By Michael Mooney, Updated December, 2012
Like the human study that showed less anxiety for drug addicts when given high doses of omega-3 (fish oil) fats, this study indicated that optimal-dose vitamin D3 supplementation might reduce decreases in dopamine and serotonin after methamphetamine is used and thus, potentially reduce the depression that causes more craving for the drug.
Vitamin D's active metabolite, calcitriol, has potent effects on dopamine and serotonin metabolism while protecting against damage to neurons (brain nerve cells). Rats were given 16 times the dose of methamphetamine (speed) that human substance abusers typically use, which amounted to about 400 mg four times a day. While a radical increase in body temperature that occurs with methamphetamine use that might cause damage to neurons in the brain still happened, the neurotoxic damage to the dopamine and serotonin-generating cells in the brain was reduced significantly.
Caveat: This study was conducted using rats, not humans, so one of my medical doctor friends criticized me for promoting the idea it might work in humans before it is proven. To him and others with that perspective I say: In its optimal dosage range, Vitamin D is not lethal or toxic like prescription drugs or some over-the-counter drugs can be. Medical doctors are taught to make decisions with prudence guiding them so they are expected to be skeptical of this kind of progressive hypothesis until there are human studies confirming an effect.
However, in this case, the risk-to-benefit potential greatly favors my going out on a limb with this hypothesis.
As has occurred in the past, I'd wager that if someone does a study based on my hypothesis, my position will be validated. This happened when I published a hypothesis that Nizoral (ketoconazole) shampoo might reduce hair loss and allow a bit of hair re-growth in my column in Muscle Media magazine in 1996. A few years later, several studies were published that supported my hypothesis. (1-6)
If people who suffer from drug abuse have to wait for a more specific study to prove this hypothesis, many, many people will continue to suffer. Why wait for a study to prove something like this if the information might help even one person have more quality of life, being more in control of their life and not subject to manic-compulsive activity like drug abuse?
Additionally, while there is a potential for some toxicity with vitamin D at extremely high doses, doses needed to produce this benefit are logically without toxicity or deleterious effects. In fact, vitamin D at non-toxic doses improves various measures of overall health with some reductions in risks of cancers.
The question is what dose might help? Several of the world authorities who study vitamin D say that most adults will need over 2,000 IU per day and up to 10,000 IU per day to get optimal vitamin D blood levels.
I take 11,000 IU per day to prevent cancers based on blood tests showing that the vitamin D blood test called "OH-vitamin D" does not rise to the most ideal "anti-cancer" range between 40 and 60 ng/mL unless I take this dosage.
I suggest that after you've been taking a specific dose of vitamin D3 for two months that you ask your doctor for a "25-OH vitamin D" blood test and work with your doctor to find the best dose for you. Everyone is different, so it is best to get the blood test and work with a qualified medical doctor. The blood test is also available without having to go to a doctor from the non-profit vitamin D research group at VitaminDCouncil.org for $65.
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Cass, WA, et al. Calcitriol protects against the dopamine and serotonin-depleting effects of neurotoxic doses of methamphetamine. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2006 Aug;1074:261-71.
Abstract:
Repeated methamphetamine (METH) administration to animals can result in long-lasting decreases in brain dopamine (DA) and serotonin (5-HT) content. Calcitriol, the active metabolite of vitamin D, has potent effects on brain cells, both in vitro and in vivo, including the ability to up-regulate trophic factors and protect against various lesions. The present experiments were designed to examine the ability of calcitriol to protect against METH-induced reductions in striatal and nucleus accumbens levels of DA [dopamine] and 5-HT [serotonin]. Male Fischer-344 rats were administered vehicle or calcitriol (1 microg/kg, s.c.) once a day for eight consecutive days. After the seventh day of treatment the animals were given METH (5 mg/kg, s.c.) or saline four times in 1 day at 2-h intervals. Seven days later the striata and accumbens were harvested from the animals for high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis of monoamines and metabolites. In animals treated with vehicle and METH, there were significant reductions in DA, 5-HT, and their metabolites in both the striatum and accumbens. In animals treated with calcitriol and METH, the magnitude of the METH-induced reductions in DA, 5-HT, and metabolites was substantially and significantly attenuated. The calcitriol treatments did not reduce the hyperthermia associated with multiple injections of METH, indicating that the neuroprotective effects of calcitriol are not due to the prevention of increases in body temperature. These results suggest that calcitriol can provide significant protection against the DA- and 5-HT-depleting effects of neurotoxic doses of METH.
Michael Mooney
www.michaelmooney.net
1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16997533
2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14729013
3. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12227482
4. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9669136
5. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15863844
6. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18498517