Curried Chicken-Spinach Salad

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes

Yield: Makes 4 servings (serving size: 1 cup chicken and 1 1/4 ounces spinach)
Nutritional Information
Calories per serving:181
Fat per serving: 6g
Saturated fat per serving: 1g
Monounsaturated fat per serving: 2g
Polyunsaturated fat per serving: 1g
Protein per serving: 13g
Carbohydrates per serving: 21g
Fiber per serving: 3g
Cholesterol per serving: 28mg
Iron per serving: 2mg
Sodium per serving: 431mg
Calcium per serving: 81mg

Ingredients:

3 (5-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/3 cup plain fat-free yogurt
1/4 cup low-fat mayonnaise
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon mango chutney
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 large celery stalks, chopped
1 cup seedless red grapes, halved
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (5-ounce) package fresh baby spinach
1/4 cup chopped pecans

Preparation

1. Trim excess fat from the chicken. Place the chicken and enough water to cover in a medium saucepan over high heat until water just begins to bubble. Reduce heat, cover, and poach 10 minutes or until just cooked. Transfer the chicken to a bowl and let cool.

2. While chicken cooks, combine yogurt, mayonnaise, lemon juice, chutney, curry powder, and ginger in a large bowl.

3. Chop chicken and add to yogurt mixture. Add celery, grapes, salt, and pepper. Toss to coat evenly. Divide spinach among 4 plates; top with chicken salad and pecans.

Source: health


3-year-old is focus of medical marijuana battle

He’s only 3 years old, but Landon Riddle is already the focus of a medical marijuana fight in Colorado.

Landon has acute lymphocytic leukemia, or ALL, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. It’s the most common cancer in children.

His mother says his condition has improved so much following treatment with medical marijuana that chemotherapy isn’t needed. But the Children’s Hospital of Colorado, she says, disagreed.

It all started back in September 2012. Landon, then 2, was living with his mother, Sierra Riddle, in St. George, Utah, when he developed a sore throat and swollen lymph nodes. The emergency room doctor said it was a virus and sent him home.

School stops giving boy medical pot Is medical marijuana right for a 3-year-old? “Please don’t let my daughter die”

Two days later he went back. His armpits were swollen. “They thought it was either a virus or infection in the lymph nodes, so they gave him some antibiotics,” Sierra Riddle says.

But on the fifth day, his mother says she was changing his diaper and noticed his groin was also swollen, as well as his abdomen and throat. He was having trouble breathing. That time, she got a frightening diagnosis: cancer.

New York governor announces plan for medical marijuana at hospitals Landon was flown to a children’s hospital in Salt Lake City.

“His whole chest was full of leukemia tumors, which is why he couldn’t breathe,” his mother says. “They started him on chemo, but told us that he probably wasn’t going to make it.”

Landon’s cancer had quickly progressed, leading doctors to give him an 8% chance of survival, she says.

In general, ALL is one of the most curable cancers. According to the American Cancer Society, more than 90% of children diagnosed with the disease survive. Chemotherapy is the standard treatment, and Riddle says doctors put Landon on a four-year treatment plan. The first two months of chemo went fairly well, but then Landon became extremely ill.

“Most days he couldn’t get off the couch,” Riddle remembers. “He would just lay there and throw up and throw up.”

Riddle says he also developed neuropathy — a symptom of nerve damage that can cause weakness, numbness and pain — in his legs that left him barely able to walk.

Around that time, a friend set up a Facebook page called Offer Hope for Landon, and recommendations started streaming in, including several endorsing cannabis — medical marijuana — as a treatment.

Medical marijuana, however, isn’t legal in Utah. Still, desperate for answers, Sierra Riddle and her mother, Wendy Riddle, started looking into it. They considered going to California or Oregon. Then their research led them to the Stanley brothers in Colorado. The six brothers are one of that state’s biggest cannabis growers and dispensary owners.

The Stanleys produce about 500 pounds of medical marijuana a year. At the time, much of it was high in THC — tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive ingredient in pot that gets users high but also helps patients with an array of conditions including pain and nausea.

