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Vitamin D and neuropathic pain?

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Eddy Edson

Eddy Edson

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
In remission from Type 2
A study just published describing a (lack of) Vit D/neuropathic pain association: https://www.healio.com/endocrinology/diabetes/news/in-the-journals/{7b126b20-f3b9-4e05-82fb-e77fb1a407ea}/painful-diabetic-peripheral-neuropathy-linked-to-low-vitamin-d-level

And digging around a bit, I find a few studies recommending Vit D supplements as a therapy - dunno about the quality of the studies.

I have moderate neuropathic foot pain from time to time. Has anybody any Vit D experience or insights for this kind of condition?
 
I’ve been prescribed adcal d3 for donkeys years. Thinking back it was my liver specialist who prescribed them. I had hepatitis C at the time and cirrhosis. Still have the cirrohsis but new treatment eliminated the hep C. Can’t say i’ve Noticed it working for pain as I have neuropathy plus Chronic pancreatitis along with a host of other conditions. All I can say is they surely can’t do any harm only good. I have heard patients with fibromyalgia who had low vitamin d levels, after taking adcal d3 vitamin d levels increased as did the easing of stiffness in joints. It definitely is one of the vitamin supplements I wouldn’t stop taking.
 
Hepato-pancreato said:
I’ve been prescribed adcal d3 for donkeys years. Thinking back it was my liver specialist who prescribed them. I had hepatitis C at the time and cirrhosis. Still have the cirrohsis but new treatment eliminated the hep C. Can’t say i’ve Noticed it working for pain as I have neuropathy plus Chronic pancreatitis along with a host of other conditions. All I can say is they surely can’t do any harm only good. I have heard patients with fibromyalgia who had low vitamin d levels, after taking adcal d3 vitamin d levels increased as did the easing of stiffness in joints. It definitely is one of the vitamin supplements I wouldn’t stop taking.
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Yeah, there doesn't seem to be any risk, I'll give it a try. Actually, I'll use it instead of my current alpha lipoic supplement, which seems to be completely useless - the Vit D evidence looks at least a bit stronger.
 
I stopped using alpha- lipoid supplements for the same reason. I never felt any difference when taking it. Never felt any difference when I stopped come to think of it.
 
I was diagnosed with neuropathy back in March 2017 & the A&E doctor, who diagnosed me, recommended taking the vitamin supplement GLA. After a google search, I found that it occurs naturally in Evening Primrose Oil & I’ve been taking 1x1000mg capsule daily ever since!

I’m not COMPLETELY sure but, I DO think it helps to dull things down. I’ve certainly noticed the increase of extreme feelings of sharp painful freezing when I’ve had to stop taking them for a 2 week period twice for day procedure ops, the week before & after so there’s no inference with healing. And when I went back on them again it was a huge relief.

I did some googling about GLA & it apparently helps the nerves to regenerate.

To be completely frank though, these last few weeks, after sustaining an injury from trampolining, my neuropathy has been quite bad with intense burning heat. I only ever felt freezing, before my injury, when not on Evening Primrose Oil, the day procedures, & that’s VERY painful! The burning is easier to bear as it doesn’t hurt like the freezing does! And now that I’m having physio, at last, the heat is dying down & the neuropathy is getting better. I still took Evening Primrose Oil throughout my injury & don’t know what or if any difference it may or may not have made.
 
Sorry I just picked up on this thread. Alpha Lipoic Acid will only really work in the slow release formulae @ 300mg . Evening Primrose Oil @ 1300 mg together with 500mg of Vitamin C. The slow release ALA is more expensive than the normal ALA, in some parts of Europe it is available on prescription but sadly not here (UK). As a concoction together works really well but not for all, so buyer be aware .
 
As has been said elsewhere, you shouldn’t take Vitamin D without knowing your serum Calcium levels. And you shouldn’t take Evening Primrose without checking with your doctor first. Just because it is “herbal” doesn’t make it safe.
 
I checked my last blood chem panel & it includes calcium amongst all the stuff. Looks like it's smack in the middle of the lab's reference range so I've started taking 2000IU of D3 daily. Will report any noticeable changes & try to get a Vit D check in my next blood work in a few weeks.
 
So a week into the Vit D experiment: It's coincided with a big reduction in frequency and noticeable reduction in severity of neuropathic pain. Still have foot-tingling but actual pain at annoying levels on only one evening & that not very annoying; versus previous around 4 days/week & more annoying.

It's also coincided with a noticeable drop in BP and avg BG levels, and conscious effort to stuff myself with more fibre (and partly as a result, more carbs). Oh, and dropping the ALA.

Obviously too short a time to draw any conclusions & pretty hopeless to try to disentangle what's responsible for what or if it's all just a tangle of semi-random squidginess. But worth pursuing for the moment.
 
So the Vit D experiment continues to work, assuming that's what's responsible for muted foot neuropathy symptoms. I really only get bothered by it a bit now when I've walked a long way and/or (as the weather warms here) feet get hot. I have this image of nerves getting over-stimulated & then continuing to jangle away for a while afterwards.

But from my blood work this week I see phosphates up quite sharply towards the top end of the lab's reference range. Apparently excess Vit D can be a cause, and I don't see any particular change in other electrolytes etc pointing at kidney issues. (Stupidly, I forgot to get a Vit D test in the latest chems - doh!)

So I'll try cutting back to 1000 IU.
 
You should never take VitD without knowing your calcium levels. An excess of Vit D can cause metabolic disharmony.
 
I developed very low magnesium levels due to long term omepraxole. That was found by a very on the ball GP. I’d gone with unaccountable profound tiredness and muscle weakness. One I started magnesium supplements I was back to normal. At least, once I’d got the vitD levels righted. Very low magnesium can kill you.

(That was a couple of years before I started the downhill decline of my motor neurones. That was sudden onset, though, when my legs didn’t work properly on the way home from the shop.)
 
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