources of vitamin D are salmon or cod liver oil.

The darker one's skin, the older one is, or the heavier one is, the more difficult it is to make vitamin D. Some common prescription medicines block vitamin D from working. And breastfeeding provides no vitamin D to babies. They need sun, too. So everyone who lives in our cold northern climate should make sure they soak up some sun in the warmer months and, if need be, take this as encouragement to seek sunnier climates during the winter.

Gregory A. Plotnikoff, M.D., M.T.S., F.A.C.P., is an associate professor of clinical medicine and pediatrics at the University of Minnesota. Currently, he is a visiting associate professor in the Department of Oriental Medicine at Keio University Medical School in Tokyo. This column is an educational service of the University of Minnesota. Advice presented should not take the place of an examination by a health-care professional. For more health-related information, go to http://www.healthtalk.umn.edu/