SALT LAKE CITY — The debate over vitamin D3 and what it can or can't do in the body has taken a positive spin. Using biopsies of actual tissues samples, scientists in the UK have documented actual regeneration or repairs in muscle fibers, triggered by levels of vitamin D3.

The research reinforces what Utah researchers at The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital in Murray have already discovered in studies that have been ongoing for the past three years.

The results of those clinical trials intrigued athletes, like Jake Benson, who was injured last year.

"I had an ACL tear, and I also broke my ankle on the exact same leg," he said.

Jake is doing fine now, strengthening his muscles and hoping to play football at Utah State University next season, but it took about eight months of recovery in 2014 to bring him back to where he is now. This is a fairly routine pattern athletes follow, making the most of the time it takes to recover from an injury.

But what if you could wind the clock the other way?

In their experiments, TOSH researchers have been inducing muscles soreness and weakness in healthy volunteers. Using a special machine, the tough exercise regimen stresses the skeletal muscles in one leg.

The difference

For 28 days prior to the muscle damage, some volunteers took 4,000 units of vitamin D3 per day. The studies are double blind, meaning one group took the D3 while the other took a placebo. TOSH clinical researcher Tyler Barker said 36 months of data showed significant results.

"What we found in the group that received the vitamin D," he said, "was about an 8 percent increase in muscle strength from immediately after that muscle damage — through the first 24 hours."

What does that really mean?

Since the exercise regimen weakened and decreased muscle strength by about 20 percent, that 8 percent improvement shows the vitamin D3 is cutting recovery time almost in half. The change was measured not only within that first 24 hours, but several days after.

TOSH is in a unique position for research since the facility under the umbrella of Intermountain Healthcare serves as a gathering place for those with all kinds of athletic injuries, including those needing knee surgery. Though the extent and severity of damage or the level of vitamin D in the body prior to an injury all play a role in how well the supplement works or how much is needed, the evidence appears promising.

According to Barker, "The better your vitamin D levels are, the better you are to recover from an ACL injury and surgery."

Though Benson never participated in the TOSH trials, he now eagerly awaits what follow-up studies may mean for all athletes. If vitamin D is maintained at specified levels before and during competition, could that hasten recovery from future injuries?

"It's definitely worth a try," Benson said. "It sounds pretty good."

Related topics