Dr. Holick: We know that if you are vitamin D deficient, that you will steal the calcium out of your bones. So that is what would cause you to have osteopenia, low bone density, and osteoporosis. But if you are vitamin D deficient it also prevents the calcium from coming into the bones. And as a result there’s nothing more than a Jell-O matrix that’s left behind, and often it will get hydrated just like Jell-O and water.
And as a result, these women complain of throbbing, aching bone pain, and doctors can’t understand it because when you press on the bone almost anywhere, people will often wince in pain and that’s because what you are doing is you are pressing down, there’s no bone. It’s simply Jell-O and so as a result you are causing very significant discomfort.
So people when they are sitting, for example, say they have achiness in their hips, or if they are lying in bed, they say they have achiness in their bones, and it’s very hard sometimes for physicians to understand how is that possible, but that’s exactly what it’s caused by.