For example, if you have 25 mcg of vitamin D as cholecalciferol and want to know how many IU that's equivalent to, you'd multiply:. Like vitamin A, vitamin E may be sold in multiple forms, and the conversion factor depends on which form you've encountered. The conversion factor for vitamin E as dl-Alpha-tocopherol is 0. So if you have 20 IU of vitamin E and want to know how many mg that is in each form, you'd divide by the appropriate conversion factor:.
Read more: Risks of Taking I. Janet Renee has over a decade of experience as a registered dietitian. Renee attended the University of California, Berkeley and holds an M. Lisa Maloney, CPT. Lisa is a retired personal trainer with more than 4, hours of hands-on experience working with a variety of clients, from sports teams to weight loss and post-rehab populations. She's also a professional writer. IU, or international units, is a type of measurement that standardizes the biological effect you can expect from a given supplement.
Video of the Day. Tip According to Merriam-Webster , the precise international unit or IU definition is "a quantity of a biologically active substance such as a vitamin that produces a particular biological effect agreed upon as an international standard. Why Use the IU Measurement? Recommended IU Vitamin Intake. So, 8, IU of vitamin A as retinol is equivalent to 2, mcg of retinol. So, 8, IU of vitamin A as beta-carotene is equivalent to 4, mcg of beta-carotene.
This information is crucial to picking the right vitamin supplements. IU stands for international unit. In other words, IU is a way of quantifying how much a vitamin or mineral should have an effect on your body. The IU measurement is an international standard that you can see all over the world.
So what does IU mean on vitamin labels? When it comes to vitamins and minerals, IU stands for the exact same thing: international unit. The IU of a vitamin tells you how much that vitamin is going to make a difference in your body. IU measures how specific forms of vitamins are going to react in your body differently. For example, vitamin D exists as cholecalciferol vitamin D3 and ergocalciferol vitamin D2.
Vitamin D3 cholecalciferol is going to have a different effect on the body than ergocalciferol will have. Likewise, vitamin A is available as retinol or beta-carotene, while vitamin E comes as alpha-tocopherol or dl-alpha-tocopherol. Each one of these fat-soluble vitamins has a different level of potency or biological activity in the body. Therefore, we have to measure vitamin levels with the standard unit of measurement, the IU. Vitamin D deficiency is common due to both lack of adequate sun exposure to the skin, and because vitamin D is present in very few food sources.
Deficiency is strongly linked to increased risk for a multitude of diseases, several of which have historically been shown to improve dramatically with either adequate UVB exposure to the skin, or to oral or topical supplementation with vitamin D. These diseases include asthma, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, rickets and tuberculosis. All patients in our hospital have been routinely screened on admission for vitamin D deficiency since July , and offered supplementation to either correct or prevent deficiency.
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