Can vitamin D help fibro symptoms?
While more research is needed, experts believe supplementing with vitamin D may lessen pain, says Gregory A. Plotnikoff, MD, the medical director at the Penny George Institute for Health and Healing at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, in Minneapolis. “Many Americans are reporting that replenishing their vitamin D results in significantly reduced pain, increased energy, and better sense of well-being,” says Dr. Plotnikoff, who published a 2003 study of the link. However, W. Michael Hooten, MD, an assistant professor of anesthesiology and the medical director at the Mayo Clinic Pain Rehabilitation Center, in Rochester, Minn., notes that patients in pain may be more inactive and spend less time in the sun than people who are pain free. “They may stay indoors more, their diet may become altered, which may predispose them to develop a vitamin D deficiency,” he says. In a study published last year and co-authored by Dr. Hooten, pain patients with a vitamin D deficiency took almost double the am
