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Vitamin D and Chronic Pain
Wed, 03/10/2010 - 8:55pm
I copied this from a blog post I made in the summer of 2009 so that it would be easily 'findable' here in this new Forum area --- as Lumigrate has grown we're shifting and growing where the needs are presented. Please remember the "print" and "e-mail" buttons, below, are great tools for you to be able to share things with people YOU might want to turn onto information! Thanks so much ~~ Mardy
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I was wanting to bring something into today's blog related to nutrition, since it's 'been all about pain' for the past week, because we realize our following is a diverse group of people interested in healthy eating and nutrition, the environment, health care reform, food allergies, complimentary medicine, etc. I love the topic of chronic pain, but 'allright already'. Let's talk about what to put in salads or something!
But as luck would have it, my 7 a.m. opportunity to learn today was a great one... "Managing Opiods in Seriously Ill, Hospitalized Patients -- Pitfalls and Pearls, " by Daniel Johnson, MD, FAAHPM of the Life Quality Institute, Kaiser Permanent, and University of Colorado. I learned a lot about opiods for pain, which brought some balance to what I'd learned last week at the Chronic Pain Documentary Workshop. I'd wanted to learn more because of the feedback on Lumigrate's facebook page from the chronic pain population who are advocating for the use of narcotics. In talking with Dr. Johnson after his presentation and describing Lumigrate and the integrative medical approach we are utilizing, he volunteered that he would like to include more integrative concepts into his presentations, thanked me for my perspective, and asked to be included in information we gather about fibromyalgia. I'll hope to bring you a summary of his presentation at a later date with his input. My encounter made me reflect upon the substantial information credible, established organizations possess and how they also gradually change in their perspectives.
I thought I'd try to find something about chronic pain and alternatives which would be interesting to our bigger audience and drew from an established medical organization in order to appeal to our many followers who are 'into' alternative approaches or nutrition. And I recalled some interesting information I'd come across recently about the association of Vitamin D and pain and found the following newsblog on the Mayo Clinic website about patients taking pain medication and their vitamin D levels. As I've stated before here, Scott Rollins, MD (presenter on Lumigrate.com's video 'Supplements and Disease Prevention' and 'Hypothyroidism: Misunderstood, Misdiagnosed ... Missed!') has stated in presentations that he's testing a large number of his patients (when he suspects it may be a factor) and is finding an 'epidemic' of vitamin D deficiency. He's presenting tomorrow night (July 29) on 'Fibromyalgia', and I'm eager to see what he has to say, including nutrition -- such as vitamin D. I'd much rather take a supplement than a narcotic! And for those of you lucky enough to not have chronic pain -- remember: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure -- so please check in with yourself and get information about YOUR nutrition and supplements and see if you're in a good place with it.
newsblog.mayoclinic.org/2009/03/20/mayo-clinic-researchers-link-vitamin-d-and-chronic-pain-relief/
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Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!
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Mardy,
I have definitely heard of this and believe it to be true. At times, our Vit D levels are very low and that can directly result in our symptoms, among other things! The problem is when you get your routine blood work, doctors generally do not test for it and therefore, we never know! Last time I got a full blood work done, they did not check it. The next time I get it done, i will have to bring it to their attention to find out if my levels are sufficient or no! I tend to believe that they are not and ultimately, supplements are a great alternative and will definitely help!
Great thoughts!!
-Candace :)
Faith Young is the pseudonym used by one of Lumigrate's longest content providers, as she began writing at the age of 24 in Lumigrate's FIRST year on the Internet! In real life, this young woman who has been living with FMS for many years received her Bachelors degree in Health Education from Montclair State University and graduated Magna Cum Laude. To further her career, she is currently working on two Masters degrees, one in Counseling from Seton Hall University. Since she is a 6th grade health teacher working to educate students on the importance of being physically and emotionally healthy, we found it best to provider her with a pseudonym of her choice and "Faith Young" is what resonated. In the long run, this very real young woman has faith and hopes be able to use health education in counseling and provide up to date information at Lumigrate which will appeal to the younger people 'out there' and bring them 'in here' to Lumigrate in addition to our more mature adults. In addition, she is a LumiLiaison for Lumigrate.com and helps facilitate Lumigrate FMS fan pages on facebook. Search on Lumigrate and Lumigrate: Fibromyalgia and join us related to general and/or FMS specific information; Like us and those #s count with our advertisers and supporters and also allow YOU to keep up with what we're up to!
