Unfortunately, although there are a plethora of interesting and inspiring medical TED talks, only a couple touch on chronic pain in general.
In 2010 TED talk, David Agus discussed treating a patient as a whole instead of focusing on specific measurements of one tiny thing. In this talk he noted that vitamin supplements are often taken without considering the whole picture - what contributes to low levels, how this can affect the body. He specifically mentioned vitamin D supplementation when blood test results indicated a deficiency.
Several GPs, specialists and pharmacists in Australia, Japan and Germany have suggested to me that there seems to be a link between low D levels and pain, before they knew my vitamin D levels were non-existent.
In 2009, the Mayo Clinic found a link between vitamin D supplementation and improved chronic pain. No one knows in which direction the relationship works, as understanding of brain chemistry is still relatively poor. Further research has not shown anything concrete.
Despite this, an Australian medical article suggested vitamin D level testing and supplementation to improve in the longer term muscle strength and bone density, even though vitamin D deficiency is not yet recognised as a symptom or a cause of fibromyalgia.
