Morning Report

Specify Vitamin D3 for Low Vitamin D

Arefa Cassoobhoy, MD, MPH

July 21, 2017

Hello. I'm Dr Arefa Cassoobhoy, a practicing internist, Medscape advisor, and senior medical director for WebMD. Welcome to Morning Report, our 1-minute news story for primary care.

Vitamin D₃vs Vitamin D₂ in Treating Low Vitamin D

A recent UK study^[1] provides further support for how we treat low vitamin D levels. Current US guidelines consider vitamins D₂and D₃ to be equivalent. But in a 12-week randomized controlled trial of vitamin D supplements, vitamin D₃ was twice as effective as vitamin D₂ in raising serum total 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels.

This suggests that if you use vitamin D₃ to correct low vitamin D levels, you won't need such high doses to reach your goal. You can get vitamin D₃ from fish, eggs, and fortified foods like milk and yogurt. It's also available in supplements.

These findings may influence future guidelines. For now, when you recommend vitamin D to your patients, consider specifying vitamin D₃.

For Medscape and WebMD, I'm Dr Arefa Cassoobhoy.

Follow Dr Cassoobhoy on Twitter at @ArefaMD

References

Any views expressed above are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of WebMD or Medscape.

Cite this: Specify Vitamin D3 for Low Vitamin D - Medscape - Jul 21, 2017.

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