NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Older women who aren't getting enough vitamin D
appear to be at risk for suffering from back pain, new research shows.
""Given that low vitamin D status is fairly prevalent in older adults and that
there are significant functional consequences to untreated chronic pain, these
findings argue strongly for querying adults about their pain and potentially
screening older women with significant back pain for vitamin D deficiency,"" Dr.
Gregory E. Hicks of the University of Delaware in Newark and his colleagues
write.
Among older people, vitamin D deficiency has been tied to a number of health
problems, including an increased risk of bone fracture, Hicks and colleagues
note in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Lack of the vitamin
could also, theoretically, contribute to musculoskeletal pain, they add,
although research on vitamin D deficiency and pain syndromes has yielded mixed
results.
To investigate the relationship, Hicks and his colleagues looked at blood levels
of vitamin D in 958 people 65 and older. Fifty-eight percent of the women in the
study, and 27 percent of the men, had at least some moderate pain in at least
one region of the body.
For men, there was no relationship between vitamin D levels and pain. Women with
vitamin D deficiency, on the other hand, were nearly twice as likely to have
back pain that was moderate or worse, but vitamin D status wasn't related to
pain in other parts of the body.
The gender- and back-specific effects of vitamin D found in the study could be
because lack of the vitamin can cause osteomalacia, or bone softening, which is
more common in women and often manifests itself as low back pain, the
researchers say.
But before vitamin D supplementation can be widely recommended for treating back
pain, they add, randomized controlled trials should be undertaken to determine
if giving people the vitamin is indeed helpful.
