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Sara M. Pietras, MD; Busayo K. Obayan, BA; Mona H. Cai, BS, MPH; Michael F. Holick, PhD, MD

Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(19):1806-1808.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

The worldwide prevalence of vitamin D deficiency is striking, and more than 40% of the population may be vitamin D deficient.¹ Despite this, to our knowledge there are no long-term studies of the safety and efficacy of giving pharmacologic doses of vitamin D (50 000 IU of ergocalciferol [vitamin D₂]) to treat and prevent vitamin D deficiency. Furthermore, there is a concern that ergocalciferol, the only pharmaceutical vitamin D available in the United States, may be less effective than cholecalciferol (vitamin D₃).² In our clinic, which specializes in metabolic bone disease, we routinely treat vitamin D deficiency (serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels <20 ng/mL [to convert to nanomoles per liter, multiply by 2.496]) with 50 000 IU of ergocalciferol once a week for 8 weeks.^{1, 3} The efficacy of this regimen has been . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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