Supplement evidence

149 / 575Vitamin form

Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol)

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The short answer

Corrects vitamin D deficiency and generally raises 25(OH)D more efficiently than D2.

Evidence and scope: Established for an indicated use
This status does not grade the ingredient for every goal, outcome, or person.
Important limitation: The benefit is tied to the stated indication, dose, and population; it is not evidence of broader disease prevention or longer life.
Before deciding: Key concern: Avoid unsupervised high-dose stacking with calcium; kidney disease, granulomatous disease, and thiazides require review.

01 / PRACTICAL GUIDE

Dose, absorption, and combinations

These are indication-specific reference or studied ranges—not a personalized prescription. Start with the objective, then check the form, label, medicines, and health conditions.

Reference range by objective

Meeting usual needs600–800 IU/day for usual needs

Reference or studied range—not a personalized prescription. The product label or a clinician may specify a different dose.

Dose source ↗

Confirmed deficiencyLab- and clinician-directed; often higher and time-limited

Reference or studied range—not a personalized prescription. The product label or a clinician may specify a different dose.

Dose source ↗

More is not automatically better. A clinician or product label may specify a different amount.

Absorption / solubilityFat-soluble / lipid-based

Fat-soluble or lipid-based. Absorption generally improves with a meal containing fat.

How it is commonly taken

Take with a fat-containing meal.

Do not combine casually

Avoid unsupervised high-dose stacking with calcium; kidney disease, granulomatous disease, and thiazides require review.

Dose and use source ↗

Dose and use links lead to primary or official source material. Search links are discovery tools, not proof that every returned paper applies.

02 / EVIDENCE

What the research says

We keep supportive, mixed, negative, safety, and contextual findings together. The headline never replaces the underlying papers.

1research papers in this ledger

0unique primary studies represented

—unique participants represented

These are audited counts for this JIVANA collection, not search-result totals. Participants are counted once when multiple papers use the same cohort; review papers are not added again to participant totals.

Open the research timelineResearch timeline

Entries are ordered by publication year. A study period appears only when the source reports it.

2019

Does not support the tested claimPMID 30415629 · NCT01169259

Vitamin D3 for primary prevention of cancer and cardiovascular disease in VITAL

Vitamin D3 did not reduce the two primary outcomes of invasive cancer or major cardiovascular events, and did not reduce all-cause mortality. These results address routine primary prevention in generally healthy older adults, not treatment of documented vitamin D deficiency or bone disease.

Published: 2019Duration: Median 5.3 years

Study design and methods

Design: Nationwide randomized, placebo-controlled 2×2 factorial trial
Population: 25,871 US men aged 50 years or older and women aged 55 years or older in a primary-prevention cohort
Intervention: Vitamin D3 2,000 IU daily versus placebo, with factorial marine omega-3 assignment
Outcome: Invasive cancer, major cardiovascular events, site-specific cancers, mortality, and adverse events

Funding or conflict note: The trial was funded by the US National Institutes of Health and other sources; the article reports the vitamin D comparison from the factorial trial.

Open research record ↗

Unscreened discovery appendix—not evidence1,000 candidate publicationsSearch run: Aug 21, 2026

Complete for the displayed PubMed query at the search timestamp—not for all databases or every possible synonym. Candidates can be irrelevant, duplicate the same study, or report negative findings. They are never summed as evidence or participants until screened.

03 / SOURCES

Start with the source material

Official evidence overviewPubMed bounded human-evidence search Live PubMed discovery searchNational Library of Medicine

The live search is for discovery only. Search-result counts change and are not included in the audited totals above.

Recent PubMed discovery recordsDirect links to the first 12 records returned by the reproducible search. These are discovery candidates—not reviewed summaries or a count of supportive findings.

04 / EXPERT CONTEXT

Expert context—not evidence

Expert positions are dated context—not scientific evidence. They never raise the evidence status or become consensus by repetition.

No direct, source-verified endorsement is currently recorded. Research authorship or discussion alone is not treated as endorsement.