Health A-Z

Want to Stay Healthy? Try Washing Your Hands

Like “Turn out the lights” and “Don’t slam the door,” being told to “Wash your hands” is one of those universal instructions children hear every day. But it’s more than that.

Hand washing has been shown to be one of the most effective ways to stay healthy.

Why the fuss? Because after you’ve touched something contaminated with viruses or bacteria, your hands give germs a free ride into your body through your eyes, nose or mouth, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Why is it so important to wash your hands?

Simply put, washing your hands frequently and thoroughly helps keep you healthy.

“You use your hands to touch everything around you, and it’s the fastest way to communicate infectious germs,” said Kevin Morano, a professor in the department of microbiology and molecular genetics at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. Some common illnesses that can be transmitted via the hands include the flu, the common cold and a number of diarrheal illnesses. Remember that last stomach bug you had? You probably got it from your hands.

Regular washing of hands with soap and water could reduce deaths from diarrheal illnesses by 50 percent, according to CDC estimates.

How can you catch a cold by not washing your hands?

Germs may live on inanimate objects for an extended time. If you touch contaminated surfaces, the germs get on your hands. Eventually, you touch your eyes, nose or mouth, which gives germs access to your insides.

Where are you most likely to pick up germs?

“The top of the list is the restroom, and everything associated with the restroom,” said Morano. Things like computer keyboards, phones and TV remotes may have some germs on them, he said, but most bacteria and viruses prefer warm, wet environments, like a hand towel in the bathroom.

What’s the right way to wash your hands?

“The proper way to wash your hands is with lots of soap and warm water for as long as you have the patience for, but aim for at least 20 to 30 seconds,” Morano said. “If you can sing the ‘Happy Birthday’ song twice, you’ve washed long enough.”

What about the fingernails? Is it necessary to use a nail brush?

Alison Pittman, a nurse and assistant professor at the College of Nursing at Texas A&M Health Sciences Center in Bryan, said you don’t need a special brush to clean under your fingernails. Just be sure to get the soap and water under your nails, she advised.

Does water temperature matter?

No, said Morano. But, if you use water that’s too hot, you probably won’t wash long enough. It’s more important to use soap for a longer period of time.

Do you need to use antibacterial soap?

“Soap and water are a good solution for dirty hands,” Pittman said. “Any soap has ingredients that break the cells of the bacteria, killing them.” And, if there’s no soap or water available, “use an alcohol-based sanitizer that’s at least 60 percent alcohol — although these products aren’t as effective if hands are visibly soiled,” she said.

Do some soaps clean better than others? Should they contain specific ingredients?

Any soap will do, said Pittman.

Does a quick rinse do anything for your hands?

A quick rinse won’t clean your hands. Rather, Morano said, washing for a while with soap is what gets your hands clean.

Source: webmd

 

Sunlight may lower your blood pressure

Here’s why sunbathing feels so good: It may lower your blood pressure, British researchers reported Friday.

Just 20 minutes of ultraviolet A (UVA) sunlight lowered blood pressure by a small but significant amount in 24 volunteers, they report in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. Further checks suggest the sun does this by increasing levels of nitric oxide, a chemical linked to blood flow.

The effects are so strong they may help explain why people who live in the darker north, like the Scots, have higher rates of death from heart disease, Richard Weller of the University of Edinburgh and Martin Feelisch of the University of Southampton say.

“We are concerned that well-meaning advice to reduce the comparatively low numbers of deaths from skin cancer may inadvertently increase the risk of death from far higher prevalent cardiovascular disease and stroke, and goes against epidemiological data showing that sunlight exposure reduces all cause and cardiovascular mortality,” they concluded.

Their volunteers got the equivalent of 30 minutes of natural sunlight at noon on a sunny day in Southern Europe. They protected their volunteers from the warming effects, just in case that was the cause. It lowered blood pressure by about five points, and the effects lasted half an hour.

In other words, a little sunshine really may warm your heart.

Source: NBC News

 

Google unveils ‘smart contact lens’ to help diabetics

Keeping blood sugar levels in check is an important part of life for diabetics, but this can be a daily struggle, involving pricking their fingers and taking blood samples. Now, Google may have a solution – in the form of a “smart contact lens” that measures glucose levels in tears.

Revealing their prototype, which has been in the works for the past 18 months, Google X lab members and project co-founders Brian Otis and Babak Parviz write through their company blog that many of they people they have talked to “say managing their diabetes is like having a part-time job.”

