Vitamin D and Headaches: Too Little? Too much?

I came across a headline this morning about the link between vitamin D deficiency and headaches, so I did a quick Google search on the subject.  The first thing that caught my eye were two recent articles with opposite titles.

The first, an article from Health.com titled “Why a Vitamin D Deficiency May Explain Your Chronic Headaches”, was about a Finnish study that found that men with the lowest levels of vitamin D were more than twice as likely to have headaches at least once a week, compared to those with the highest levels.  Chronic headaches were only reported by 9.6% of the men.  But those men, on average, had lower vitamin D levels (38.3 nmol/L) than those without headaches (43.9 nmol/L).  The research could only establish an association between the two health conditions, not a cause-and-effect relationship.

Our study, being one of the largest studies that have investigated the issue, supports the view that vitamin D may be beneficial in headache prevention.

The second, an article from MiamiHeadache.com titled “Can Too Much Vitamin D Cause Headaches?”, suggest that symptoms (including headaches) arising from vitamin D consumption are more likely to happen if you have diabetes, kidney disease, or other conditions.  Toxicity is associated with massive, long-term doses: 50,000 international units (IU) per day for months.

So the takeaway is… Vitamin D supplements may help your headaches, but too much of it may lead to more headaches.

Read the full articles at http://www.health.com/headaches-and-migraines/vitamin-d-deficiency-chronic-headaches and http://www.miamiheadache.com/Miami-Headache-Blog/vitamin-d-headaches.