But the Stanleys were also growing something quite revolutionary: a plant cross-bred to reduce the THC and increase another compound found in cannabis called cannabidiol, or CBD. Many researchers believe CBD is one of the compounds in marijuana that has medicinal benefits. According to the National Cancer Institute, it’s thought to have significant analgesic, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor activity without the psychoactive effect.
The Stanleys expect to produce over 1,000 pounds this year, most of it the cross-bred variety, according to Joel Stanley.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Why I changed my mind on weed Riddle, herself a recovering heroin addict, struggled with the idea of giving Landon marijuana.

“I was telling my mom, you know, ‘We really need to think about this.'” But, says Riddle, her son was already prescribed medications like OxyContin and morphine — medications with significant side effects.

Landon suffered from stomach failure, and “the OxyContin made him so miserable, when he had hair, he would literally try to pull his hair out.” In the end, she decided she had nothing else to lose and moved to Colorado. She rented a room, got Landon’s medical marijuana card and began giving him marijuana — THC for the pain and nausea, but also CBD. The dose was based on Landon’s weight. He first took it in oil form, but now takes a pill.

Once the doses started, “Landon’s (red and white blood cell) counts increased dramatically,” she says.

Six months later, encouraged by Landon’s progress, she stopped his chemotherapy treatments completely.

“Once I took the chemo out, I see these amazing results. And no more need for blood transfusion and platelet transfusions,” Riddle says. “I think that the chemo in combination with the cannabis did put him into remission and now the cannabis will keep him there.”

But Landon’s doctor at the Children’s Hospital of Colorado was shocked. “She told me with no uncertainty that if I refused chemo, she would have no choice but to report me to the proper authorities,” Riddle says. So Riddle found a lawyer willing to take her case.

“Nobody wants to hurt Landon here,” says attorney Warren Edson. “This is about making him better. We have no problem making sure he’s monitored throughout this process. And again, if there’s any indication this is doing him harm, I can’t imagine Sierra doing anything other than the right thing.”

Medical marijuana helps stem 6-year-old’s seizures
Children’s Hospital Colorado, in a statement, says it is “committed to protecting the well-being of our patients.” The hospital says it cannot discuss specific cases, but provided information from Dr. Stephen Hunger, director of the hospital’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders.

Hunger noted that childhood cancer remains the leading cause of death by disease among American children; that about 25% of childhood cancers are ALL; and that the survival rate for children with ALL treated by Children’s Oncology Group research trials is over 90%, attained with two to three years of chemotherapy.

Children’s Hospital Colorado is “one of the largest centers in the country that treats children with ALL,” the statement says.

“The Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s Hospital Colorado has always done its best to work closely with families to provide the most appropriate treatment for cancer, while also seeking to minimize side effects and maximize quality of life.
“Today, chemotherapy is a required part of therapy for children with leukemia. Many supportive care medications are used in children and adults with cancer, including those considered to be complementary and alternative medicine (also referred to as integrative health).

“Marijuana or a product derived from marijuana is often used to decrease side effects in adults with cancer,” the hospital says. “There are several FDA-approved and commercially available anti-nausea medicines derived from marijuana (cannabinoids) that are frequently used by adults and children with cancer, and we often prescribe these medications.”
In an effort to stave off a legal wrangle, Riddle, her mother and Edson met with the doctors in charge of Landon’s care in October.

Source: CNN

 


5 Things to Work on to Reduce Anxiety in 2014

Battling anxiety is never easy. Those with generalized anxiety disorder may fight worrying and intrusive thoughts, feeling powerless to stop them. For people with panic disorder, the “not knowing” when panic will strike causes great apprehension and this often brings on a panic attack. No matter what type of anxiety you have, chances are you struggle each day to keep your anxiety at bay.

As we start a new year, many of us take a look at our lives and treatment to determine what is working and what is not. We take stock of where we are and where we want to be. You might start out the year creating a treatment plan or plan of action. You might want to reduce your medication or try a new type of therapy such as cognitive behavioral therapy. You might be considering alternative treatment such as supplements or hypnosis.