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), diabetes affects 347 million people worldwide, and in 2004 alone, 3.4 million people died as a result of high fasting blood sugar.

This highlights the importance of monitoring blood glucose levels in diabetics, which the Google X project team aims to tackle.

Aside from mortality, Otis and Parviz note that uncontrolled blood sugar increases risks for damaging the eyes, kidneys and heart.

And because glucose levels can change suddenly with normal activities, such as exercising, eating or sweating, the team says that “round the clock” monitoring is imperative.

Lens employs tiny chips, sensors and an antenna
Though some diabetics wear glucose sensors embedded under their skin, Otis and Parviz say they still need to prick their finger, resulting in many diabetics checking blood glucose levels less often.

So how did the team decide on a contact lens to measure glucose levels?

Google’s smart contact lens
The ‘smart contact lens’ uses tiny chips and sensors, and a miniature antenna to measure glucose levels in tears.

They write that previously, scientists have looked into using bodily fluids, such as tears, to track glucose levels, but the difficulty has been in the fact that tears are not easily collected.

This led the Google X team to try using tiny chips and sensors, as well as an antenna “thinner than a human hair,” to measure tear glucose with better accuracy.

They have come up with a prototype smart lens, which looks very much like a normal contact lens with lines around the outside.

Embedded between two layers of soft contact lens material is a tiny wireless chip and glucose sensor. Otis and Parviz report they are testing prototypes that can produce one reading per second.

‘Early days,’ in promising tool for diabetics
The project members say they want the lens to alert the wearer when glucose levels are getting out of control, so they are looking into using miniature LED lights that could light up as a warning.

“It’s still early days for this technology,” they write, but they add that they have already completed several clinical research studies to help refine the prototype, with the hope that their lens could one day help diabetics manage their condition.

Though Otis and Parviz say they are working with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), there are still many more steps to take before the technology can be used by diabetics – a process which will likely take a further 5 years for the lens to reach consumers.

The Google X team is currently looking for partners and experts to join the project and develop apps for the lens.

But Otis and Parviz are passionate about their project. They write:

“We’ve always said that we’d seek out projects that seem a bit speculative or strange, and at a time when the International Diabetes Federation is declaring that the world is ‘losing the battle’ against diabetes, we thought this project was worth a shot.”

Several developments have occurred recently in the field of wearable monitoring devices. A team from Taiwan unveiled their tooth sensor that monitors oral activity, while researchers from the University of Pittsburgh presented their calorie-counting eButton, which uses a low-power central processing unit (CPU), a random-access memory (RAM) communication interface and a Linux or Android operating system to measure portion size.
In diabetes news, researchers in Denmark recently suggested that type 2 diabetes is an inflammatory disease and other studies have suggested eating more fiber and following a Mediterranean diet could reduce risks of developing diabetes.

Source: Medical News today

 

3-year-old is focus of medical marijuana battle

He’s only 3 years old, but Landon Riddle is already the focus of a medical marijuana fight in Colorado.

Landon has acute lymphocytic leukemia, or ALL, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. It’s the most common cancer in children.

His mother says his condition has improved so much following treatment with medical marijuana that chemotherapy isn’t needed. But the Children’s Hospital of Colorado, she says, disagreed.

It all started back in September 2012. Landon, then 2, was living with his mother, Sierra Riddle, in St. George, Utah, when he developed a sore throat and swollen lymph nodes. The emergency room doctor said it was a virus and sent him home.

School stops giving boy medical pot Is medical marijuana right for a 3-year-old? “Please don’t let my daughter die”

Two days later he went back. His armpits were swollen. “They thought it was either a virus or infection in the lymph nodes, so they gave him some antibiotics,” Sierra Riddle says.

But on the fifth day, his mother says she was changing his diaper and noticed his groin was also swollen, as well as his abdomen and throat. He was having trouble breathing. That time, she got a frightening diagnosis: cancer.

New York governor announces plan for medical marijuana at hospitals Landon was flown to a children’s hospital in Salt Lake City.

“His whole chest was full of leukemia tumors, which is why he couldn’t breathe,” his mother says. “They started him on chemo, but told us that he probably wasn’t going to make it.”

Landon’s cancer had quickly progressed, leading doctors to give him an 8% chance of survival, she says.

In general, ALL is one of the most curable cancers. According to the American Cancer Society, more than 90% of children diagnosed with the disease survive. Chemotherapy is the standard treatment, and Riddle says doctors put Landon on a four-year treatment plan. The first two months of chemo went fairly well, but then Landon became extremely ill.

