14 DAY TRIAL // According to a new study by researchers with the Orthopedic Hospital Vienna Speising, led by expert Dr. Florian Wepner, vitamin D can be used as a simple and cost-effective method of addressing the widespread, generalized pain that is the hallmark of fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS).
This condition is characterized by debilitating fatigue, sleep disturbances, and joint stiffness, and affects between 2 and 4 percent of the general population. At this point, relatively complicated medication plans have to be prescribed if patients are to manage their symptoms, PsychCentral reports.
Details of the new study on the effects of vitamin D are published in the latest issue of the journal PAIN. In the accompanying paper, scientists describe how FMS patients display lower-than-normal vitamin D levels in their bodies. The effects of the condition may be reduced by replenishing these levels, the team hypothesizes.
“Vitamin D supplementation may be regarded as a relatively safe and economical treatment for FMS patients and an extremely cost-effective alternative or adjunct to expensive pharmacological treatment as well as physical, behavioral, and multimodal therapies,” Wepner concludes.