Vitamin D and Chronic Pain/Illness

What a great job Aimee did of writing that up!  (Please see above post) 

In the summer of 2009, I blogged about a presentation I'd seen about chronic pain and vitamin D and wanted to put the highlights here.  The title was "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 -- aside from when having a hysterectomy, I've never been prescribed opiods for pain and wanted to learn more because of the number of people with chronic pain who are advocating for the long-time use of narcotics.

I'd also met Dr Jerry Rand in the summer of 2009 when speaking at a chronic pain conference he was also presenting at, and his perspective is that doctors overall have not realized the side effects of narcotics on the brain related to sleep, and prescribing them long-term ends up contributing to the problem of chronic pain with most patients, and a 'vicious cycle' occurs.  I can see how this occurred during my generation as in our "modern medical system" crunched by insurance-based funding issues with providers having time to barely understand the top layer of a problem and needing to 'do something' results in handing a Rx rather than getting the patient educated about other strategies such as biofeedback, mindfulness, and proper exercise/stretching/massage of the body, etc. 

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. My encounter made me reflect upon the substantial information credible, established organizations possess and how they also gradually change in their perspectives.

I'd recently seen some interesting information from one of the best known, large, established and 'revered' Western medicine organizations in the United States, the Mayo Clinic.  Below is a link to a piece at their website about patients taking pain medications and their vitamin D levels.  I encourage you to go look at it.  

In the spring of 2011, I finally had my vitamin D levels checked, after having been 'turned onto' the amazing resources (pharmacists/co-presidents) at ITC Pharmacy, who reviewed my vitamin D intake through bone builder supplements and educated me about the absorption of D being better through drops since it's a hormone and the mouth being a better uptake mechanism than having it in the gut via a supplement capsule.  They sell a very inexpensive ($19) drop that lasted me the whole fall and winter and I had my levels tested and found I was needing to take the amount I had been in the sunny months and in the nonsunny months double the amount! However, I had increased the supplemental D in a way my body was able to get more into it and saw the results, having only one cold all winter/spring that 'got me', and I look forward to this cold and flu season not dreading being sick all the time like I was in the past.  So I really encourage you to have your vitamin D levels checked, and hope my story here about this aspect has helped those reading to see how this might apply to them or someone they care about who gets sick a lot! (Or who a cold turns into a secondary infection like bronchitis, as mine has ever since I had chronic fatigue/fibromyalgia 'come on' in my early adulthood. I'm finally 'back to the way I was before' in terms of not getting colds often, not getting very sick if I did succumb to something) 

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure -- so please check in with yourself (a.k.a. "think") and get information about YOUR nutrition and supplements and see if you're in a good place with it.  Then make changes in what you're doing and I hope you'll see improvements similar to what I report! It irritates me to think that I went through years of what I did and it was unknown about vitamin D levels by my providers; even my providers who knew about vit D deficiency didn't suggest I get tested -- I took that upon myself, again proving the doctors cannot think about YOU as much as YOU do, as you're inside yourself 24/7.  

Team with GRATE providers who can assist you, and you'll do well! Lumigrate provides an ND, RPharm, NP (who operates under a physician) and other experts on supplements who work with people coast to coast through technologist.  We also have coaches that have backgrounds in addictions, spirituality, and physical therapy to assist you, in addition to what I do as an occupational therapist and 'guide' on Lumigrate.  So if you have questions on what your next step might be, send a request through Contact Us.  

Look for more information in the Supplementing / Nutrition area of Forums and in the 'colds/flu' forum.  I've tried to segment the forums in a way those healthy and without pain concerns can find information about chronic wellness / prevention and those with interests related to getting from illness to wellness have focused forums about ALL that they might be needing.  It's a lot of work to do, but I assure you that improvements can be made and sometimes the simplest things can make a BIG difference, as this vitamin D issue demonstrates.  Go out into the sun more, how simple is that! 

newsblog.mayoclinic.org/2009/03/20/mayo-clinic-researchers-link-vitamin-d-and-chronic-pain-relief/

I recently started taking Vit D. One of my M.S friends suggested taking it. He has been taking D for quite sometime and feels it's made a great difference. I'm now taking it for my Fibro and M.S.

For the cold/flu season 2011, we have a GRATE new piece I wanted to be sure to drop the link around Lumigrate for so those looking at these threads would know of.  Lumigrate keeps getting better and better in terms of the experts providing information being set up to help people anywhere coast to coast; we started with the best local providers who came together for one year and formed an integrative center and then went their separate ways, and that gave us the amazing videos you can download and watch for $0.00 (that come with handouts to look at on your computer or have printed -- my thinking was the consumers might drop those or written info from Forums, etc and help their providers learn of wonderful seminars they can learn from and direct their patients to.  

Here's the link to the 2011 Cold/Flu / Vitamin D piece, and it has links to the top stuff from the past on Lumigrate related to alternatives to cold and flu as well as a NEW piece this year about getting the flu shot or not.  Kinda rhymes!  Enjoy and be well!

 www.lumigrate.com/forum/flu-prevention-lifestyle-basics-plus-vitamin-d-japanese-study-kids-20089-flu-season