“Most days he couldn’t get off the couch,” Riddle remembers. “He would just lay there and throw up and throw up.”

Riddle says he also developed neuropathy — a symptom of nerve damage that can cause weakness, numbness and pain — in his legs that left him barely able to walk.

Around that time, a friend set up a Facebook page called Offer Hope for Landon, and recommendations started streaming in, including several endorsing cannabis — medical marijuana — as a treatment.

Medical marijuana, however, isn’t legal in Utah. Still, desperate for answers, Sierra Riddle and her mother, Wendy Riddle, started looking into it. They considered going to California or Oregon. Then their research led them to the Stanley brothers in Colorado. The six brothers are one of that state’s biggest cannabis growers and dispensary owners.

The Stanleys produce about 500 pounds of medical marijuana a year. At the time, much of it was high in THC — tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive ingredient in pot that gets users high but also helps patients with an array of conditions including pain and nausea.

But the Stanleys were also growing something quite revolutionary: a plant cross-bred to reduce the THC and increase another compound found in cannabis called cannabidiol, or CBD. Many researchers believe CBD is one of the compounds in marijuana that has medicinal benefits. According to the National Cancer Institute, it’s thought to have significant analgesic, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor activity without the psychoactive effect.
The Stanleys expect to produce over 1,000 pounds this year, most of it the cross-bred variety, according to Joel Stanley.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Why I changed my mind on weed Riddle, herself a recovering heroin addict, struggled with the idea of giving Landon marijuana.

“I was telling my mom, you know, ‘We really need to think about this.'” But, says Riddle, her son was already prescribed medications like OxyContin and morphine — medications with significant side effects.

Landon suffered from stomach failure, and “the OxyContin made him so miserable, when he had hair, he would literally try to pull his hair out.” In the end, she decided she had nothing else to lose and moved to Colorado. She rented a room, got Landon’s medical marijuana card and began giving him marijuana — THC for the pain and nausea, but also CBD. The dose was based on Landon’s weight. He first took it in oil form, but now takes a pill.

Once the doses started, “Landon’s (red and white blood cell) counts increased dramatically,” she says.

Six months later, encouraged by Landon’s progress, she stopped his chemotherapy treatments completely.

“Once I took the chemo out, I see these amazing results. And no more need for blood transfusion and platelet transfusions,” Riddle says. “I think that the chemo in combination with the cannabis did put him into remission and now the cannabis will keep him there.”

But Landon’s doctor at the Children’s Hospital of Colorado was shocked. “She told me with no uncertainty that if I refused chemo, she would have no choice but to report me to the proper authorities,” Riddle says. So Riddle found a lawyer willing to take her case.

“Nobody wants to hurt Landon here,” says attorney Warren Edson. “This is about making him better. We have no problem making sure he’s monitored throughout this process. And again, if there’s any indication this is doing him harm, I can’t imagine Sierra doing anything other than the right thing.”

Medical marijuana helps stem 6-year-old’s seizures
Children’s Hospital Colorado, in a statement, says it is “committed to protecting the well-being of our patients.” The hospital says it cannot discuss specific cases, but provided information from Dr. Stephen Hunger, director of the hospital’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders.

Hunger noted that childhood cancer remains the leading cause of death by disease among American children; that about 25% of childhood cancers are ALL; and that the survival rate for children with ALL treated by Children’s Oncology Group research trials is over 90%, attained with two to three years of chemotherapy.

Children’s Hospital Colorado is “one of the largest centers in the country that treats children with ALL,” the statement says.

“The Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s Hospital Colorado has always done its best to work closely with families to provide the most appropriate treatment for cancer, while also seeking to minimize side effects and maximize quality of life.
“Today, chemotherapy is a required part of therapy for children with leukemia. Many supportive care medications are used in children and adults with cancer, including those considered to be complementary and alternative medicine (also referred to as integrative health).

“Marijuana or a product derived from marijuana is often used to decrease side effects in adults with cancer,” the hospital says. “There are several FDA-approved and commercially available anti-nausea medicines derived from marijuana (cannabinoids) that are frequently used by adults and children with cancer, and we often prescribe these medications.”
In an effort to stave off a legal wrangle, Riddle, her mother and Edson met with the doctors in charge of Landon’s care in October.

