Vitamin D3: Which is Better, Gelcaps or Tablets?
I have been getting good sleep improvement from Vitamin D3 (early in the morning) using tablets. However, Tara Grant and Paul have gotten good results with gelcaps. Apparently both formulations work. Which is better?
This story, from a woman I’ll call JMW, suggests gelcaps are better:
Sorting out all the nutrition for [celiac disease], about 3 years ago, [my two boys and I] started taking D3 – 2000 IU of Solgar in capsule form. That first winter, NO ONE had seasonal affective disorder [= depression]. I had had it since I was 21, can’t remember further back than that, the youngest had had it since he was 4 yrs old, can’t remember the others.
We unintentionally proved it needs to be in capsules (i.e. oil) rather than tablets when I mistakenly repeat-ordered with tablets, and everyone got worse until I got the capsules again.
January 25th, 2012 at 9:12 am
Hi Seth! You might find this article interesting: http://suppversity.blogspot.com/2011/12/fat-d-ficiency-do-you-really-need-more.html
The title is: “A Fat D-Ficiency! Do You Really Need More Vitamin D or Simply More Fatty Foods? Study Shows, Even 50.000 IU of Vitamin D3 Useless, When You Ingest It Without Fat.”
January 25th, 2012 at 9:34 am
Just curious, Dr. Roberts. I remember before you stating that your sleep is extremely good: a significant improvement was going from 99.3% to 99.7%, or something like that. Why are you so interested in further improvements to your sleep ability (this Vitamin D discovery)?
January 25th, 2012 at 10:22 am
I’ve had good luck with liquid Vitamin D. It makes the dosing less precise, but I like it better than swallowing a gelcap.
January 25th, 2012 at 10:24 am
What about liquid drops, taken sublingually?
January 25th, 2012 at 10:29 am
There are other reasons to consume Vitamin D, including the health of your teeth. See Dr. Guyenet’s article here. Specifically see this picture:
( here’s a link to the picture if gt; img lt; tags are not allowed). Basically, vitamin D drastically reduces cavities and my wife is anecdotal evidence. She used to have at least one cavity *every* time she went to the dentist , and after I put her on 2,000 I.U. of vitamin D per day, her last two visits to the dentist have been cavity free.
– Ross
January 25th, 2012 at 10:51 am
I am interested in this discovery for several reasons: 1. It is surprising. Vitamin D has been heavily studied but this has been missed. 2. It is practical. Lots of people have sleep problems. 3. I was involved in the discovery. 4. My sleep has room for improvement. 5. Maybe I can take Vitamin D3 in place of one-legged standing. That would be much easier.
January 25th, 2012 at 11:00 am
I’m confused. I was under the impression that Vitamin D basically completely ineffective without oil. Is there any reason you are taking tablets, instead of gelcaps, in first place?
Although in your case you may be digesting oil near enough to taking the tablet D3 to metabolize it properly.
January 25th, 2012 at 11:06 am
Because they were what I had lying around. Perhaps the tiny amount of cream I would have with tea around the same time made a difference.
January 25th, 2012 at 12:32 pm
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January 25th, 2012 at 12:48 pm
>Because they were what I had lying around. Perhaps the tiny amount of cream I would have with tea around the same time made a difference.
I typically have cream with the coffee I consume shortly after my Vit D supplement in the morning, too. Hm.
January 25th, 2012 at 4:09 pm
Cardiologist Dr William Davis (http://www.trackyourplaque.com/blog/) treats all his patient with Vitamin D. The end goal of his vitamin D treatment is to raise individuals vitamin D blood level to 60 – 80 NG/ML. He has found that using anything OTHER than gelcaps does not work to raise his patient’s vitamin D levels
Peace
Joe E O
January 25th, 2012 at 5:41 pm
I think that I’ve mentioned here before that the cardiologist Dr. William Davis has discussed this multiple times on his blog. He tests the blood Vitamin D level of all his patients, and has found with many patients that Vitamin D tablets often barely budge their serum levels. After a lot of bad experiences, he started insisting that all his patients take D in gelcaps or oil drops.
January 26th, 2012 at 7:11 am
A couple of years ago, in the winter, I was taking 4000 IU vit D in tablets daily. A blood test showed that My levels were at the top end of what my doctor considered safe, nearing toxicity levels. Therefore, in my case, the tablets were effective at increasing my vit D levels. I always take them with a meal, so perhaps I ingest enough fat along with the tablets.
January 26th, 2012 at 8:06 pm
No need for a pill. Fermented cod liver oil.
January 30th, 2012 at 6:25 pm
Thanks. This is very interesting.
I have run across one other person talking about a sleep-vitamin D connection: Dr. Stasha Gominak who has a YouTube video up on this topic. She found that her patient’s sleep got better when they were supplementing D3 and got their 25(OH)D3 blood levels up into a certain range (I think it was 50-80 ng/ml). She claimed that she’d seen sleep quality get worse again when that range got overshot (~90 ng/ml or over).