• Yes, y'all tin take too much vitamin D, which causes vitamin D toxicity.
  • Signs yous had too much vitamin D include vomiting, weakness, and nausea.
  • To treat vitamin D toxicity, stop taking vitamin D supplements or consuming vitamin d-rich foods.
  • Visit Insider'southward Health Reference library for more advice.

Vitamin D toxicity, besides known every bit hypervitaminosis D, is a rare condition that occurs when a person has consumed as well much vitamin D.

Vitamin D is a nutrient that helps the body absorb and regulate calcium in the blood. And then when a person has too much, it can pb to dangerously loftier levels of claret calcium, a condition called hypercalcemia.

Vitamin D toxicity is rare and may often go unrecognized, according to Catharine Ross, a professor of diet and physiology and head of Nutritional Sciences at Pennsylvania State Academy. Here's how to spot vitamin D toxicity and what to do about it.

Symptoms and diagnosis

Symptoms of vitamin D toxicity are directly related to excess calcium in the blood, which can cause nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, frequent urination, weakness, and bone pain.

Over time, the actress calcium tin can grade deposits in the arteries and soft tissue instead of in the bones. Ultimately, this can cause kidney stones and may contribute to middle damage.

"This is the major impact of acute vitamin D toxicity, and information technology may be occurring slowly in people taking high vitamin D for years," says Paul Cost, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Molecular Biology at University of California San Diego.

To diagnose vitamin D toxicity, a physician will administer a blood examination that will bear witness how much calcium is in the blood. If a person has vitamin D toxicity, so calcium levels will be abnormally high.

Ross notes that taking consistently high levels of vitamin D over long periods of time may not cause apparent toxicity in the brusque term, but may contribute to a higher risk of common symptoms further down the line.

Treatment

If a person shows signs of vitamin D toxicity, the first stride toward treating it is to immediately stop taking any and all vitamin D and calcium supplements, besides every bit reducing intake of foods rich in vitamin D like salmon and cod liver oil.

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Doctors may also administer medications to help the body metabolize less vitamin D and pass more calcium.

You may as well be prescribed bone resorption inhibitors. These medications are usually used to care for osteoporosis because they prevent the release of calcium into the bloodstream. However, Toll'southward research has shown that bone resorption inhibitors may also prevent acute episodes of vitamin D toxicity.

These inhibitors, he says, could be useful to forestall calcification of soft tissue in patients who, for health reasons, can't reduce their intake of vitamin D.

For well-nigh people, though, the answer volition be to just end your supplements, which will allow your torso to process the excess calcium and, over weeks or months, return to normal.

Daily recommended value

Vitamin D is a nutrient that helps your body absorb and regulate calcium. Therefore,  it plays an essential role in helping you lot grow and maintain bone tissue throughout life.

Our bodies get vitamin D in two means: through sun exposure and from certain foods. How much you need depends on your age, according to the National Institutes of Health. For example, adults require less than people over seventy, who produce less vitamin D through their skin.

The National Institutes of Health recommend that most adults need 600 international units (IU) each day to cover their basic needs for bone health. However, for overall health, it's best to get somewhere between 600 IU to four,000 IU per mean solar day.

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Fish is a great way to embrace your bases, while vegans and vegetarians can look to almond milk and mushrooms. Three ounces of fatty fish, like salmon, or a cup of portobello mushrooms volition accept care of your daily vitamin D needs.

Ross says that if you occasionally consume the maximum recommended amount — 4,000 IU — information technology won't hurt you. But if you are consistently reaching or exceeding this limit for months or years on-end, that's when it may lead to symptoms of toxicity.

Causes

Ross says that the vitamin D your skin produces through lord's day exposure is hard to quantify but in general, it's supplements — non sunlight — that tips the scales towards toxicity.

If you become a severe sunburn, for case, yous should exist more concerned nearly pare impairment than vitamin D toxicity. Moreover, vitamin D deficiency is more of a concern than toxicity.

This is especially true for children, who tin can develop rickets if they're vitamin D-deficient, leading to soft and poorly developed bones. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends supplements for infants who are chest-feeding, or not getting sufficient vitamin D through formula.

Ultimately, based on your age, your lifestyle, and other factors, your doctor will tell you whether you should consider a supplement.

Vitamin D supplementation on the rising

Between 2006 and 2014, the number of people taking over four,000 IUs daily rose from less than 0.v% to over 3%. That was according to a 2017 study in the Periodical of American Medicine, which pulled data from 39,000 participants in the National Wellness and Diet Examination Survey.

The study besides found that over the same period, those taking more 1,000 IUs per day jumped from less than 1% to over 18%. This corporeality is not known to cause immediate health problems, but the findings signal that more people than always are seeking out extra vitamin D and may exist at risk of overdoing it.

This doesn't hateful that no one should take a vitamin D supplement. Other than infants and those over seventy who likely require supplements, people should get their blood levels checked routinely to determine if supplements are advised.

Insider'southward takeaway

If yous decide y'all're interested in taking a vitamin D supplement, read the label, buy from a reputable brand, and check to make sure that the production has been third-party tested for safety and say-so. Supplements are just loosely regulated past the Food and Drug Assistants.

"There are purified vitamin D3 supplements on the market at 10,000 IU per capsule," Ross says, "then some manufacturers are, knowingly, not playing safety with the public." Over again, it is inadvisable to have more than four,000 IU per 24-hour interval for long periods of fourth dimension.

She adds that the few studies washed on intake levels this loftier were short-term, lasting less than a year, so the result of taking 10,000 IU over a long fourth dimension is unknown. But, as with many things in life, consuming annihilation to excess is probably not a swell thought for your long-term health.

Vitamin D research has received a lot of attending in recent years, and many potential benefits are emerging. Supplements are not necessarily off the table but don't go in thinking more is better — unless you dear kidney stones.

Sarah Kramer is a scientific discipline writer based in New York City. She holds a Master of Scientific discipline in Journalism from Northwestern, where she was a Comer Scholar specializing in climate-change journalism. She has written well-nigh nuclear power in Utah, environmental justice on Chicago's S Side, mysterious shipwrecks in the upper Midwest, and scammers on Amazon. Her reporting has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the J.D. Crain, Jr. Foundation.Her work tin can found on Business Insider, Atlas Obscura, Motherboard, and in several permanent halls at the American Museum of Natural History, including the Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth and the upcoming Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals.Follow her on Twitter at @sarahbkramer.