Source: CNN

 

5 Things to Work on to Reduce Anxiety in 2014

Battling anxiety is never easy. Those with generalized anxiety disorder may fight worrying and intrusive thoughts, feeling powerless to stop them. For people with panic disorder, the “not knowing” when panic will strike causes great apprehension and this often brings on a panic attack. No matter what type of anxiety you have, chances are you struggle each day to keep your anxiety at bay.

As we start a new year, many of us take a look at our lives and treatment to determine what is working and what is not. We take stock of where we are and where we want to be. You might start out the year creating a treatment plan or plan of action. You might want to reduce your medication or try a new type of therapy such as cognitive behavioral therapy. You might be considering alternative treatment such as supplements or hypnosis.

As you work to make positive changes in your life, the following are five areas you can work on throughout the year:

Take Care of Yourself

You know that taking care of yourself is important. Your physical health impacts your levels of anxiety. There are some steps you can take to make sure you are in the best possible physical health:

Eat right – While diet may not be a direct cause of anxiety, it can contribute to anxiety levels. When you are under a lot of stress, you may make unhealthy food choices, increasing your anxiety. Some ingredients, such as caffeine, increase feelings of irritability, making your stress levels increase. If you aren’t sure what foods are best, talk with your doctor or a nutritionist to create a balanced and healthy diet.

Get a good night’s sleep – This is obviously easier said than done. Worry and stress cause you to toss and turn all night and the lack of sleep increases feelings of stress and anxiety the next day. If you are having trouble sleeping, use some self-help tips to get to sleep or talk to your doctor about what you can do to get a good night’s sleep.

Exercise – Even small amounts of exercise have been found to reduce levels of anxiety and depression. If you don’t exercise, start by adding 10 minutes of exercise to your daily routine. Increase your exercise, as you feel comfortable. If you have any health issues, make sure to talk with your doctor about how much and the types of exercises that are safe for you.

For Women: Have Your Hormone Levels Tested

Throughout a woman’s life, hormonal fluctuations from PMS, pregnancy, peri-menopause and menopause affect stress levels and your ability to deal with stress. Track your anxiety symptoms to see if they coincide with your monthly cycle or if they are related to changing hormone levels. Let your doctor know if you are experiencing hot flashes, irregular cycles or night sweats as this may signal peri-menopause or menopause. Ask your doctor to test your hormone levels every few years.

Create Support Networks

Some people have built in support networks in the form of family and friends. Others feel they are alone in their battle against anxiety. It helps to have people you can turn to that understand what you are going through. If you don’t have people in your life that provide you with that support, take time this year to reach out to others. Check in your local paper for in-person support groups or contact your doctor or hospital to find out if there are support groups in your area. There are also plenty of online support groups and sites, such as this one, where you can talk to others with anxiety and feel understood and heard.

Learn Relaxation Skills

Strategies such as deep breathing, yoga and meditation help to increase feelings of wellbeing throughout the day, even when practiced once a day for 10 minutes. Learning these techniques also gives you a way to combat anxiety as soon as you feel it starting. When you feel panic beginning to rise, stop and breath deeply for 10 minutes. This often helps to stop or reduce your feelings of panic.

Become More Mindful

Mindfulness is living in the present moment. Practicing mindfulness helps reduce levels of anxiety and stress. This is because anxiety usually involves ruminating over things that have happened in the past or worrying about the future. When you learn to live in the moment, these worries go away. You focus only on what is going on around you. Practice mindfulness skills 10 minutes each morning and evening to increase your sense of calm.

While all of these areas can help reduce your anxiety, remember to choose one to start with. Trying to make changes in many different areas of your life all at once might only increase your anxiety levels. Choose one area and when you are comfortable with the progress you have made, add a second, and then third, etc.

Source: health central

Caffeine pill ‘could boost memory’

A US study has raised the possibility that we may one day rely on caffeine to boost memory as well as to wake up.
The research, published in Nature Neuroscience, tested the memories of 160 people over 24 hours.

It found those who took caffeine tablets, rather than dummy pills, fared better on the memory tests.

But experts warned people to remember caffeine could cause negative effects, such as jitteriness and anxiety.

The Johns Hopkins University study involved people who did not regularly eat or drink caffeinated products.

Saliva samples were taken, to check base levels of caffeine, then participants were asked to look at a series of images.

Five minutes later they were given either a 200-milligram caffeine tablet – equivalent to the caffeine in a large cup of coffee, according to the researchers – or a dummy pill.
Saliva samples were taken again one, three and 24 hours later.
The next day, both groups were also tested on their ability to recognise the previous day’s images.

