Today's post from tapintegrative.org (see link below) tries to answer the question in the post title by looking at recent research studies. It won't surprise you to see that it's aimed at diabetics with neuropathy but as you will all know by now, it applies to most cases of neuropathy with the same symptoms. There's a lot of information on the Net at the moment about vitamin D - it seems to be the buzz vitamin of the year! This study however, basis its conclusions on an actual study and explains how the vitamin may work for nerve damage patients. It concludes that short-term supplementation with vitamin D can indeed reduce nerve pain noticeably but points out that this study should also serve as a basis for research into long-term use of the vitamin. Judging by other articles, if you're deficient in vitamin D, supplementing it will benefit you across a range of health issues. The key is whether you're deficient or not and a test will sort that out - otherwise you may be throwing your money away supplementing a vitamin you don't need.
Date Posted: 9/24/2015
Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is a long-term complication of type 2 diabetes that causes nerve damage so severe that quality of life in these patients plummets. Considering that most type 2 diabetics are also deficient in vitamin D and that low levels of the nutrient are associated with DPN severity, a research team from Kuwait investigated the effect of vitamin D supplementation on DPN. Their results, published in the journal Medical Principles and Practice, found that even a short-term course of oral vitamin D supplementation eased DPN pain. It seems that simply boosting vitamin D levels in these patients had a profound effect on their health and well-being.
To examine the relationship between vitamin D and DPN, the research team conducted a prospective, placebo-controlled trial that included 112 type 2 diabetic patients with DPN and vitamin D deficiency (defined as total serum vitamin D levels below 20 ng/mL). The participants were randomized to the treatment group (n=57) or a placebo group (n = 55). At baseline, presence and severity of DPN were measured via neuropathy symptom score (NSS), a neuropathy disability score (NDS), and a nerve conduction study (NCS). Changes in NSS and NDS were to be the primary outcome with change in the NCS as the secondary outcome. In the treatment group, participants took oral capsules containing 50,000 IU vitamin D once per week, and the control group took placebo capsules once per week.
After 8 weeks, each participant’s level of vitamin D was measured again. In the vitamin D‒supplemented group, 38 participants (66.7%) reached sufficient vitamin D status, which means their D levels measured above 20 ng/mL. Overall, the treatment group saw a significant 13.12 ng/mL increase in vitamin D levels compared to the 1.1 ng/mL increase in the placebo group. Interestingly, NSS values improved significantly in the treatment group vs the placebo group (‒1.49 ± 1.37 vs ‒0.20 ± 0.59, P less than 0.001); however, no improvement was observed for NDS and NCS values.
While these findings are encouraging, it’s difficult to ignore the absence of change in NDS and NCS values between the 2 groups. This surprising result may be due to the short period of treatment in the trial, given that DPN is a chronic disorder that develops over years. In other words, it may just take longer than 8 weeks of vitamin D supplementation for shifts in these parameters to be discernible. Therefore, this short-term study should serve as a catalyst for future studies to test the effect of vitamin D over longer periods of time on the relief of DPN pain.
Source: Shehab D, Al-Jarallah K, Abdella N, Mojiminiyi OA, Al Mohamedy H. Prospective evaluation of the effect of short-term oral vitamin D supplementation on peripheral neuropathy in type 2 diabetes mellitus. Med Princ Pract. 2015 Feb 26. [Epub ahead of print]
http://www.tapintegrative.org/Blog/September-2015/Vitamin-D-Supplements-Ease-Diabetic-Neuropathy
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