The benefits of Vitamin D are gaining some notoriety – more people are aware than Vitamin D deficiency is common and of the critical role Vitamin D plays in bone health. However, Vitamin D has a whole host of benefits.
A recent study on Rats found that Vitamin D may reduce muscle damage and inflammation. Rats were subjected to high intensity exercise and Vitamin D supplementation was found to reduce markers of muscle tissue damage as well as markers of inflammation. An abstract of the study can be found here. Key markers that were reduced in the Vitamin D supplementation group included Creatine Kinase and Interleukin-6.
The role of Vitamin D in muscle function is already known, but this recent research is an interesting insight into a potential role Vitamin D may play in reducing exercise induced muscle damage.
Choi, M., Park, H., Cho, S., & Lee, M. (2013) Vitamin D3 supplementation modulates inflammatory responses from the muscle damage induced by high-intensity exercise in SD rats. Cytokine. Online. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043466613001373
