Vitamin D Deficiency Drives Opioid Addiction in Mice

Good news! Recommendable, long article in The Scientist, providing lots of details on the research! This seems to be still early and preliminary research!

More exposure to sunshine and some vitamin D supplement! Beware, too much sunshine exposure can possibly cause opioid addiction like symptoms!

Now, I, living in Arizona for several years and taking vitamin & mineral supplements almost every day for a long time, understand better why I am not prone to opioid addiction (just kidding)!

"... When exposed to UV radiation, keratinocyte and melanocyte cells in the outermost layer of skin upregulate a gene called POMC that produces a protein that is then further cleaved into a number of peptides, including hormones involved in producing melanin pigment. ... then found that POMC also promotes the production of endorphins, feel-good hormones that are chemically related to opioids ... activating the same receptors in the brain. Follow-up work ... found that chronic UV exposure caused mice to display behavior consistent with opioid addiction.  ...
hypothesized that UV radiation, vitamin D, and opioids might actually be linked through a shared reward pathway in the brain ..."

"... We used multiple pharmacologic approaches and genetic mouse models and found that deficiencies in VitD signaling amplify exogenous opioid responses that are normalized upon restoration of VitD signaling. Similarly, physiologic endogenous opioid analgesia and reward responses triggered by ultraviolet (UV) radiation are repressed by VitD signaling, suggesting that a feedback loop exists whereby VitD deficiency produces increased UV/endorphin-seeking behavior until VitD levels are restored by cutaneous VitD synthesis. This feedback may carry the evolutionary advantage of maximizing VitD synthesis. However, unlike UV exposure, exogenous opioid use is not followed by VitD synthesis (and its opioid suppressive effects), contributing to maladaptive addictive behavior."

Vitamin D Deficiency Drives Opioid Addiction in Mice | The Scientist Magazine® Mice with low vitamin D had exaggerated craving for opioids and felt the drugs’ effects more strongly—results supported in part by human medical records—suggesting that supplements should be explored as treatments for opioid use disorders.

Here is the link to the underlying research article:

Vitamin D deficiency exacerbates UV/endorphin and opioid addiction (open access)