Are All Vitamin D Supplements Are the Same?

All Vitamin D Supplements Are the Same, Right? Uhm, Not Quite.

by Greg Marshall

Dr Erin LeBlanc and her colleagues at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research discovered that not only does the potency of vitamin D supplements vary from brand to brand, it varies from bottle to bottle and even from tablet to tablet from the same bottle¹. Dr LeBlanc and colleagues, in collaboration with Oregon Health and Science University, conducted a clinical trial investigating the role of vitamin D in controlling menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, mood and musculoskeletal complaints².

The experimental design of clinical trials dictates that all subjects who are randomized to the group taking the intervention being studied should be taking the exact same dose for the duration of the study. Any results obtained from an undisciplined study would be complete gibberish. LeBlanc’s research team discovered that the potency of vitamin D varied from as little as 9 percent to as much as 149 percent of the stated dose. This was observed regardless of whether the tablets were sourced from a compounding pharmacy or purchased over the counter.

Lack of industry regulation

The dietary supplement industry in general has been enjoying a long period of freedom from any form of government regulation. While pharmaceutical companies are required to jump through one costly regulatory hoop after another, vitamin-makers answer to no one in terms of either safety or efficacy of their products. The picture worsens when compounding pharmacies get involved.

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