A study published in Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine finds that breast cancer patients with vitamin D deficiency experience significantly more pain following surgery and require greater opioid painkillers. Researchers at Fayoum University Hospital in Egypt studied 184 women undergoing radical mastectomy, evenly split between vitamin D-deficient and sufficient groups. Deficient patients were three times more likely to report moderate pain (scoring 4β6 on a pain scale) in the first 24 hours - notably, no patient in either group reached severe pain levels (7+). Deficient patients also received 8 ΞΌg more fentanyl during surgery and consumed roughly 112mg more tramadol afterward.
Postoperative nausea was likewise more common in the deficient group. Researchers attribute these findings to vitamin D's anti-inflammatory and immune-modulating properties. They recommend supplementation forβ¦
