Dr. Jason Winkelmann

04/03/2026

Part 6: If you’re dealing with chronic pain… “normal” vitamin D levels might not be enough.

Because there’s a difference between preventing disease… and actually supporting function.

Most lab reference ranges are designed to catch severe deficiency.

Not to optimize how your body—and nervous system—works.

For chronic pain, we’re looking for a level where your body can properly regulate inflammation, muscle function, and pain signaling.

That’s typically higher than what’s considered “normal.”

But levels are only part of the picture.

You also have to look at why vitamin D might be low.

Your body makes vitamin D from sunlight, so limited sun exposure, seasonal changes, or lifestyle can all play a role.

It also depends on cholesterol levels, since cholesterol is required to produce vitamin D.

And if you’re not getting enough from sun exposure, intake becomes more important—which can be more challenging depending on diet.

If supplementation is needed, absorption matters.

Vitamin D is fat-soluble, which means your body absorbs it better when it’s paired with fat.

And as levels increase, your body also absorbs more calcium, which needs to be properly directed into bones, not left circulating in the bloodstream.

This is why nutrient balance—not just intake—matters.

So again, vitamin D isn’t a cure.

But it’s one of the foundational inputs that determines how well everything else works.

And if that foundation is off, progress will always feel limited.

04/03/2026

Part 5: You should never jump to opioids for chronic pain… without first checking something much more basic.

Your vitamin D levels.

Because vitamin D directly affects your dopamine system.

Dopamine isn’t just about mood—it’s involved in pain processing, motivation, movement, and how your brain interprets signals from your body.

When dopamine is low, pain signals are amplified.

This is part of what drives central sensitization—where too much pain signal reaches the brain, and everything feels more intense than it should.

Vitamin D is required for proper dopamine production and recycling.

So if levels are low, that entire system becomes less efficient.

And here’s where it becomes even more important—Dopamine also influences how opioid medications work.

When dopamine function is supported:
• opioids tend to be more effective
• and less reinforcing from an addiction standpoint

So without that foundation, you’re not just missing effectiveness—you’re increasing risk.

Vitamin D isn’t a cure.

But it is a prerequisite for how your brain processes pain and responds to treatment.

And if that piece is off, everything built on top of it becomes less predictable.

sensitization

04/01/2026

Part 4: If your muscles feel tight, achy, and weak…it might not be because they’re overused.

It might be because they don’t have the resources to function properly.

Vitamin D plays a key role in how your muscles repair, produce energy, and regulate tension.

It helps turn immature muscle fibers into strong, functional ones—so your muscles can actually do their job.

It supports your mitochondria, which produce the energy your muscles need not just to contract…
but to relax.

And relaxation is actually more energy-dependent than contraction.

It also helps your body build and maintain muscle by supporting protein synthesis.

At the same time, it reduces oxidative stress—so your muscles can stay in a state of recovery instead of constant breakdown.

And it regulates calcium balance, which is critical for muscle contraction.

Too little or too much calcium can both increase pain and dysfunction.

Vitamin D helps keep that balance where it needs to be.

So when vitamin D is low, muscles don’t just feel weak—they stay tight, fatigued, and slow to recover.

This is why it can feel like your muscles are the problem… when it’s actually the environment they’re functioning in.

Vitamin D isn’t a cure.

But it’s part of the foundation that allows your muscles—and your treatments—to actually work.

03/31/2026

Part 3: Most chronic pain didn’t continue because something is still “damaged.”

It continued because the way your body processes pain changed.

In many cases, chronic pain is driven by neuroinflammation—
not ongoing tissue injury.

This is where vitamin D plays a foundational role.

Your brain has specialized cells whose job is to clean up inflammation and maintain a healthy environment.

When vitamin D is low, those cells don’t regulate inflammation effectively—and that inflammatory buildup amplifies pain signaling.

At the same time, vitamin D supports the “braking system” of your nervous system.

It helps increase inhibitory signals that prevent too much pain from reaching your brain.

Without that brake, pain signals become louder, more frequent, and harder to control.

It also supports your body’s natural opioid system—the internal chemicals that help reduce pain without medication.

When those are low, pain feels more intense than it should.

So vitamin D isn’t just about bones or general health.

It directly affects how your brain processes pain.

Not a cure—but a foundation.

Because if the nervous system environment stays inflamed, everything else you try will feel less effective.

paineducation nervoussystemhealth painmanagement chronicillness functionalmedicine brainhealth healtheducation patienteducation central sensitization

03/31/2026

Part 2: Most chronic pain patients are deficient in a really simple nutrient… and it’s quietly driving inflammation behind the scenes.

Not the kind of inflammation you see with swelling or injury—but low-grade, chronic inflammation that doesn’t show up on most labs or imaging.

Vitamin D helps regulate that process.

Not in one way—but across multiple systems that control inflammation.

It helps shift your body away from pro-inflammatory signaling and toward anti-inflammatory balance.

It calms key inflammatory pathways that don’t have direct pharmaceutical solutions.

It regulates nitric oxide—so you’re getting better blood flow without excess inflammatory stress.

It supports the same pathway targeted by NSAIDs—but without the downstream risks.

And it helps stabilize your gut environment, which directly influences inflammation, neurotransmitters, and pain sensitivity.

So yes—vitamin D can have a big impact.

But not because it’s a “quick fix.”

Because it supports the systems that control inflammation in the first place.

Chronic pain isn’t just about symptoms.

It’s about the environment those symptoms are happening in.

And if that environment stays inflammatory, nothing else works as well as it should.

This is why foundational inputs matter first.

paineducation guthealth nervoussystemhealth functionalmedicine painmanagement chronicillness healtheducation patienteducation rootcausehealth

03/30/2026

Part 1: If vitamin D “didn’t work” for your pain… It’s probably because you were expecting the wrong job from it.

