"D"fend Your Muscles

Previously, research suggests that Vitamin D may assist in reducing muscle and joint pain in cancer patients, as well as improve muscle performance in overweight people.  Among 12 men and women with Vitamin DS deficiency, Sinha Akash, from Newcastle University (United Kingdom), and colleagues investigated phosphocreatine recovery,  a marker of muscle fatigue, both priot to and after Vitamin D supplementation. The team found that a 10- to 12-week period of dietary supplementation of Vitamin D significantly improved muscle phosphocreatine recovery. Further, all study subjects reported improvement in symptoms of fatigue.  The study authors write that: “[Vitamin D] therapy augments muscle mitochondrial maximal oxidative phosphorylation following exercise in symptomatic, vitamin D deficient individuals,” submitting that: “For the first time, we demonstrate a link between vitamin D and the mitochondria in human skeletal muscle.”