Tom and Louise Baltes decided they wanted to take a 4200-mile bike ride across the United States, from Seaside, Oregon, to Portland, Maine. They did it for a cause, to benefit two nonprofits, Volkssporting and the Arthritis Foundation. The reason for the arthritis focus is that Baltes himself is suffering from the condition, diagnosed with OA in his lower spine and left knee soon after retiring. Tom, who is 60, told the Arthritis Foundation, “Louise and I feel like our walking and biking helps us fight off the debilitating effects of arthritis.”
Exercise is one of the most trusted and proven natural treatments for arthritis. However, doctors sometimes recommend other natural treatments as well – such as vitamin D for knee osteoarthritis.
Vitamin D Could Be Effective
Multiple studies have found that there are positive outcomes when patients take vitamin D for knee osteoarthritis. The reason scientists have been focused on this vitamin is that it is known to help the body absorb calcium so that you can repair your bones.
A couple of the most important recent studies on the effectiveness of vitamin D for knee osteoarthritis were published in 2014. Both of them looked at how much vitamin D was in the blood of those who had either been diagnosed with or had risk factors for OA. One of them, appearing in The Journal of Nutrition, concluded that people who were deficient in vitamin D were more than twice as likely to see knee OA diagnosed or symptoms worsen than were people who had sufficient levels. The second study, from the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, also suggested there is legitimacy to the use of vitamin D for knee osteoarthritis: when seniors did not have enough of the compound in their systems, there was higher susceptibility to knee pain development within 5 years.
Vitamin D Could Be Ineffective
We should look at the opposite side of this debate also, though. In 2013, a study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The analysis, conducted at Tufts University, looked at 146 people. To test vitamin D for knee osteoarthritis, the researchers split the patients into a group taking 2000 IU per day of vitamin D and a group not taking it. Members of the vitamin group were given more of it as needed if the initial amount was insufficient to raise their blood levels to 36 ng/mL by the end of the two-year study. The researchers found no significant differences in the results for the two groups. This team would obviously not advise taking the vitamin for treatment.
Getting Help
Should you take vitamin D for knee osteoarthritis? It depends who you ask. However, making sure that you are not deficient in vitamin D is certainly positive for wellness.
Are you suffering from knee OA? Beyond exercise and vitamin D, your recovery may also benefit from professional help. At OrthoGen, we lead modern joint and pain treatments into the new frontier of safe and effective stem cell therapies. Learn about GenXStem.