As you work to make positive changes in your life, the following are five areas you can work on throughout the year:

Take Care of Yourself

You know that taking care of yourself is important. Your physical health impacts your levels of anxiety. There are some steps you can take to make sure you are in the best possible physical health:

Eat right – While diet may not be a direct cause of anxiety, it can contribute to anxiety levels. When you are under a lot of stress, you may make unhealthy food choices, increasing your anxiety. Some ingredients, such as caffeine, increase feelings of irritability, making your stress levels increase. If you aren’t sure what foods are best, talk with your doctor or a nutritionist to create a balanced and healthy diet.

Get a good night’s sleep – This is obviously easier said than done. Worry and stress cause you to toss and turn all night and the lack of sleep increases feelings of stress and anxiety the next day. If you are having trouble sleeping, use some self-help tips to get to sleep or talk to your doctor about what you can do to get a good night’s sleep.

Exercise – Even small amounts of exercise have been found to reduce levels of anxiety and depression. If you don’t exercise, start by adding 10 minutes of exercise to your daily routine. Increase your exercise, as you feel comfortable. If you have any health issues, make sure to talk with your doctor about how much and the types of exercises that are safe for you.

For Women: Have Your Hormone Levels Tested

Throughout a woman’s life, hormonal fluctuations from PMS, pregnancy, peri-menopause and menopause affect stress levels and your ability to deal with stress. Track your anxiety symptoms to see if they coincide with your monthly cycle or if they are related to changing hormone levels. Let your doctor know if you are experiencing hot flashes, irregular cycles or night sweats as this may signal peri-menopause or menopause. Ask your doctor to test your hormone levels every few years.

Create Support Networks

Some people have built in support networks in the form of family and friends. Others feel they are alone in their battle against anxiety. It helps to have people you can turn to that understand what you are going through. If you don’t have people in your life that provide you with that support, take time this year to reach out to others. Check in your local paper for in-person support groups or contact your doctor or hospital to find out if there are support groups in your area. There are also plenty of online support groups and sites, such as this one, where you can talk to others with anxiety and feel understood and heard.

Learn Relaxation Skills

Strategies such as deep breathing, yoga and meditation help to increase feelings of wellbeing throughout the day, even when practiced once a day for 10 minutes. Learning these techniques also gives you a way to combat anxiety as soon as you feel it starting. When you feel panic beginning to rise, stop and breath deeply for 10 minutes. This often helps to stop or reduce your feelings of panic.

Become More Mindful

Mindfulness is living in the present moment. Practicing mindfulness helps reduce levels of anxiety and stress. This is because anxiety usually involves ruminating over things that have happened in the past or worrying about the future. When you learn to live in the moment, these worries go away. You focus only on what is going on around you. Practice mindfulness skills 10 minutes each morning and evening to increase your sense of calm.

While all of these areas can help reduce your anxiety, remember to choose one to start with. Trying to make changes in many different areas of your life all at once might only increase your anxiety levels. Choose one area and when you are comfortable with the progress you have made, add a second, and then third, etc.

Source: health central


Caffeine pill ‘could boost memory’

A US study has raised the possibility that we may one day rely on caffeine to boost memory as well as to wake up.
The research, published in Nature Neuroscience, tested the memories of 160 people over 24 hours.

It found those who took caffeine tablets, rather than dummy pills, fared better on the memory tests.

But experts warned people to remember caffeine could cause negative effects, such as jitteriness and anxiety.

The Johns Hopkins University study involved people who did not regularly eat or drink caffeinated products.

Saliva samples were taken, to check base levels of caffeine, then participants were asked to look at a series of images.

Five minutes later they were given either a 200-milligram caffeine tablet – equivalent to the caffeine in a large cup of coffee, according to the researchers – or a dummy pill.
Saliva samples were taken again one, three and 24 hours later.
The next day, both groups were also tested on their ability to recognise the previous day’s images.

Twenty-four hours may not sound like a long time, but it is in terms of memory studies. Most “forgetting” happens in the first few hours after learning something.
People were purposely shown a mixture of some of the initial tranche of images, some new – and some that were subtly different.

Being able to distinguish between similar, but not identical items, is called pattern separation and indicates a deeper level of memory retention.
More members of the caffeine group were able to correctly identify “similar” images, rather than wrongly saying they were the same.

Prof Michael Yassa, who led the study, said: “If we used a standard recognition memory task without these tricky similar items, we would have found no effect of caffeine.
“However, using these items requires the brain to make a more difficult discrimination – what we call pattern separation, which seems to be the process that is enhanced by caffeine in our case.”

