Hypothesis: Oral vitamin D supplementation causes downregulation of skin synthesis of Vitamin D, resulting in fibromyalgia and related conditions

In the 1990s in college, I had a roommate who suffered greatly from chronic fatigue syndrome. Since then I have periodically considered what might have contributed to her symptoms. I recall that she drank a lot of milk, and most US milk is supplemented (by law) with vitamin D supplements. 

The human body usually synthesizes (i.e., makes) Vitamin D in the skin, but it can also absorb it from the intestines. The principle of homeostasis indicates that when there is a high oral intake of Vitamin D, the body is consequently likely to decrease the expression and/or activity in the skin of enzymes that synthesize Vitamin D. The problem with this happening is that those same proteins and enzymes might have other important functions besides producing Vitamin D.

I have a hypothesis that the widespread intestinally-delivered supplementation with vitamin D, mostly via fortified milk and multivitamins, is depressing Vitamin-D-synthesizing processes in the skin such as to contribute to an increase in chronic fatigue syndrome ("CFS") and fibromyalgia (which often occurs along with CFS). 

Fibromyalgia is noted for pain and sensitivity all over the body, including specifically in skin tissue. 

Fibromyalgia consists of widespread pain with similarities to neuropathic pain in clinical findings, pathophysiology, and neuropharmacology. Pain is the predominant symptom and allodynia [i.e., "pain resulting from a stimulus (such as a light touch of the skin) which would not normally provoke pain"] and hyperalgesia [i.e., "increased sensitivity to pain or enhanced intensity of pain sensation"] are common signs. Extreme fatigue, impaired cognition and nonrestorative sleep difficulties coexist in addition to other somatic symptoms. Research including neuroimaging investigations shows abnormalities in neurotransmitters and an abnormal response to pain.

"Fibromyalgia." Janice E Sumpton & Dwight E Moulin, Handb Clin Neurol 2014;119:513-27. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-7020-4086-3.00033-3; online at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24365316.

A 2010 study in England found that people were less likely to report feeling pain on days with a lot of sunshine, which supports that something involved in the skin's response to sunlight is connected to pain levels. (See "Whether the weather influences pain? Results from the EpiFunD study in North West England," found online at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20430867.) Vitamin D is repeatedly found to be connected to fibromyalgia in ways that are unclear. (See "Vitamin D in Fibromyalgia: A Causative or Confounding Biological Interplay?" online at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27271665.)

Further, enzymes that synthesize Vitamin D require the element magnesium. (See "Magnesium status and supplementation influence vitamin D status and metabolism: results from a randomized trial" online at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6693398.) In a majority of studies looking at trials of magnesium for treating fibromyalgia symptoms, magnesium did significantly improve symptoms. (See "Magnesium and Fibromyalgia: A Literature Review" online at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8371721.) 

I think the evidence is strong enough to investigate this possible hypothesis further. Homeostasis is an important principle in biology, and it has not received enough attention in this world of fortified foods and daily multivitamins.

Terms with unexpected meanings, part 8

Here are some more dictionary entries I found interesting in the past couple of weeks:

* "hr factor" = "an agglutinogen present in Rh-negative blood and apparently reciprocally related to the Rh factor." I have Rh-negative blood and have read a fair amount about why it is advisable for pregnant woman with that kind of blood to get the Rhogam shot, and I never saw anything about an "hr factor"; the articles all talked only about the absence of the Rh factor. What is this? I'd like to know what is in my blood.

* "huarizo" = "the offspring of a male llama and a female alpaca." I didn't know they could cross-breed. I'd like to see the result of such a match someday.

* "haustorium" = "a food-absorbing outgrowth of a hypha, stem, or other plant organ: as a: a projection from various fungous hyphae b: a cell of the embryo sac or embryo in some seed plants c: an ougrowth of the stem or root in a parasitic seed plant (as dodder)." Part b appears most interesting because it seems to have disappeared from modern dictionary definitions of haustorium even though "cells of embryo sac[s] or embryo[s]" are not the same thing at all as parts a and c. I'm currently looking at soybeans in connection with weight loss, and I was already realizing that a specific part of dormant soybeans is involved; perhaps it is the haustorium I'm looking for! (Interestingly, the word that led me to look up haustorium was "dodder," which is on page 666 of this dictionary and has a weird font thing with haustoria where it is partially faded.)

