Muscle pain

Muscle pain is frequently difficult to diagnose. However, evidence suggests that vitamin D deficiency may be a contributing factor. An older study discovered that 71% of people with chronic pain had a vitamin deficiency. The vitamin D receptor is found in pain-sensing nerve cells called nociceptors. This vitamin may also be involved in pain signaling pathways in your body, which may play a role in chronic pain. According to a few studies, high-dose vitamin D supplements may reduce various types of pain in people who are vitamin D deficient. One study in 120 children with vitamin D deficiency who had growing pains found that a single dose of this vitamin reduced pain scores by an average of 57%.

One finding shows that 4 weeks of a vitamin D-deficient diet produces muscle mechanical hypersensitivity and balance deficits. Instead of correcting this phenotype, increased dietary calcium accelerated its development. Concurrent with muscle hypersensitivity was skeletal muscle hyperinnervation by putative nociceptor axons. This appears to be due to direct actions of vitamin D metabolites on rapid response VDRs, as both 1,25(OH)2D3 and the rapid response specific agonist 6-s-cis-lumisterol (JN) regulated neurite outgrowth by peripherin-positive sensory neurons in culture. The greater density of “pain-sensing” nerves in muscles of vitamin D-deficient rats may therefore contribute to the observed hypersensitivity.