Only a few previous studies have been carried out into caffeine’s effect on long-term memory, and those that have been done generally found little effect.
This study was different because people took the caffeine after, rather than before, they had seen and attempted to memorise the images.

The team now want to look at what happens in the hippocampus, the “memory centre” of the brain, so they can understand caffeine’s effect.
Moderation
But Prof Yassa said their findings do not mean people should rush out and drink lots of coffee, eat lots of chocolate – or take lots of caffeine pills.
“Everything in moderation. Our study suggests that 200mg of coffee is beneficial to those who do not regularly ingest caffeine.

If you take too much caffeine there could be negative consequences for the body”
End Quote Dr Ashok Jansari University of East London
“Keep in mind that if you’re a regular caffeine drinker this amount may change.”
He added: “There are of course health risks to be aware of.

“Caffeine can have side effects like jitteriness and anxiety in some people. The benefits have to be weighed against the risks.”

Dr Anders Sandberg from the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford, said: “The paper demonstrates that giving caffeine after seeing images does improve recognition of them 24 hours later, supporting the idea that it helps the brain consolidate the learning.

“However, there was no straight improvement in recognition memory thanks to caffeine. Rather, the effect was a small improvement in the ability to distinguish new images that looked like old, from the real old images.”

He added: “Caffeine may still be helpful for paying attention to what you are studying and hence help your encoding, but the best way of boosting consolidation is sleep – which might be a problem in this case, if you take the caffeine too close to bedtime.
Dr Ashok Jansari, from the University of East London’s school of psychology, said caffeine appeared to “sharpen” memory, rather than actually making it better.

He said: “I would definitely not advise that people start taking in as much caffeine as possible since in terms of memory anything above 200mg may not help much and if you take too much caffeine there could be negative consequences for the body.”

Source: BBC news


Secondhand Smoke Will Cause Your Child To Go Back To The Hospital

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Hospital statistics suggest that children exposed to secondhand smoke are significantly more likely to be readmitted within a year of being admitted for asthma, providing additional evidence that more efforts to limit exposure stand to alleviate a significant burden on public health.

Dr. Robert Kahn, a director at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and senior author of the new study, said in a press release that the alarming figures also illuminate a cost-effective way for pediatricians to fine-tune interventions and customize treatment for respiratory problems like asthma. By measuring levels of cotinine, the main breakdown product of nicotine, care providers will be able to spot a significant health factor in patients who may otherwise not report it.

“The ability to measure serum and salivary cotinine levels presents the possibility of an objective measure that can be obtained when a child is seen in the emergency department or in the hospital and may be used to predict future hospitalizations,” he explained. “Such a measure for exposure to tobacco smoke could be used to target specific interventions at caregivers of those children before discharge from the hospital. Several interventions, including parental counseling and contact with the primary care physician, could be adopted in clinical practice.”

Saliva Samples Don’t Lie
The study, which is published in the journal Pediatrics, is part of the Greater Cincinnati Asthma Risks Study — an exhaustive effort to map the causes of hospital readmission for pediatric asthma, particularly in minority and low-income children. Kahn and colleagues studied emergency room admission rates for children between ages 1 and 16 from August 2010 to October 2011. Readmission was defined as a return to the hospital with similar symptoms within a year of the first visit.

When the team compared readmission rates to the parent or caregiver’s own report of his or her tobacco use, there was no significant correlation between being exposed to secondhand smoke and returning to the hospital. However, when they analyzed cotinine content in saliva and blood samples, they found that children exposed to secondhand smoke were actually twice as likely to return. The findings thus show that this kind of tobacco exposure is indeed an important factor of pediatric asthma readmission. They also show that many parents and caregivers lie about their smoking habits, which is, arguably, an even larger concern.

Source: Medical daily


Importance of keratin treatment for hair revealed

Human hair is said to be as strong as the horn of a rhino, as both are made of the same protein, keratin.

Keratin is now being used not just to straighten the hair, but also fortify them.

Rod Anker, Creative Director of Monsoon Salon and Spa said that keratin does not make the hair straight, even though it may appear straight for some time but the objective of the treatment is to reduce frizz, curl and help the hair become more manageable.

