Vitamin D Deficiency And Muscle Pain And Fatigue

Though your bones depend on calcium to stay strong, your body needs vitamin D to metabolize calcium. You get vitamin D from sunlight, from the foods you eat and from supplements if your doctor determines you need them. Inadequate vitamin D can lead to rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. Rickets is poor bone formation, while osteomalacia is a weakening of the bones. Both diseases can cause pain and fatigue.

Milk and Rickets

In the 1930s, the United States government identified rickets as a serious health problem in the country. To combat the disease, the government passed a law requiring milk be fortified with vitamin D. Today, fortified milk provides a minimum of 100 international units per cup. This has led to a sharp decline in the number of cases of rickets in the United States. Breast-fed children who do not receive supplemental vitamin D and adults with conditions that inhibit vitamin absorption are at the greatest risk for the disease.

Musculoskeletal Pain

Muscle pain and weakness are among the most common signs of a vitamin D deficiency. Of 150 patients who visited an inner-city clinic in Minneapolis between 2000 and 2002 with a complaint of musculoskeletal pain, 93 percent were deficient in vitamin D. The December 2009 "Harvard Heart Letter" reported that in a study of 128 people who complained of muscle pain associated with taking statin drugs to lower cholesterol, two-thirds had low levels of vitamin D. When these people began taking vitamin D, 90 percent of them reported the muscle pain had resolved.

Fatigue

Few studies have examined the role of vitamin D and fatigue. A 2010 Norwegian study of 572 patients who complained of musculoskeletal pain, fatigue and headache found low levels of vitamin D in 58 percent of these patients. Whether the fatigue was a symptom of the vitamin D deficiency or due to the pain was undetermined.

Vitamin D Requirements

The U.S. Office of Dietary Supplements recommends adults get 600 IU of vitamin D daily to age 70, at which time their need increases to 800 IU daily. If you suffer from a vitamin D deficiency, your doctor may advise you to increase your intake of vitamin D above this level. Fortified milk, fatty fish and egg yolks contain some vitamin D. Your body also makes its own vitamin D from sunlight. Depending on where you live and the time of year, five to 30 minutes of sun exposure twice a week between the hours or 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. should provide sufficient vitamin D for most people.