What we know is that a severe deficiency of vitamin C causes scurvy, a painful and deadly disease that decimated many explorers of the New World until the native people showed Europeans how to get vitamin C from birch bark. The Recommended Daily Allowances of vitamin C are essentially based on twice the amount necessary to prevent scurvy. This allowed precise measurement of their serum concentrations of vitamin C. We were thus able to assess if there is a statistical relationship between serum concentrations of vitamin C and several measures of spinal pain.
Key Takeaways:
- Although our knowledge of back pain now includes physical/biological, psychological and social determinants, we still need new ideas.
- In response to the bio-psycho-social model of back pain, much research has focused on the psycho-social components.
- Because they come from an observational study, these results are not a definitive answer to the question of whether vitamin C levels are a determinant of spinal pain.
“In response to the bio-psycho-social model of back pain, much research has focused on the psycho-social components. Our team wanted to innovate by looking at some biological variables that haven’t previously been looked at seriously.”
http://www.bodyinmind.org/vitamin-c-back-pain/
