Vitamin D may help relieve shooting pains in your body. This vital nutrient helps keep you healthy and promotes strong bones. An insufficient amount of vitamin D can result in conditions such as osteoporosis, which causes fractured bones that may produce sharp pains in your body. Vitamin D may also help relieve painful menstrual cramps, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D aids in the body's absorption of calcium--necessary for healthy and dense bones--from foods and supplements. People without enough vitamin D in their bodies can develop soft, thin and brittle bones--called osteomalacia in adults and rickets in children. Your muscles also need vitamin D to move, and your nerves need this vitamin to carry messages from the brain to the body. Sufficient amounts of calcium and vitamin D help protect older individuals against the bone disease osteoporosis. According to the Food and Nutrition Board, the average daily recommendation of vitamin D for people up to 70 years old is 600 IU. People over the age of 70 need 800 IU daily. In addition, the best food sources of vitamin D include fatty fish such as tuna and salmon.
Osteoporosis
According to board-certified orthopedic surgeon William C. Biell III, increasing the intake of vitamin D can decrease your risk of osteoporosis by 25 percent. Although not producing any painful symptoms by itself, osteoporosis causes a decrease in bone density, which can lead to the subsequent pain caused by easily fractured bones. The most common fractures caused by osteoporosis occur in the vertebrae in your back, according to medical doctor Tagreed Khalaf of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Spine Health. These spinal fractures may result in shooting pains, because of the compression of your spinal nerves.
Menstrual Pain
Vitamin D may help alleviate the sharp shooting pains sometimes associated with menstrual cramps, or primary dysmenorrhea. Menstrual pain usually begins a few days before your period and can last several days after your period begins. Sharp menstrual pains result from strong uterine contractions stimulated by body chemicals called prostaglandins, which induce inflammation and trigger pain receptors. The University of Maryland Medical Center recommends a daily intake of 400 IU of vitamin D to help your body use calcium, which may help reduce menstrual pain and reduce inflammation.
Back Pain
Older women with inadequate amounts of daily vitamin D may be at an increased risk of experiencing back pain that may be shooting or stabbing. Research published in the May 2008 edition of the "Journal of the American Geriatrics Society" observed the effects of a vitamin D deficiency on musculoskeletal pain in 958 men and women, ages 65 and older. Researchers evaluated levels of vitamin D in the participants' blood in relation to their level of pain. Although no correlation between vitamin D levels and pain existed in men, women with a vitamin D deficiency were twice as likely to have moderate or worse back pain. However, vitamin D was not linked to pain in other parts of the women's bodies.
References
- Office of Dietary Supplements: Vitamin D
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Menstrual Pain
- MayoClinic.com: Back Pain: Symptoms
- DoctorBiehl.com; Osteoporosis; William C. Biehl, M.D.; 2007
- "Journal of the American Geriatrics Society"; Low Vitamin D Tied to Back Pain in Older Women; Gregory E. Hicks, Ph.D.; May 2008
- Cleveland Clinic; Osteoporosis and Vertebral Fractures; Tagreed Khalaf, M.D.; September 2010
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