Mel Walsh

Vitamin D: Action Hero Painkiller?

            Sounds silly----ordinary old vitamin D as a possible reliever of pain?  Why D is something you get just by baring skin in the sun or buying a cheap supplement at the grocery store.

            But if you have generalized muscle and bone pain, you may want to read what researchers at the Mayo Clinic have found: People with low vitamin D levels take nearly twice as much narcotic medication for pain as people whose vitamin D levels are normal. So far it’s just a correlation between the level of meds people require and their D levels, not a proven cause and effect.

But if a group of people who are low on D require almost twice as much morphine, fentanyl or oxycodone as those with a good D level, well, maybe they are in twice as much pain because they have half as much of what might turn out to be a natural pain preventer or reliever. That’s the theory that has grabbed the attention of medical investigators.

One of them, Dr. Michael Turner, the lead physician of the Mayo study, says: “Vitamin D is known to promote both bone and muscle strength. Conversely, deficiency is an under-recognized source of diffuse pain and impaired neuromuscular functioning. By recognizing it, physicians can significantly improve their patient’s life.“

Personally, I’d add that by bringing the vitamin D/pain theory to the attention of our docs, those plagued by mystery pain with no obvious cause may be on their way to overdue relief.

            On a YouTube video, Dr. Turner adds that people who are overweight seem prone to have pain that may be caused by low vitamin D. He says it’s because vitamin D likes to reside in fat. So when any of us have inviting layers of fat, the vitamin takes up residence in Fat City rather than circulating throughout the body the way it’s supposed to, bathing muscles and bones in a nice D bath.

Dr. Turner also adds that checking D levels requires just a simple inexpensive blood test that can be ordered by your doctor.

 (To see Dr. Turner online, just google: Mayo Pain Turner.)

Can This Happen to You?

            Yes, especially if you are older. Scientists say that about 50 to 60 percent of older people in North America do not have satisfactory vitamin D levels. We older people are not outdoors as much as we were when young. Then we only went inside when the sun set. Outside now, we cover up and use sunscreen, so the sun can’t get through to do it’s D magic on us.

Well, no doc has yet advocated skipping about nude in the sunshine---that would give dermatologists heartburn---but you may want to talk to your doc about vitamin D levels and supplements. 

The View from Inside Cataract Surgery

            If there is any part of the body we humans don’t want anyone to fool with, it’s our eyes. The women I know would rather get a pelvic exam than have anyone poke around in their peepers.

For them and others who fear cataract surgery, I have three words: Get over it! And then get on with attending to any loss of vision that results from a cataract.

What is a cataract?

            As older people age, the lens in their eyes can grow cloudy. The condition is known as having a cataract . As the lens grows more opaque, the process is called ripening. 

Early symptoms? Seeing halos around lights, sensitivity to glare and difficulty seeing at night. Later, an advanced cataract can seriously interfere with vision. In Third World countries, the cataracts can become so advanced, people are blinded and one can actually see the cream-colored lens in their eye---a complete clouding.

            Lucky for us we don’t live on a mountaintop in Nepal, but within calling distance of cataract surgeons, those miracle workers who painlessly extract the cloudy lens and just as painlessly insert a clear new one, cleaning up one’s vision and---I say from experience---upping the mood of older people who realize they don’t have to be the victims of age and nature when it comes to enduring cataracts and the resulting loss of vision.

 Lucky also that Medicare covers cataract operations for older people. People who are against “socialized” medicine such as Medicare may change their minds once they begin seeing again. (Also cheery: people can be more productive and stay independent longer if their vision is restored, to say nothing of what the surgery will do for the easier reading of this newspaper.)

Really, Should I Be Scared?

No. The operation itself takes about 20 or 30 minutes, about as long as all the insurance paperwork. The client is typically given a sedative. Ten milligrams of Valium certainly made me not have a care in the world.  A little device–again painless—holds your eye open so you don’t even have to worry about not blinking. Then you see a lot of bright light and some colors. That’s it.

After the Surgery

`I went out to breakfast with Cranky Pants after my surgery, but did nap and lie around like a pooped puppy the rest of the day. Clients are given two kinds of eye drops to use after surgery. As for vision after surgery, it may take a while for a blur to disappear. I, on the other hand, could see well right off the bat.

