Vitamin D3 or D2?

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20 August 2007 Health Freedom Resources VItamin D3 or D2 What's the Difference? We received this email from a friend and wanted to pass it on to you. There is a lot of

information recently in the news about the vital necessity of Vitamin D to prevent a score of major degenerative diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, MS, osteoprosis, even obesity. Research indicates higher blood levels are necessary for health so we probably need more than the 400 I.U. previously recommended, but some people can easily tolerate and respond to more, while others find it toxic even at low levels. So you need to know before you go. We plan to do a major newsletter about this issue with facts from the research, and exposing some misconceptions about what you need to do. For now, we want you to know this from Dr. , M.D. as there is indeed a big difference in effectiveness between Vitamin D3, the active human form, and Vitamin D2: "I am deeply disturbed by the state of affairs in heart disease. Hospitals, drug companies, medical device companies, and physicians all profit enormously from heart disease. Here I expose the startling

array of scams that exist. I discuss how people can recognize them and potentially avoid them. "It happened yet again. "Mel came to the office. CT heart scan score: 799--quite high, enough to pose a real threat very soon. Thus, no time to lose in instituting an effective prevention program. "We do the usual--identify the six causes of coronary plaque; begin fish oil, show him how to correct his plaque causes. You've heard it before. "Vitamin D blood level in March: 17 ng/ml--severe deficiency. "Vitamin D replacement needs to be a part of his coronary plaque control program. So I suggested 6000 units per day of an oil-based preparation of vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol). Conveniently, there is a Vitamin Shoppe outlet across the street from my office. I just point and tell people to go across the street. "Mel did just that. However, he also informed his primary care physician about his vitamin D deficiency.

His primary physician promptly told him he needed to take a prescription form of vitamin D and not to bother with just a supplement. "So Mel stopped his vitamin D capsules and started taking vitamin D prescription "medication." Mel figured, naturally, that if it requires a prescription, it must be better. Unfortunately, Mel and his doctor failed to pass the change in strategy onto us. "So, four months later, Mel got repeat vitamin D blood level: 19 ng/ml. "I've seen this too many times. The prescription form of vitamin D is nonsense. There's hardly any effect on blood levels of vitamin D3 at all. The body's conversion of this non-human form of D is extremely inefficient and therefore virtually useless. While it raises the blood level of vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) and thereby total D (D3 + D2), there is negligible effect on the real human and active form, D3. "How and why this preparation got through the FDA process to obtain

approval as a drug is beyond me, though I am not a defender of FDA practices and politics. "This notion that "if it's a prescription, it must be better" is a fiction perpetuated by the drug industry. The same principle gets tossed around with fish oil, hormones like estrogens and testosterone, and others. Often, the principal difference between prescription and non-prescription is patent protection. Patent protection provides profit protection. Selling a product without patent protection can be risky business. It's certainly less profitable. "As always, getting at the truth is sometimes the most difficult job of all. Prescription vitamin D belongs in the garbage. Vitamin D capsules (gelcaps) do the job and do it well, over and over, with reliable, consistent and substantial rises in blood levels of 25-OH-vitamin D3. "And nobody--nobody--pays me to say this. I say it because I believe it's true." ~ Dr. ,

M.D.

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