Vitamin D3 is one of the most useful nutritional tools we have at our disposal for improving overall health.

It is important for the regulation of various minerals including phosphorus and calcium, bone metabolism and maintaining neuromuscular function. Vitamin D3 is the only vitamin the body can manufacture from sunlight (UVB). Although we have plenty of sun in Spain, there are a lot of people deficient in life-sustaining bone building and immune modulating 1,25-dihydroxy Vitamin D3.

For more than a century, scientists have recognized that Vitamin D3 is involved in bone health and reduces the risk of fractures to a significant degree. When reading the latest research and medical literature, it becomes clear that Vitamin D3 plays a very important role in general health, for example it can potentiate: depression, back pain, bone health, cognitive enhancement and various autoimmune diseases.

Therefore, it is important to have your Vitamin D level checked once in a while. You can have a bloodtest in our centre (laboratorium cost 25 euros).

Despite of the word being truly fancy, this pathology is not. Polyneuropathy is damage or disease affecting peripheral nerves with the characteristic that it affects the patients on both sides of their body, instead of just one side.

The symptoms feature weakness, numbness, a burning pain and tickling or prickling (as if a limb is "falling asleep"). It may be temporary or chronic, depending on the wide variety of causes.

Two of the most common causes in western society are chemotherapy and alcoholism.

Chemotherapy is one of the most frequent cancer treatments, it uses chemical substances which fight against infected cells but with plenty of side effects. Between 30 and 40% of patients who undergo this treatment will end up with a progressive, enduring and often irreversible condition which is a chemotherapy-induced polyneuropathy. In this case the disease disrupts patients from living a normal, healthy life.

Diabetes, malnutrition or kidney failure can also cause a polyneuropathy.

With our society believing that alcohol is almost harmless, many alcoholics and ex-alcoholics have developed significant polyneuropathies which, if not treated, may only worsen in the future.

 

If you believe you are suffering from any of the symptoms or want to have your nerves checked, we now offer electromyography and electroneurography from our neurologist Dr Manio Maravich.