Vitamin D is one of the most important nutrients for your body, and it is essential for day-to-day functioning. It is most commonly known for its ability to help regulate bone health by promoting calcium absorption within the gut, and it is a necessity for bone growth. Beyond just bone development, vitamin D helps reduce inflammation and actively supports cell growth within the body. It’s no secret that without Vitamin D, the body would grow immensely weaker without all its regulative processes.
However, new research has uncovered a very bizarre connection between a low vitamin D intake and increased pain following breast surgery cancer. Published in Regional Anaesthesia & Pain Medicine, the research describes a relationship between vitamin D and the processing of pain in the body; this is theorized to be due to the inherent inflammatory nature of vitamin D and how vitamin D affects the immune system. Historically, vitamin D has been used in the context of treating numerous infections, such as tuberculosis before potent antibiotics were commonplace; in fact, deficiency has been linked to an increased infection rate among subjects of similar demographics. As such, it would not be absurd to say that the regulatory effects of vitamin D may extend towards post-surgery pain.
In order to investigate this possibility, researchers at Fayoum University Hospital in Faiyum Egypt conducted an experiment involving 184 breast cancer patients that were scheduled for surgery. The researchers split the participants between two groups: those with regular vitamin D levels (>30 nmol/L) and those with a deficiency ( <30 nmol/L). Additionally, both groups of patients had a mean age of 44 in the deficiency group and about 42 in the group with regular levels.
The patients then received the hospital’s standard treatment both during and after surgery. To ensure that there would be no bias influencing the pain treatment, doctors and clinical staff had no knowledge of which group the patient was in. Fentanyl was administered during the operation to assist in managing pain levels across patients. The results aligned the theorized hypothesis: Patients in the deficiency group were far more likely to report moderate pain 24 hours after surgery. Interestingly, neither group had reported severe pain, indicating that the pain reduction between vitamin D sufficient and deficient groups may not be exceedingly far apart.
During the surgery, patients with vitamin D deficiency had received, on average, eight micrograms more fentanyl than sufficient group patients. However, post-operation pain treatments had a far stronger gap in tramadol intake: The deficient group had consumed an average of over 112 mg more tramadol. Subsequently, it also led to people only in the deficient group to experience nausea and vomiting, byproducts of the group’s elevated use of opioids.
The study did have some limitations that prevented a more concrete analysis: Since it was primarily observational, this would only beget a cause and effect relationship between vitamin D deficiency and increased pain rather than causality. Furthermore, inflammatory markers were not measured, preventing the research team from delving into the links between vitamin D and pain and missed several other extenuating factors that may have contributed to surgical pain.
Regardless of the nature of this study, it is extremely valuable data for future uses. As more and more research is developed and published, so will health and medicine. Not only will findings like these bring us closer to understanding the human body in its entirety, they will also serve as the foundation for better treatment options in the future.
