According to a research, older people with low level of vitamin D may be at risk of suffering from low back pain. But how vitamin D could be linked to back pain? Read on and find out.
Back pain is a very common problem that disturbs our daily work life.
Not surprisingly, almost everybody suffer from back pain at some point in their lives. Low back pain would occur due to various reasons. But most of the times, even after being acquainted with the problem, we ignore the back pain problem. As per National Institutes of Health, back pain would be second most common neurological disorder in the United States.
Most back pain is simple and self-limiting but it is very important to find out the real cause behind the pain. Also, back pain is a big challenge to deal as it is common, and demands medical resources. Furthermore, it is one of the greater causes of physical, psychological and social disability.
Thus in case of back pain, it is very essential to assess and find out the root cause of it. In addition, back pain has been identified as a prime reason which affects physical health status in old age. According to some studies, back pain occurs due to low levels of vitamin D. But how lack of vitamin would result in back pain? To know the connection between vitamin and back pain, we need to understand nitty-gritties like what are vitamins and its working?
What is Vitamin D?
Vitamin D could be naturally obtained from sun exposure, food, and supplements. It plays a major role in development of bones, heart health and more. Also, it is produced by the body. Lack of vitamin D or low levels of vitamin D would result in osteomalacia, or a softening of the bones.
The softening of the bones leads to pain in the lower back. It has been observed that women are more prone to lower back pain as compared to men. According to some studies, there is a link between low levels of Vitamin D and back pain in women.
Are low back pain and vitamin D linked?
A research was conducted to find out how many men and women above the age of 65 were suffering from low back pain. 958 people had their blood tested for vitamin D. It was found that 58% of the women and 27% of the men experienced some pain in at least one part of their bodies.
Also, it was suggested that women with low vitamin D were more likely to get (almost 2 times) low back pain as compared to men. Additionally, pain in other areas of the body was not related to vitamin D levels. However, there is no research with any concrete evidence to establish a direct link between vitamin D and lower back pain.
But in some cases, intake of vitamin D somehow helped to alleviate the pain. In conclusion, it would be wrong to consider vitamin D as the ultimate source to get rid of all back pain. Only further studies would help to make a conclusion. But, after a consultation with the doctor, testing for vitamin D would be useful.
Also, supplemental vitamin D for chronic back pain would do no harm. But boosting vitamin D levels in the body naturally by getting exposure to sunlight for at least 15 minutes every day is the best way of obtaining vitamin D.
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