Why Vitamin D3 Always Beats D2 For Acne

There’s no doubt that vitamin D is one of the greatest supplements an acne-clearing enthusiast could take. Vitamin D lowers insulin levels (good for oily skin), controls pro-inflammatory immune system chemicals, and from my experience, leads to a glowing skin tone with no apparent mechanism to explain why.

It’s particularly useful given that nowadays, we’re typically stuck inside at the weekends watching TV. Many of us spend our working hours in a dark office where the only faint glimmer of sunlight comes through a small window which blocks all UVB wavelengths.

Over the past 20 years, vitamin D’s benefits have finally left the pages of technical scientific journals and entered the minds of the public at large. Big corporations are now adding vitamin D to their cereals and milk, possibly to get more caring reputations, possibly because the government is forcing them to, or possibly because they really do care about our health. 

However, what hasn’t become common knowledge yet is that vitamin D3 is the best form, and that vitamin D2, the most commonly prescribed, is completely useless.

 

D2 is poorly converted and absorbed

If you don’t have time to read the full article, then heed this message right now. Vitamin D2 is a far weaker supplement for acne than D3, and you’ll be wasting your money if you take it. 

Both D2 (ergocalciferol) and D3 (cholecalciferol) remain on supplement store shelves to this day, but D2 is less than two thirds as potent at improving health, according to one study.

First of all, you need to know the difference. You probably know that humans and animals create virtually all their vitamin D through sunlight exposure, generated in a natural reaction when UVB radiation strikes the skin. Vitamin D2 is also generated by sunlight, but this time, it’s generated by fungi and algae.

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Today, synthetic vitamin D2 is manufactured in a laboratory, by exposing fungal strains to sunlight. This is widely sold as a supplemental form called Drisdol, but this fungi form is not what our bodies are equipped to use. For instance, vitamin D3 isn’t the precise form we manufacture during sunlight exposure either; that honour goes to 25-hydroxy-vitamin D. However, it is far closer than D2. While both supplemental forms must be converted to bioactive vitamin D by the kidneys, vitamin D3’s conversion is up to 500% more efficient.

Vitamin D2 also has a significantly shorter shelf life, and its metabolites bind to vitamin D protein receptors very weakly, making it harder to exert its acne-clearing effects. Scientists even believe that vitamin D2 depletes D3 levels in the bloodstream somehow, making it a net negative for acne.

Nowadays, vitamin D2 is most famous among the public for aiding calcium absorption, and preventing osteoporosis. Many older women are switching from isolated calcium to a calcium combo with vitamin D, but only D3 has the avalanche of excellent studies for preventing bone fractures. D2 has nothing.

It’s the same for heart disease and brain health. D2 is consistently less powerful; in one study, D3 decreased death rates by 6% in elderly women, while D2 increased them by 2%.

As for that nuisance known as acne, the great studies on lowering insulin, extinguishing pro-inflammatory chemicals, and increasing serotonin, were all performed on vitamin D3. That’s ignoring the 7-10 direct acne studies which used D3.

Basically, there’s no evidence that vitamin D2 even helps acne, so avoid it at all costs!

 

The D2 origin story

If vitamin D2 is so inferior, then why do many family doctors default towards it in their prescriptions? Simply because the medical establishment is sluggish to change its long established practices in the face of new evidence.

D2 gained prominence because it was the first to be discovered, in 1932 compared to 1937 for D3. Industrial mass production developed faster for D2 as well, by irradiating plants and fungi with ultraviolet light.

Scientists sold this process to the pharmaceutical industry, and combined with evidence connecting higher bloodstream levels to lower disease rates, the vitamin D industry was born. Vitamin D was sold en masse to doctors or directly to the public. Vitamin D2 was the favourite form.

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The first doubts crept in around 1940 when vitamin D2 performed ineffectively in studies on rickets, AKA bone decay from extreme vitamin D deficiency. The old fashioned remedy cod liver oil, which contains natural D3, vitamin A, and omega 3s in abundance and is still popular among the paleo crowd today, was far more effective.

There was a glimmer of hope, but fresh studies on rickets were more mixed. In 1949, the World Health Organisation stood up and declared that vitamin D2 and D3 had only “minimal” differences. Hence, D2 remained the default for many years. Until now!

 

D3 is slowly but surely spreading

As of 2016, D2 remains the dominant form prescribed by doctors in the US, especially the brand name Drisdol. However, times may be changing, as more evidence trickles in and the public slowly realises the truth.

