Vitamin D Supplementation

Vitamin D is very important to human health.  It plays a crucial role in disease prevention and maintaining optimal health. It also has a role in calcium homeostasis and metabolism.  Vitamin D first became famous when it was realized that it would prevent rickets in children and since 1933 has been added to milk in this country.  Rickets is still a problem in many countries because breast milk is low in vitamin D, and exposure to the sun may be limited by social customs and climatic conditions.  Low vitamin D levels are a worldwide problem in the elderly and common in children and some adults.

Supplementation of vitamin D is controversial, and some estimates place levels of insufficient vitamin D in up to 85 percent of people.  In a study of Hawaiian surfers, 60 percent were deficient in vitamin D. Most people are unware they have a deficiency.  Supplemental vitamin D comes in two forms, ergocalciferol (vitamin D2) and cholecalciferol (vitamin D3).  The body must convert either form into a more active form.  Magnesium is required for the activation of vitamin D.  In people who are magnesium deficient, vitamin D is stored in its inactive form.    

Some in the medical world feel that D3 is converted 500 percent faster than D2.  D2 is prescribed by most physicians and must be obtained by prescription.  It will be converted into D3 and then the more active form in the body.  D3 is available without a prescription and as a nutritional supplement.  Some people do not absorb the tablet form of vitamin D, but will absorb the liquid form.  There are physicians who believe by taking vitamin D the demand for vitamin K2 is increased, and that for every 1,000 IUs of Vitamin D you will benefit from about 100 to 200 micrograms of vitamin K2.