He added that it washes out after sometime, therefore 3-5 months is typically the length of the time that it lasts.

During the treatment, hair is shampooed and blow dried, after which the solution is applied with a brush and combed through the hair, and allowed to absorb for about 20 minutes.

Hair is then blow dried once more and flat ironed and the oils of the treatment will set into the hair within a few hours – so static strands are normal at this time.

Anker also advised that the hair must be kept straight for 72 hours, without using any accessories, as it may disturb the process.

Source: Healcon


Genome of the Blood-Sucking Hookworm Decoded

Scientists have decoded the genome of a lowly, blood-sucking hookworm, an advance they say could lead to cures for hookworm infection, a painful condition afflicting more than 700 million people worldwide, mostly in underdeveloped countries.

But the worm’s unique relationship with the human immune system means the new findings may also provide insights into treating autoimmune diseases rampant in the United States, such as inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, asthma and allergies.

An international team of scientists focused on one of the two main hookworm species that affects humans, Necator americanus. These parasites start their lives in soil, and enter the human body through the foot, where they embark on a fantastic voyage through the blood vessels, to the heart, then into the lungs and trachea before being coughed up and swallowed and carried to their final home in the small intestine.

Once in the intestines, the centimeter-long worms can live for up to five years, mating and producing 10,000 eggs daily. They feed on blood, so much so that an infected person can become iron deficient through blood loss. For children, infection can stunt growth and cause severe cognitive deficits.

The decoded genome of Necator americanus, published today (Jan. 19) in the journal Nature Genetics, may reveal an Achilles heel — a pathway for a vaccine or drug that could either kill the worms, thwart their reproduction, or minimize the damage of their infestation.

“We now have a more complete picture of just how this worm invades the body, begins feeding on the blood, and successfully evades the host immune defenses,” said Dr. Makedonka Mitreva of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, senior author on the report, which included researchers in Australia, Singapore and Brazil.

Hookworm disease is endemic through much of the warm, rural world where people lack indoor plumbing, and is particularly common in poorer regions where children have no shoes to protect their feet. Hookworm disease was once prevalent in the southern United States, and was a major public health concern there as recently as the 1940s.

Hookworm infection is not deadly for most people, although newborns and pregnant women may die from infection. However, its reoccurring nature takes its toll in the form of chronic anemia and lassitude, leading to slow learning among children, low productivity among affected working adults, and a continuation of the cycle of poverty.

Deworming drugs are available, and are often relatively inexpensive, but their repeated and excessive use is leading to drug resistance in some regions.

Improved sanitation and use of shoes are proven to reduce infections, as was shown in the American rural south. Yet in desperately poor regions of the world, new drugs or a one-time vaccine would be a godsend.

Such treatments could arise from research on the decoded hookworm genome, Mitreva said.

The study of the hookworm could lead to treatments of other diseases as well.

One of the silver linings of chronic worm infection is that the vigorous workout it gives the immune system of an infected person is associated with a reduced risk of allergies and autoimmune conditions. Indeed, helminthic therapy —deliberately infecting a person with helminths, a group of parasites that include hookworms, tapeworms, and roundworms — recently has shown progress in the treatment of Crohn’s disease, a type of inflammatory bowel disease, as well as other immune-mediated diseases.

As part of decoding of the Necator americanus genome, the researchers identified a group of molecules that appears to protect the worm from detection by the host immune system. Hookworms evade notice by suppressing molecules that promote inflammation. This very same approach, the researchers wrote, may prove valuable in the treatment of autoimmune conditions.

“It is our hope that the new research can be used as a springboard, not just to control hookworm infections, but to identify anti-inflammatory molecules that have the potential to advance new therapies for autoimmune and allergic diseases,” Mitreva said.

Necator americanus and its hookworm cousin, Ancylostoma duodenale, also can infect dogs and cats. And under certain conditions, your pet’s hookworms could infect you, for example, if the pet feces in your backyard contain the worm’s eggs, and soil conditions are right.

Source: Yahoo news


Biocon to start selling breast cancer drug in India in February

Biocon Ltd said its generic version of Roche’s Herceptin breast cancer treatment would be available to patients in India from the first week of February.

