Anyone know the difference between Vitamin D2 vs. D3

Hi All,

I was diagnosed with low Vitamin D  (15) and put on 50,000 IU weekly.  I went to a nutritionist who told me the Dr. put me on the wrong vitamin D.  The precription is D2 which is from plants and will only raise my level 5 pts. She said I need D3 which is made by the sun, but I can take D drops by Carleson, 10,000 IU per day plus go tanning (3 minutes on the lowest bed) to help get my numbers up.  Has anyone else heard there was a difference in the type of D you take?  Whom do I believe, the Dr or the holistic nutritionist?  I don't want to become toxic so I didn't take my D2 this week.  Also I have not gone tanning yet, I don't have a car and I depend on others to take me places. It's hard to not just get up and go where I want anymore.  

I digress, as usual.  Anyway does anyone know about the difference between the two D's?

Lori

[lcarter6]

That's interesting!  I didn't know you could get vitamin D3 in the USA.  I am taking vitamin D3-analog (which may be different????) in pill form from Denmark.  I have to buy it outside the USA -- we spend part of the year in Panama, where there is access to medications from all over the world, so my Panamanian doctor prescribes it, along with the Actonel I have been taking, for significant osteoporosis.  It's been used for years in Europe very sucessfully for regenerating bone.  But, in the USA it's not allowed yet.  Wonder why?  

[Loribop]

I don't know why. I bought D drops by Carlson at the healthfood store.

LL

[romie24]

I just read yourquestion, so if you haven't hadananswer yet here's mine.  Vitamin D3 is the way to go..according to my MD and all the nutrition books I have read.  It certainly isn't hard to find;  you shold be able to get it in any health food store.  

[FurballsMom]

Okay, this is familiar territory for me.  The megadose prescription D2 that you're talking about is not enough on its own.  I took it once a week every week.  It is safe to take more vitamin D than you think it is.  I had such severe deficiency that it was almost non-existent.  At the same time, I took 2,000 iu of natural vitamin D3 everyday.  I found an affordable source at swansonvitamins.com.  After nearly a year of taking this much vitamin D, my levels finally reached low normal.  I still take high doses of vitamin D3.

A good source of information on vitamin D is at mercola.com.  Use his search engine and type in the key words "vitamin D", which will take you to a page of articles on vitamin D.  In some of his articles her recommends signing up to get the newsletters from the Vitamin D Council.  I believe these two sources will help clarify any confusion about your vitamin D supplementation.  In addition to vitamin D3, the Vitamin D Council had a recent newsletter about making sure to include magnesium with it in order for the body to be able to use the vitamin D.  However, if you have diarrhea a lot, you should be careful about the magnesium, because magnesium is known to cause diarrhea, so you should discuss the magnesium issue with your GI doctor.

Mostly, it's hard to overdose on vitamin D, especially for anyone who is already having trouble with regulating their vitamin D levels.