Docs don’t like to work on both eyes at once, so a second surgery is scheduled if there are cataracts in both eyes. But by then, you’ll be an old hand.

Or is it an old eye?

When Mom Gives Up On the Kitchen

 

            Tea and toast---that’s what my mom lived on for a while in her 80’s until the rest of us found out. Asked why she teetered on the edge of malnutrition when she had access to groceries, she said: Because it was easy.

            OK, being cooking-fatigued in my 70’s, I get that. Older women have cooked for 50 years and may want to retire after decades of looking deeply into a frying pan.

What I also get is that mom was not alone. Older people as a group are at risk of malnutrition. In Sweden, a study of 436 seniors between 75 and 80 found about 15% were at risk of malnutrition and that’s in a First World country with good services for seniors. Surprisingly, women were at higher risk than men---which may again indicate women get really sick of slinging the family hash. Everybody gets to retire but the family cook.

Women who lived alone were at the highest risk and I understand that too.  Many of us will keep on cooking for the other person in the house, but when we live alone, it doesn’t seem worth the trouble to shop, cook and clean-up for one. Heck, it’s just me for dinner.

And so we have tea and toast. Or maybe cornflakes for dinner.

In the Swedish study (May issue of the Journal of Clinical Nursing), people who were in poor health tended to take the worst culinary care of themselves. Why? It’s hard for anyone with arthritis to even open a can or jar. It’s difficult for the vision-impaired to measure ingredients.

So What Are the Solutions?

There are community answers that are big---group lunch programs and home-delivered meals. And there are community answers that are small---sharing the meal you just cooked with the older person next door. 

As for formal meal programs, most areas in the US have a group lunch program and some kind of Meals on Wheels home delivery service. To find the meal programs in your area, call Eldercare Locator at 800-677-1116.  In Grass Valley, one phone number will yield information about the group lunches at the High Noon Café and home-delivered meals: 530-273-4961.

On the personal side, offer to bring non-driving neighbors to the grocery store. Or ask if you can pick up a few things for them. Share the too many strawberries you just bought. Leave meals in the freezer when you visit the oldsters in the family. Introduce them to meal programs and write down the phone numbers for group lunches and home-delivery.

And tell them a truth about contemporary life. These programs are not a depression-era breadline thing. Forget the stereotype of a soup kitchen. Today’s nutrition programs are edible thanks for what older people have given the rest of us over a lifetime.

 

Sometimes I talk to myself in public. Some would call this insanity, but I call it writing a column.

 Columns are the way I lecture myself and of course, you too. Together we learn to up our Vitamin D, check out our blood pressure and note the salt content of prepared foods such as pizza before we scarf down a day’s salt limit in one encounter with pepperoni.

So here’s another of those self-lectures---this one about how to stay independent, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed into the years ahead.

 First, the bad news from a study at the University of Pittsburgh.  Women are living longer than men, but some of them aren’t living better. Women who gained weight over the years and women with arthritis are more likely than other women to be disabled in their later years.

Translation: Being disabled can mean needing help from our children, the ones we say we don’t want to bother in our old age. Being disabled can also mean we miss a lot of family fun. Example: If we are obese to the waddle point, we are not going to take nature walks our grandkids. And forget travel. On most trips, we have to be able to get up and keep up. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to stay home sitting in my decliner, watching Golden Girl re-runs while I miss out on seeing the rest of the world.

Trying for Better As Well As Longer

The experts at the University of Pittsburgh expect things to get worse unless we get smarter. Obesity rates are still rising which will translate into rising disability rates. This trend will have an enormous impact on the quality of life of older women.  So can you say expensive in-home care? Can you say nursing home?

To be fair, skilled nursing facilities can be a godsend and despite the stereotype, some of them are well-run. (Aside: check out the turnover rate of the facility’s staff. If they are in and out fast, you should be too. However, if they remain on the job, it may mean they and their patients are well-treated.)  Still, a nursing home is not the upbeat mental picture most of us want to have about our old age.

So let me ask: What’s the five-star movie in your head about being 60, 70. 80, 90 and 100?

Mine involves a much thinner woman, one whose joints are not aggravated by the weight she puts on them. She is folk dancing on the terrace of Nepenthe in Big Sur.  She is waltzing at the weddings of great grand kids. She is still writing columns hoping to preach herself into good behavior.

And I hope you dance along with me.