Vitamin D Deficiency: An Explanation for Nonspecific Aches and Pains?

Consider 2 clinical observations: (1) Primary care physicians often encounter patients with unexplained musculoskeletal complaints, and (2) studies have documented a surprisingly high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in the general population. Could these 2 observations be related?

To address this question, researchers measured 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels in 150 consecutive patients who presented to a Minneapolis inner-city health care clinic with persistent, nonspecific musculoskeletal pain. None of the patients had a diagnosed condition that was known to result in low vitamin D activity. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels were low (<20 ng/mL) in 93% of patients, and severely low (≤8 ng/mL) in 28%, according to international reference values…