Elderly Who are in Pain Fall More, duh… It’s the Vitamin D Stupid…
The Journal of the American Medical Association reported the results of a study that says that the Elderly With Chronic Pain Fall More. This is NOT news at all, and while they claim, “Despite a growing body of scientific evidence supporting associations between a number of risk factors and falls, efforts to translate these findings into effective fall prevention strategies have been limited.”
Are they just not reading the literature? There is a LARGE body of evidence from peer-reviewed double blind placebo controlled trials that Vitamin D Helps to Relieve Pain in those who are Vitamin D Deficient- which is nearly ALL elderly, and also that Vitamin D Prevents Falls.
While that sounds CRAZY that these older people who have pain and are falling could be helped by the administration of Vitamin D, it is absolutely true and doctors are simply ignoring the evidence. In fact, This Study Reported in JAMA was an analysis of 5 studies on the subject of Vitamin D and Falls in the elderly. They ONLY included high quality studies that met peer reviewed criteria. And their conclusion was ” Vitamin D supplementation appears to reduce the risk of falls among ambulatory or institutionalized older individuals with stable health by more than 20%.”.
So, we ALREADY have an effective way to reduce fall risk in the elderly by 20% AND the same intervention could reduce pain in many of them, but no one really cares. They would rather continue to spend money on studies, give narcotic pain relievers and try to get throw rugs out of their houses than to actually get down to the REASON why these elderly people are in pain and are falling.
ONE simple intervention could fix both of these problems at once. Are you listening out there. The elderly are Vitamin D Deficient and are in pain and falling because of it. Is anybody really out there. Does anybody really care?
Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune System Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Easy Immune Health.com
Tags: Chronic Pain Relief, elderly and falls, Vitamin D, vitamin d and falls, vitamin d and the elderly