Vitamin D doesn’t directly remove pain.

It changes the environment your pain is processed in.

Your pain experience depends on three things:
• how sensitive your pain receptors are
• how much inflammation is present
• how much “braking” your nervous system has

Vitamin D helps regulate all three.

It calms inflammatory signaling, supports inhibitory pathways in the nervous system, and stabilizes how pain signals move from your body to your brain.

So when vitamin D is low, pain isn’t just present—it’s amplified, prolonged, and harder to control. That’s why treatments can feel inconsistent or temporary.

Chronic pain is never one problem. It’s multiple systems interacting.

Vitamin D is one of the foundational inputs that helps those systems work together—so everything else you do has a better chance of working.

If you’ve tried treatments that didn’t stick, this is one of the first places to look.

inflammation chronicillnesssupport holistichealth painmanagement functionalmedicine nervoussystemhealth healtheducation patienteducation chronicpainrelief

03/28/2026

https://youtu.be/DJGKymdc2zI

Many popular pain relief tools like TENS units and cooling creams provide immediate relief but often fail to address the actual root cause of chronic pain. I...

03/27/2026

https://www.mytruehealthcenters.com/post/do-tens-units-pain-creams-and-ice-packs-actually-work-for-chronic-pain

Wondering if TENS units, pain creams, or ice packs help chronic pain? Discover what works, what doesn’t, and when to use each.

03/26/2026

Part 5: If you're living with chronic pain, one of the most powerful tools you can have is understanding why treatments work — and why they sometimes don’t.

Take something simple like heat and ice.

Cold therapy helps reduce pain in two main ways. First, it causes vasoconstriction, meaning blood vessels tighten and limit blood flow to the area. This can temporarily reduce inflammation and decrease how strongly pain signals are generated.
Cold also stimulates A-beta sensory fibers, the fastest nerves in your body. These fibers activate the spinal cord’s pain-filtering mechanism (the gate control theory), which blocks some pain signals from reaching the brain.

Heat works almost the opposite way. Heat increases blood flow, bringing oxygen and nutrients to tissues while helping muscles relax. This can feel especially helpful when muscles are tight or guarding around an injury.

But both heat and cold have limitations.

Too much cold can reduce circulation too much and even damage tissue. Too much heat can increase inflammation and make pain worse.

A simple approach many people find helpful is alternating:
10 minutes heat → brings fresh blood and nutrients
20 minutes cold → helps reduce excess inflammation

This cycle can improve circulation and help clear metabolic waste from irritated tissues.
Both heat and ice can help manage symptoms, but like most pain-relief tools, they don’t necessarily address the deeper causes of chronic pain.

Save this if you're trying to better understand how pain management tools actually work.

Do you tend to feel better with heat or cold?

03/25/2026

Part 4: Most people think pain-relieving creams work by “healing” the painful area.

That’s not actually what they do.

Most topical pain creams work through two nervous system mechanisms.

Capsaicin (the compound in chili peppers) works by overstimulating pain fibers — specifically A-delta and C fibers. It disrupts the nerve’s firing cycle so the nerve temporarily can’t reset and send another pain signal.

Other creams with menthol or camphor work differently. They stimulate fast A-beta sensory fibers, which activate the spinal cord’s pain filtering system (the gate control theory of pain) and reduce how much pain signal reaches the brain.

Both mechanisms can reduce pain temporarily.

But there’s an important limitation.

These creams don’t address the underlying cause of chronic pain — they only interfere with the way pain signals travel through the nervous system. They can take the edge off symptoms, but the relief usually fades once the cream wears off.

Save this if you're trying to understand how chronic pain actually works.

Have you tried creams like Biofreeze, Icy Hot, or capsaicin before?

03/24/2026

Part 3: Have you ever tried electrical stimulation devices like TENS or NeuroMD?

Did they help your pain?

Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) devices — like NeuroMD — work differently than TENS units. Instead of targeting sensory nerves, they stimulate motor neurons, which causes muscles to contract. In many ways, this mimics a workout for the targeted muscle group.

These devices can be especially helpful when someone cannot properly activate a muscle on their own, such as:
• after surgery
• during neurological rehabilitation
• when preventing muscle atrophy
• when retraining stabilizing muscles

For example, a device applied to the low back may repeatedly contract the stabilizing muscles to help rebuild neuromuscular control.

But there’s an important limitation.

In many chronic pain conditions, the primary driver is not muscle weakness or structural damage. The nervous system, inflammation, metabolic factors, or stress physiology often play a much larger role. So while strengthening muscles is rarely a bad idea, these devices may only help if muscle dysfunction is truly contributing to the pain.
If they help you, great.

If they don’t —, it’s a signal the underlying cause of your pain may lie somewhere else.

03/23/2026

Part 2: A TENS unit works by sending mild electrical stimulation through the skin to activate sensory nerves. But not all nerve fibers behave the same way.

The body has three main pain-related nerve fibers:
• A-beta fibers – detect vibration, touch, and pressure
• A-delta fibers – carry sharp, localized pain
• C fibers – carry dull, burning, aching pain commonly seen in chronic pain

These fibers differ in size and insulation (myelin), which determines how quickly they send signals to the spinal cord.

A-beta fibers are large and heavily myelinated, so they transmit signals the fastest.
TENS units stimulate these faster sensory fibers, which activate inhibitory neurons in the spinal cord and reduce how much pain signal passes through the “gate” to the brain.

The result: temporary pain relief.

However, the effect typically only lasts during treatment or shortly afterward.

TENS units can be a helpful tool for symptom relief, but they don’t correct the underlying drivers of chronic pain.

They’re best used as one piece of a broader treatment strategy.