Vitamin D2

Vitamin d2 is another form of the basic vitamin d. Vitamin d2 is a white crystalline compound and gets produced by ultraviolet irradiation of ergosterol. Other names for vitamin d2 are calciferol or ergocalciferol. Vitamin d2 is an essential nutrient for the human body. It helps with maintaining plasma calcium and phosphate levels by facilitating their absorption in the small intestine. The provitamin of vitamin d2 egosterol is present in lots of plants and is turned with UV light into a suitable product. Another way to derive vitamin d2 is from yeast. Simple sugars such as glucose get synthesized.

Vitamin d2 supplements are often used for vitamin d2 deficiencies. Vitamin d2 deficiencies sometimes occur because of wrong or missing nutrition, intestinal absorption problems or lack of exposure to sunlight. In the United States and Western Europe vitamin d2 deficiencies are rare and only cannot be found in healthy adults with a good nutritional intake and sunlight exposure.

Vitamin d2 and d3 are generally considered to have the same effects in the human body. But newer vitamin d2 studies suggest that high doses of vitamin d2 & d3 have different results. Studies supplemented vitamin d2 50,000 iu to different human objects and did the same with vitamin d3 as a treatment and found vitamin d3 to be more effective. So far the only available version though on the US market is calciferol, a form of vitamin d2.

Vegans do sometimes miss out on certain vitamins needed by the body because they only exist in certain animal products. Therefore some research has been done in order to protect vegan health. A vitamin d2 from sweet potatoes study actually showed that vitamin d2 is less bioavailable than vitamin d3. It actually only gets absorbed 60 percent less than vitamin d3. The question if vitamin d2 or d3 should be taken is not as much a question for vegans as for others since vitamin d3 is of animal origin only and vitamin d2 is of plant origin only

For osteoporosis though ergocalciferol is better than most other forms of vitamin d for the following reasons: it is inexpensive and readily available on the Us market and even persons with malabsorption syndromes will still absorb 60 percent of vitamin d2.

As with many vitamin supplements ergocalciferol can be bought online. It is mostly available as a prescription drug and therefore somewhat safer to be bought online than any other supplement since dosage and the exact type is specified from the doctor.