Keep in mind your blood levels change with the seasons. I know that Dr. Rollins started testing people he suspected would be low initially .... those with chronic illness, not just doing hormone supplementation for menopause, for instance, and that he said in seminars that he found it to be 'epidemic' and then at a later seminar he said he was testing people more and more and there was one guy who had an outdoor job and even in the summer his blood levels were low!
Vitamin D has been a really interesting one for me to study in terms of education because of the time it has taken for it to even half way catch on. But at least it is! Thanks for doing your part, as always, Candace, with furthering health education. (Candace got her undergraduate degree in health education and is getting her master's in counseling.
Candace is the lead person on Lumigrate's facebook Fan Page on Lumigrate: Fibromyalgia Health Education and Counseling. Please join if you haven't. We also have Lumigrate:Fibromyalgia and are wanting to create younger people a home at the one Candace leads, as I have heard them say that so many places to look for information are dominated by people who are not their age, and their are SO many more younger with FMS all the time. ~~ Mardy
Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!
I agree that Vitamin D3 helps if it is needed. I blindly listened to my Dr. and wasn't tested before I took 50,000 iu's once a week for eight weeks. It was summer time and I swim almost daily. Plus I live in Florida and drive a convertable so I get plenty of sun. I felt good with the first two to three doses and then started feeling so very tired, so sick that I could hardly get out of bed for three months and had pain in my joints and thought my body was on fire. The Dr. said what I was experiencing was menopause and then my hormone levels came back normal. She looked up my symptoms and sure enough arthralgia sp? is one of the symptoms. I didn't eat much cause it also caused severe nausea. But after I wasn't on it anymore I put 30 lbs. on in two months time. My fibromyalgia is worse then it has ever been but I think it was from all that my body went through with the Vitamin D3 toxicity. I know it would help me in much smaller doses but I am afraid to take it again. The last time I took it was in sept. and it is now February and I have been swimming and getting plenty of sun in the last two weeks so I will be seeing a new Dr. and getting my levels tested. I just thought I would share this so that if anyone is having these symptoms they are not alone. I did alot of research on the internet and more and more people are posting the same symptoms. Just be careful with this Vitamin as too much of anything is not good for you. Well except maybe chocolate is!!!!!!!
Lori, thank you for taking the time to write about your experience. This is a big concern for me related to consumers learning about vitamin D and "a little bit of knowledge being dangerous". A resource I'm starting to suggest to people is a compounding pharmacy I became aware of this past fall (2010), located just outside Denver (which has an international airport and is mid country so excellent location for getting things to people rapidly). They do some sensible testing and have good products, two pharmacists with I think it was 70 years experience. One's super into thyroid and things related to fibromyalgia and the other one is as well but also became an ND and is all about the gut/ health. (Much of our immune system goes on in the gut, for instance, it really is something we overlook in terms of importance I think.)
When I mentioned to one of the staff that I take vitamin D in my bone builder I was brought up to speed that since it's actually a hormone it doesn't absorb well intestinally and sublingual drops were their recommendation to me; $19 for a bottle like eye drops come in and it lasts for months. And since you brought up this HUGE dose thing, their perspective as I understand it, recognizes the delicate interplay of the hormone system and that you're just wanting to 'ping' things, not blast them.
For a cost 'comparison' very generally, their NP charg is $350 for basically an hour and a half of time and follow ups if routine after (for a year). I'm not certain if that includes the home saliva/blood test kit... and they make a good point that it tests what is in your tissues not your venous blood... what really matters related to the body really is 'the issues in the tissues' so to speak. So I encourage people to check out their educational website and give them a call! (they also have an email function for the three providers but I'm not sure how that work to be honest as I have always called.) The website is:
www.itcpharmacy.com/
Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!