* "dod": one of the given definitions of "dod" is "[euphemism for God]--used as a mild oath esp. as an intensive with a verb."

* "devote": one of the given definitions of "devote" is "to consign to the powers of evil: give over to destruction: DAMN, DOOM." Have you ever seen "to devote" used in such a way? This is frankly bizarre. The dictionary doesn't even include an example of it being used this way.

* "sonochemistry" = "a branch of chemistry that deals with the chemical effects of ultrasound." I'd like to see studies on this, as well as on the chemical effects of infrasound, too, especially in connection with their biochemical effects on humans.

* "cauma" = "[Gr. kauma, heat] in medicine, burning heat; febrile heat. [Rare.]" This one is from a smaller 1977 dictionary, and my much larger 1971 dictionary (both are Webster dictionaries) doesn't have it. What is going on? Greek is a very old language, and a word like this is unlikely to have come into the English language from Greek medical terminology within a space of six years in modern times. Is it connected to the idea of a medical "coma"?

* "catacoustics" = "[cata-, and Gr. akoustikos, from akouein, to hear.] that part of the science of acoustics which treats of reflected sounds; cataphonics." Again, this word definition is from a smaller 1977 dictionary, and my much larger 1971 dictionary doesn't have it; the larger dictionary doesn't have "cataphonics" either. What is going on with this word? Surely in a world saturated with multimedia presentations and digital music, catacoustics should be a very important field.

That's all for today.

Terms with unexpected meanings, part 7

Reading a dictionary is like taking a lot of mini-courses in various subjects, except you never know quite what you're going to find, while selecting mini-courses has more predictable results. Here are some of the interesting words I've come across in the past few weeks:

* "pachypasa" = "a genus of lasiocampid moths including a Syrian silkworm (P. otus) reared by the Greeks and Romans for its silk until the introduction of the Chinese silkworm in A.D. 550." The Greeks and the Romans made their own silk from their own silkworms? I never learned about that in history. Interesting!

* "thimble": one of the definitions for thimble in my big 1971 dictionary is "a thimble-shaped cup or shell (as of filter paper or fritted glass) for containing material to be extracted by solvents esp. in chemical analysis." "Frit" is defined as "to prepare (materials for glass) by heat: FUSE." Now that I'm looking at heated silicon dioxide (i.e., glass) compounds in connection with weight loss (see my last post), I'm curious about what kind of fritted glass has been used throughout history in food and beverage preparation.

* "thigh": the etymology of thigh in my dictionary is "ME, thigh, thie, fr. OE thēoh, thīoh; akin to OHG dioh thigh, ON thjō buttock, Mir tōn buttocks, OSlav tukû fat, Skt tavīti he is strong--more at THUMB." Doesn't it seem random to throw in the last few strained-but-supposedly-possible word origins and then to send the reader off to the word "thumb"? This caught my eye because the Bible talks about patriarchs making oaths by putting their hand "under thighs" (see for example Genesis 24:2), but maybe it really is talking about handshakes where thumbs are held in specific unusual ways instead of actually putting hands under thighs (doesn't that last seem like a really awkward thing to do in societies that might not have had underwear?).

* "third world": the 1971 Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged adds the term "third world" to the dictionary with two definitions: "1: a group of nations esp. in Africa and Asia that are not aligned with either the Communist or the non-Communist blocs 2: an aggregate of minority groups within a larger predominant culture." That second definition is a new, much more inclusive one than what I thought the "third world" definition meant, especially because "predominant" means "one that predominates," and "predominate" can mean to rule, hold numerical advantage over, or even--in times gone by--"to have determining astrological influence." 

* "theopneust" = "given by inspiration of the Spirit of God: divinely inspired." But the etymology description points the reader to the word "SNEEZE." Given the lack of respect for religious people shown elsewhere in this particular dictionary, this looks like an intentional wrong reference.

* "canchalagua" = "[Sp, alter of cachanglaguen, modif. of Araucan cachanlahuen, fr. cachan pain in the side + lahuen medicinal herb]: a bitter tonic herb of the genus Centaurium (esp. C. chilensis of Chile and C. venustum of California)." This appears to be talking about an herb used formerly to treat internal pain. Now that even low-dose aspirin has been connected to stomach bleeding, we should be looking at other natural sources such as this herb that might be helpful.