Twenty-four hours may not sound like a long time, but it is in terms of memory studies. Most “forgetting” happens in the first few hours after learning something.
People were purposely shown a mixture of some of the initial tranche of images, some new – and some that were subtly different.

Being able to distinguish between similar, but not identical items, is called pattern separation and indicates a deeper level of memory retention.
More members of the caffeine group were able to correctly identify “similar” images, rather than wrongly saying they were the same.

Prof Michael Yassa, who led the study, said: “If we used a standard recognition memory task without these tricky similar items, we would have found no effect of caffeine.
“However, using these items requires the brain to make a more difficult discrimination – what we call pattern separation, which seems to be the process that is enhanced by caffeine in our case.”

Only a few previous studies have been carried out into caffeine’s effect on long-term memory, and those that have been done generally found little effect.
This study was different because people took the caffeine after, rather than before, they had seen and attempted to memorise the images.

The team now want to look at what happens in the hippocampus, the “memory centre” of the brain, so they can understand caffeine’s effect.
Moderation
But Prof Yassa said their findings do not mean people should rush out and drink lots of coffee, eat lots of chocolate – or take lots of caffeine pills.
“Everything in moderation. Our study suggests that 200mg of coffee is beneficial to those who do not regularly ingest caffeine.

If you take too much caffeine there could be negative consequences for the body”
End Quote Dr Ashok Jansari University of East London
“Keep in mind that if you’re a regular caffeine drinker this amount may change.”
He added: “There are of course health risks to be aware of.

“Caffeine can have side effects like jitteriness and anxiety in some people. The benefits have to be weighed against the risks.”

Dr Anders Sandberg from the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford, said: “The paper demonstrates that giving caffeine after seeing images does improve recognition of them 24 hours later, supporting the idea that it helps the brain consolidate the learning.

“However, there was no straight improvement in recognition memory thanks to caffeine. Rather, the effect was a small improvement in the ability to distinguish new images that looked like old, from the real old images.”

He added: “Caffeine may still be helpful for paying attention to what you are studying and hence help your encoding, but the best way of boosting consolidation is sleep – which might be a problem in this case, if you take the caffeine too close to bedtime.
Dr Ashok Jansari, from the University of East London’s school of psychology, said caffeine appeared to “sharpen” memory, rather than actually making it better.

He said: “I would definitely not advise that people start taking in as much caffeine as possible since in terms of memory anything above 200mg may not help much and if you take too much caffeine there could be negative consequences for the body.”

Source: BBC news

Secondhand Smoke Will Cause Your Child To Go Back To The Hospital

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Hospital statistics suggest that children exposed to secondhand smoke are significantly more likely to be readmitted within a year of being admitted for asthma, providing additional evidence that more efforts to limit exposure stand to alleviate a significant burden on public health.

Dr. Robert Kahn, a director at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and senior author of the new study, said in a press release that the alarming figures also illuminate a cost-effective way for pediatricians to fine-tune interventions and customize treatment for respiratory problems like asthma. By measuring levels of cotinine, the main breakdown product of nicotine, care providers will be able to spot a significant health factor in patients who may otherwise not report it.

“The ability to measure serum and salivary cotinine levels presents the possibility of an objective measure that can be obtained when a child is seen in the emergency department or in the hospital and may be used to predict future hospitalizations,” he explained. “Such a measure for exposure to tobacco smoke could be used to target specific interventions at caregivers of those children before discharge from the hospital. Several interventions, including parental counseling and contact with the primary care physician, could be adopted in clinical practice.”

Saliva Samples Don’t Lie
The study, which is published in the journal Pediatrics, is part of the Greater Cincinnati Asthma Risks Study — an exhaustive effort to map the causes of hospital readmission for pediatric asthma, particularly in minority and low-income children. Kahn and colleagues studied emergency room admission rates for children between ages 1 and 16 from August 2010 to October 2011. Readmission was defined as a return to the hospital with similar symptoms within a year of the first visit.

When the team compared readmission rates to the parent or caregiver’s own report of his or her tobacco use, there was no significant correlation between being exposed to secondhand smoke and returning to the hospital. However, when they analyzed cotinine content in saliva and blood samples, they found that children exposed to secondhand smoke were actually twice as likely to return. The findings thus show that this kind of tobacco exposure is indeed an important factor of pediatric asthma readmission. They also show that many parents and caregivers lie about their smoking habits, which is, arguably, an even larger concern.