The food industry is realising as well; go to a supermarket, check the milk and cereal, and it’ll be more likely to read “vitamin D3” than ever.

It turns out that while D2 and D3 are similarly effective against rickets, D3 is superior for most other illnesses, whether it’s heart disease, diabetes, depression, or acne. 

D2 may improve your skin slightly, but its conversion is so poor that you’re not getting good value for money.

The kidneys perform the bulk of the conversion, and there, vitamin D3 is 500% better converted than D2. Other cells in the body can convert vitamin D, but they stash it for themselves. Only the kidneys distribute vitamin D throughout the bloodstream where it’s needed to clear acne.

 

Studies – vitamin D2 is inferior for acne

If you need more convincing that D3 is superior for acne, or simply enjoy reading scientific research, then feast your eyes on the studies below. 

Firstly, we have a big meta-analysis from 2011 which analysed 50 randomized control trials, with a total of 94,000 participants. 32 of the studies (with 74,000 participants) tested vitamin D3 while 12 (18,000 participants) tested vitamin D2.

Overall, there was a 6% relative reduction in the risk of mortality when taking vitamin D3, but a 2% increase from D2 supplements, among elderly women. The participants supplemented for a median average of two years, providing plenty of time for the benefits to exert themselves.

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Quote: “when the different forms of vitamin D were assessed separately, only vitamin D3 decreased mortality significantly whereas vitamin D2 did not”.

Secondly, we have perhaps the clearest and strongest study available. A scientist called Dr Laura A.G. Armas rounded up 30 Nebraskan men aged between 20 and 61, who were all generally healthy, but exposed to sunlight for just 10 hours per week. The men also drank relatively little milk (milk contains added vitamin D), at below 16 ounces per day.

10 men received one 50,000IU tablet of vitamin D2 per week, another 10 received one 50,000IU tablet of vitamin D3, while the final ten took 10 tablets containing 5000IU of vitamin D3. It lasted 30 days and the vitamin D data was adjusted to take into account weather variations.

At first, vitamin D2 and vitamin D3 were virtually equal, achieving a 7-8% rise in bloodstream vitamin D by day 2 and a 11-12% rise by day 3.

But after the fifth day, something went wrong. Vitamin D3 continued to trundle onwards to success, achieving a 16% increase by day 6. However, vitamin D2 decreased levels back to 7% above the day 0 baseline.

Thereafter, the trend only amplified; by day 12, vitamin D3 was 17% above baseline while D2 was 2% above. By day 21, D2 had sent vitamin D levels into free fall, down to 4% below baseline. When the final results came in after 30 days, bloodstream vitamin D levels were 15% above baseline for D3 tablets, but 5% below baseline for D2 tablets.

In other words, vitamin D2 can actually WORSEN your acne. Somehow, vitamin D2 works well for about 4 days, but then triggers a sudden depletion. This fits with a theory that’s gaining traction recently, that vitamin D2 is so poorly utilised that it actually damages vitamin D3 metabolism.

Finally, a 2010 trial gathered 33 participants, and gave them either 50,000IU of vitamin D2 or D3 weekly, in capsule form.

After 12 weeks, the D3 was 87% more effective at raising blood vitamin D levels than D2. Furthermore, D3 led to 2-3 times greater long term storage of vitamin D in fat cells. That’s important for acne because unlike vitamin C, for instance, your body can keep a reserve supply of vitamin D for weeks and even months.

The scientists gave a firm conclusion: “given its greater potency and lower cost, D3 should be the preferred treatment option when correcting vitamin D deficiency”.

 

Conclusion – the best vitamin D supplement

Are you convinced that you’re vulnerable to vitamin D deficiency? Maybe you’re an office worker, live in a high latitude country like Scotland, live in a polluted city, or are old (which decreases your natural production). If so, never make the mistake of taking D2! 

My experiences with vitamin D have always been stellar, but by sheer luck, the first supplement I ever took when I was a newbie to natural health happened to be D3. Unlike zinc, which had previously reduced my small, red pimples nicely, vitamin D gave me a glowing and radiant skin tone. Currently, it is winter, so I take 3500IU per day; one 2500IU D3 pill plus a bonus 1000IU in my multivitamin.

For a natural vitamin D3 supplement, free from chemical fillers and binders, my top recommendation is Natural Factors Vitamin D3.

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Thanks for reading!