This subject along with many others are quite common.
Supplements 101: Vitamin D
It’s a family of nutrients that shares similarities in chemical structure. While both types help you meet your vitamin D requirements, they differ in a few important ways.
What Are The Main Differences Between Vitamin D And D3?
Rather, your choices will be vitamin D2 (What is vitamin D2?).
Or vitamin D3 (What is vitamin D3?). Generally, when one mentions vitamin D, the implied selection is vitamin D2. For the purpose of this article, when vitamin D is mentioned, it will refer to vitamin D2.
The names can be confusing, because many times, patients go into the pharmacy looking for vitamin D and are surprised that there is a D2 and a D3. Vitamin D (D2) comes from plant sources, such as wild mushrooms, as well as fortified foods, such as milk or cereal products. Vitamin D is less expensive to produce and therefore is the form most commonly found in fortified food products.
Vitamin D3 mainly comes from animal sources such as fish oil, fatty fish, liver, and egg yolks. Its strength is also measured in international units. All forms of vitamin D3 are available over-the-counter.
Main Differences Between Vitamin D And D3 Vitamin D2 Vitamin D3 Drug Class Vitamin D Analog Vitamin D Analog Brand/Generic Status Brand And Generic Available Brand And Generic Available What Is The Generic Name?
What Is The Brand Name?
Ergocalciferol or vitamin D2
Drisdol, Calcidol, Calciferol Cholecalciferol, Vitamin D, Or Vitamin D3
Decara, Dialyvite D3 Max What Form(S) Does The Drug Come In?
Oral Tablets And Capsules, Oral Liquid Solution Oral Tablets And Capsules, Oral Liquid Solution, Sublingual Liquid Solution What Is The Standard Dosage?
1,000 Iu To 2,000 Iu Daily For Vitamin D Supplementation 1,000 Iu To 2,000 Iu Daily For Vitamin D Supplementation How Long Is The Typical Treatment?
Infants, children, adolescents, and adults Infants, children, adolescents, and adults.
Bottom Line.
After all, this nutrient is essential to our immune system. * Like me, I know many of you are vitamin D fans.
Sadly, That Vitamin D Love (And Money) Can Go To Waste If You’Re Not Taking The Right Form Of Vitamin D. D3 Or D2?
That is the question. At the Olympics recently, two phenomenal high jumpers from Qatar and Italy shared a heartwarming conclusion to their final event (where they jumped almost 8 feet in the air!). By choosing to share the Olympic gold rather than have a jump-off.
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lack of clarity in the literature as to whether there is a definitive difference between the effects of vitamins D2 and D3 in the raising of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D]. Design: The ISI Web of Knowledge (January 1966 to July 2011) database was searched electronically for all relevant studies in adults that directly compared vitamin D3 with vitamin D2. Results: A meta-analysis of RCTs indicated that supplementation with vitamin D3 had a significant and positive effect in the raising of serum 25(OH)D concentrations compared with the effect of vitamin D2 (P = 0.001).