Coping Better With Chronic Pain . . . Through Vitamin D?

Limiting our practice to PA workers’ comp cases, we see all kinds of injured workers, necks, backs, knees, elbows, wrists, ankles, shoulders . . . you name it. One thing that is consistent, unfortunately, is pain. And, a new study says an injured worker may find some relief in an unexpected place.

A recent article on MedPageToday.com addressed a study linking increased knee pain (from osteoarthritis) to a deficiency of Vitamin D. Much more work has to be done, to confirm there really exists such a connection, but as the article notes, if there truly exists a relationship between the vitamin deficiency and the level of pain, this could represent “a safe and inexpensive way of easing the chronic pain of osteoarthritis.”

While osteoarthritis is not necessarily related to trauma, such as that suffered in a work injury, we frequently see injured workers whose work injury aggravated pre-existing (not symptomatic) osteoarthritis, leading to his or her inability to work any longer.