How Vit D got him to the hospital?
A British man's overdose on vitamin D is a cautionary tale for people who are considering adding supplements to their lives, according to a paper published recently in the journal BMJ Case Reports.
After a visit with a private nutritionist, the man began taking more than 20 over-the-counter supplements every day, including 50,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D three times a day. That's a dose hundreds of times higher than standard nutritional recommendations.
Within a month, the man began suffering from nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea and repeated bouts of vomiting, along with cramping in the legs and ringing in the ears.
The man, whose name was not disclosed, heard about the supplements from a radio talk show and contacted the nutritionist on the show afterward, said Dr. Alamin Alkundi, a coauthor of the report and an endocrinologist at William Harvey hospital in East Kent in the UK, who treated the man.
"Registration by regulator is not compulsory for nutritionists in the UK and their title is not protected, so anybody can practice as a nutritionist," Alkundi said in an email.
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Unlike water-soluble vitamins, which the body can easily eliminate, vitamin D and its cousins A, E and K are stored in the liver and fat cells of the body until they are needed. Consuming well over the daily recommended dose can build up to toxic levels.
The man in the case study was taking a daily dose of 150,000 IU of vitamin D, which was "375 times the recommended amount," Alkundi said. The UK National Health Service typically recommends 400 IU of vitamin D a day for children over age 1 and adults.
The man stopped taking the supplements when his symptoms began, but his condition didn't improve. By the time he was referred to the hospital two months later, he had lost almost 13 kg and his kidneys were in trouble. Tests showed he had overdosed on vitamin D, a condition called hypervitaminosis D.
Even for those who are usually well informed, it can be hard to find reliable information about the safe use and potential risks of dietary supplements.
As part of its function to monitor supplement safety, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tracks reports of illness, injury, or reactions from supplements. And supplement makers are required to report serious harmful effects to the FDA. Early numbers are reported on the FDA website. Recent FDA information shows that the number of reports has continued to climb each calendar year:
2010: 1,009 reports of dietary supplement adverse events
2011: 2,047 reports of dietary supplement adverse events
2012: 2,844 reports of dietary supplement adverse events
Exposures to supplements (such as vitamins, herbs, protein powders, and botanicals) accounted for more than 100,000 calls to US poison control centers in 2013. Of these calls, more than 8,000 people were reportedly treated in health care facilities. More than 1000 cases were reported to poison control centers as having moderate to severe outcomes. This did not include electrolyte and mineral supplements, which accounted for another 2,500 people treated in health facilities, with 350 moderate to severe reactions and 2 deaths reported to poison control centers.
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/05/health/vitamin-d-toxicity-wellness/index.html