Source: Medical daily

Importance of keratin treatment for hair revealed

Human hair is said to be as strong as the horn of a rhino, as both are made of the same protein, keratin.

Keratin is now being used not just to straighten the hair, but also fortify them.

Rod Anker, Creative Director of Monsoon Salon and Spa said that keratin does not make the hair straight, even though it may appear straight for some time but the objective of the treatment is to reduce frizz, curl and help the hair become more manageable.

He added that it washes out after sometime, therefore 3-5 months is typically the length of the time that it lasts.

During the treatment, hair is shampooed and blow dried, after which the solution is applied with a brush and combed through the hair, and allowed to absorb for about 20 minutes.

Hair is then blow dried once more and flat ironed and the oils of the treatment will set into the hair within a few hours – so static strands are normal at this time.

Anker also advised that the hair must be kept straight for 72 hours, without using any accessories, as it may disturb the process.

Source: Healcon

Tulsi enters US lab to fight cancer

The ubiquitous tulsi in your backyard may be a potent weapon against all kinds of cancer, so believes a team of researchers led by an Indian-origin scientist.

Tulsi or basil has eugenol that helps fight cancer. Now the research team is genetically modifying tulsi in the lab to produce the anti-cancerous compound in abundance.

“When you grind basil leaves, a compound called eugenol comes out. If I could make it produce eugenol in higher amounts, that basil plant would serve as a storehouse of that anti-cancerous compound,” said Chandrakanth Emani, assistant professor of plant molecular biology at Western Kentucky University-Owensboro (WKU-O) in the US.

In his lab at the Owensboro facility, Emani and his students are genetically engineering the basil to produce more eugenol, a compound in basil that, in his words, “has a very great pharmaceutical value because it’s shown to control breast cancer”.

“Eugenol, when they put it on a plate where there are tumour cells, it stopped growth of the tumour cells. That was a proof of concept experiment which was done a long time back,” said Emani, in a press release issued by the university.

The next phase in the research project would be to test the compound as an effective cancer treatment.

“We want to deal with treating cancer in a holistic way. We want to find one treatment that takes care of many cancers,” Emani added.

Tulsi’s therapeutic properties have been discussed at great length in ancient ayurveda texts in India.

Emani, who earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in India, has been at WKU-Owensboro since 2010.

Source: Business standard

Vitamin D Reduces Pain in People with Fibromyalgia

Taking vitamin D supplements may alleviate chronic pain in people with fibromyalgia who have low levels of the vitamin, according to a new study from Austria.

Patients with fibromyalgia syndrome suffer from chronic, body-wide muscle and joint pain, and fatigue. Previous studies have pointed to the possible role of vitamin D in the perception of chronic pain.

In the new study, researchers studied whether raising patients’ vitamin D levels to the recommended range would help with some of their symptoms. Thirty patients with fibromyalgia who also had low levels of vitamin D in their blood (below 32 nanograms per milliliter) were randomly assigned to take either oral vitamin D supplements, or a placebo, for 20 weeks.

Weeks after the treatment ended, patients who took the supplements were still experiencing reduced pain, while people who had taken placebo didn’t see a change in their pain level, according to the study, published today (Jan. 17) in the journal Pain.

“Vitamin D supplementation may be regarded as a relatively safe and economical treatment” for people with fibromyalgia,” said study researcher Dr. Florian Wepner, an orthopedist at the Orthopaedic Hospital Speising in Vienna.

However, the vitamin is not a cure for the condition, Wepner said. Fibromyalgia “cannot be explained by a vitamin D deficiency alone,” he said. And although the patients who took vitamin D saw reductions in their pain, there were no significant changes in their depression or anxiety symptoms.

Fibromyalgia affects about 2 percent of the U.S. population, and is more common in women than in men, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. No treatments are available that address all symptoms of the condition, but some symptoms may be alleviated by physical therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy and temporary drug therapy.

Vitamin D is present in very few foods, but is produced by the skin after exposure to ultraviolet rays from sunlight. It can be found in fortified foods, such as milk, orange juice and cereals as well. Too much vitamin D has its risks, too — it can cause damage to the heart and kidneys. [9 Good Sources of Disease-Fighter Vitamin D]

Low levels of vitamin D are especially common in patients with severe pain and fibromyalgia, the researchers said.

“Vitamin D levels should be monitored regularly in fibromyalgia patients, especially in the winter season, and raised appropriately,” Wepner said.

Source: live science