Does your low back pain, arthritis or fibromyalgia flare up more in the winter months? Chances are a Vitamin D deficiency is to blame.
During the cold of winter, particularly in the northern third of the country, the changed angle of the sun’s rays plus more time spent indoors or bundled up while outdoors make getting enough of the sunshine vitamin naturally almost impossible.
Numerous studies have linked Vitamin D deficiencies to chronic inflammation and illness. Simply taking a supplement of this vital nutrient can dramatically reduce inflammation and related pain for those not getting enough through sunshine and diet.
As one example of how powerful a Vitamin D supplement can be, a study of lower back pain sufferers with no obvious cause of pain found 83% had a Vitamin D deficiency. By supplementing with Vitamin D, every single patient originally diagnosed with a deficiency experienced an improvement in symptoms. Interestingly, 95% of all patients benefitted from supplementation regardless of their initial Vitamin D levels.
This winter, beat winter’s aches and pains by increasing your Vitamin D intake. Start with 3,000-10,000 IU daily for a month if already in pain, then continue with 1,000-3,000 IU daily.
When choosing your supplement, look for one which uses Vitamin D3, known as cholecalciferol. This form metabolizes differently and can be as much as 3 times more effective than Vitamin D2 in raising levels of Vitamin D in the body and maintains those higher levels longer.
Related posts:
- How I Get My Winter Vitamin D By Al Sears, MD We all know sunshine is the cure if you don’t get enough vitamin D in your...
- Should You Be Scared of the Sun? Sunny weather means picnics, camping, swimming, hiking, and as many other outdoor activities as possible. But look outside on a...
- Inversion therapy got rid of my sciatica pains! In May, I herniated the L5-S1 disc. My doctor recommended drugs and pain management, but the meds made me sick...
- CoQ10 Supplements: Top 10 Reasons to Take One Coenzyme Q10, commonly shortened to CoQ10, is a vitamin-like fat soluble substance found in every cell in your body. In...
- Top 3 Pain-Fighting Vitamins Whether through diet or supplements, these vitamins can help fight pain We’ve spoken often about the importance of magnesium for...







4 Comments
This is a great article and very true. In fact it’s really true for women as women never seem to get enough vitamin D. For women it’s really important to also take calcium because women never get enough of that and together these work great.
Vitamin D is also high in dairy products and fish so that can help.
Does it matter if you take all the D3 at once or does it need to be spread out a certain way during the day? Thanks!
Is D3 a vegetarian source? Thanks.
The number of softgels and timing will depend on the dose of the softgel, most come in 1000 or 5000 IUs, best to follow the suggested usage on the bottle…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D