Vitamin D occurs in nature in two forms: vitamin D3 and vitamin D2.<\/p>\n
While D3 is synthesised through sun\/UV exposure and obtained primarily from animal-based foods such as eggs, fish and organ meats and from supplements, D2 is derived from wild, cultivated or sun-dried mushrooms, UV-B-irradiated yeast, plant-based sources and some dietary supplements.<\/p>\n
For food fortification, both D2 and D3 are used. However, D2 is a more preferred fortificant in certain countries due to widespread vegetarianism or among people who follow a strict vegan diet.<\/p>\n
\u201cVitamin D plays an important role in modulating skeletal muscle mass, structure, and function, however, the differential impact of D2 and D3 remains inconclusive. In this study, we found that D3 has a greater impact than D2 in improving skeletal muscle size and function during both maintenance and recovery phase,\u201d the study said.<\/p>\n
While both forms are used in supplements and food fortification, evidence on whether the two forms have similar effects beyond bone health has remained limited.<\/p>\n
To study the differences between the two forms, the researchers used weaning male Sprague-Dawley rats and fed them diets containing vitamin D2, vitamin D3, a combination of both, or a vitamin D-deficient diet.<\/p>\n
The researchers assessed body composition, muscle strength, skeletal muscle structure and metabolism, and markers related to cardiac function.<\/p>\n
Dr Bharati Kulkarni, Director, ICMR-NIN, said, \u201cThe findings indicate that vitamin D3 may be more effective than vitamin D2 in maintaining and restoring skeletal muscle and cardiac functions.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said further studies are needed to establish the effects of the two forms of vitamin D on skeletal and extra-skeletal functions and their implications for supplementation and fortification programmes.<\/p>\n
According to the World Health Organisation-Food and Agriculture Organisation (WHO-FAO), micronutrient supplementation is the fastest method to improve the micronutrient status of populations, while fortification can be a cost-effective public health intervention with a sustained impact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vitamin D occurs in nature in two forms: vitamin D3 and vitamin D2. While D3 is synthesised through…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[134,4195,81286,111,139,556,69,179896,16584],"class_list":["post-588267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-health","tag-heart-health","tag-muscle-composition","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nutrition","tag-nz","tag-vitamin-d2","tag-vitamin-d3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}