Bangalore-based Biocon jointly developed biosimilar trastuzumab, which received the Indian drug regulator’s marketing approval in November, with U.S.-based Mylan Inc.

About 150,000 people are diagnosed with breast cancer every year in India, of which 25 percent are eligible for treatment with trastuzumab, Biocon said.

Roche decided not to pursue a patent application for its breast cancer drug Herceptin in India, paving the way for generic drugmakers to produce cheaper copies, known as biosimilars because they are not identical to the original drug.

Global sales for Herceptin were valued at about $6.4 billion in 2012, including about $21 million in India, Biocon said.

Source: Reuters


Tulsi enters US lab to fight cancer

The ubiquitous tulsi in your backyard may be a potent weapon against all kinds of cancer, so believes a team of researchers led by an Indian-origin scientist.

Tulsi or basil has eugenol that helps fight cancer. Now the research team is genetically modifying tulsi in the lab to produce the anti-cancerous compound in abundance.

“When you grind basil leaves, a compound called eugenol comes out. If I could make it produce eugenol in higher amounts, that basil plant would serve as a storehouse of that anti-cancerous compound,” said Chandrakanth Emani, assistant professor of plant molecular biology at Western Kentucky University-Owensboro (WKU-O) in the US.

In his lab at the Owensboro facility, Emani and his students are genetically engineering the basil to produce more eugenol, a compound in basil that, in his words, “has a very great pharmaceutical value because it’s shown to control breast cancer”.

“Eugenol, when they put it on a plate where there are tumour cells, it stopped growth of the tumour cells. That was a proof of concept experiment which was done a long time back,” said Emani, in a press release issued by the university.

The next phase in the research project would be to test the compound as an effective cancer treatment.

“We want to deal with treating cancer in a holistic way. We want to find one treatment that takes care of many cancers,” Emani added.

Tulsi’s therapeutic properties have been discussed at great length in ancient ayurveda texts in India.

Emani, who earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in India, has been at WKU-Owensboro since 2010.

Source: Business standard


Vitamin D Reduces Pain in People with Fibromyalgia

Taking vitamin D supplements may alleviate chronic pain in people with fibromyalgia who have low levels of the vitamin, according to a new study from Austria.

Patients with fibromyalgia syndrome suffer from chronic, body-wide muscle and joint pain, and fatigue. Previous studies have pointed to the possible role of vitamin D in the perception of chronic pain.

In the new study, researchers studied whether raising patients’ vitamin D levels to the recommended range would help with some of their symptoms. Thirty patients with fibromyalgia who also had low levels of vitamin D in their blood (below 32 nanograms per milliliter) were randomly assigned to take either oral vitamin D supplements, or a placebo, for 20 weeks.

Weeks after the treatment ended, patients who took the supplements were still experiencing reduced pain, while people who had taken placebo didn’t see a change in their pain level, according to the study, published today (Jan. 17) in the journal Pain.

“Vitamin D supplementation may be regarded as a relatively safe and economical treatment” for people with fibromyalgia,” said study researcher Dr. Florian Wepner, an orthopedist at the Orthopaedic Hospital Speising in Vienna.

However, the vitamin is not a cure for the condition, Wepner said. Fibromyalgia “cannot be explained by a vitamin D deficiency alone,” he said. And although the patients who took vitamin D saw reductions in their pain, there were no significant changes in their depression or anxiety symptoms.

Fibromyalgia affects about 2 percent of the U.S. population, and is more common in women than in men, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. No treatments are available that address all symptoms of the condition, but some symptoms may be alleviated by physical therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy and temporary drug therapy.

Vitamin D is present in very few foods, but is produced by the skin after exposure to ultraviolet rays from sunlight. It can be found in fortified foods, such as milk, orange juice and cereals as well. Too much vitamin D has its risks, too — it can cause damage to the heart and kidneys. [9 Good Sources of Disease-Fighter Vitamin D]

Low levels of vitamin D are especially common in patients with severe pain and fibromyalgia, the researchers said.

“Vitamin D levels should be monitored regularly in fibromyalgia patients, especially in the winter season, and raised appropriately,” Wepner said.

Source: live science