Apparently, you can have too much of a good thing. A man landed in the hospital after getting more than his fair share of vitamin D.
Despite vitamins being a great way to get extra nutrients into your life, you can still go overboard. A man from the United Kingdom started struggling with some serious health issues and couldn’t figure out what the problem was.
He ended up in the hospital where doctors were able to pinpoint the problem: the man had been overdosing on vitamin D. Everyone needs a little vitamin D but the man had been taking enough supplements to surpass the recommended daily amount of the vitamin hundreds of times.
He was also taking large cocktails of other dietary supplements. Apparently, the man didn’t know there were other ways besides vitamins and supplements to get the majority of nutrients you need per day.
The man’s case was detailed in the journal BMJ Case Reports where Dr. Alamin Alkundi was one of the doctors who assisted at William Harvey Hospital. According to Dr. Alamin Alkundi, the man started taking supplements after hearing a talk show host discuss them on the radio. He then contacted a private nutritionist for more information.
It’s good to do some research before committing to anyone and this nutritionist was no exception, making his new client take more than 20 over-the-counter nutritional supplements for a month. Also, the recommended daily dose of vitamin D for healthy adults is 400-800 IU, not the 150,000 IU that the man was taking.
In addition to vitamin D, the man was taking above-recommended doses of omega-3, vitamin K2, and folate.
Within a month of this new routine, the man’s body couldn’t deal with the overabundance that his body started rejecting the nutrients. he began vomiting profusely on a regular basis, had bouts of diarrhea, suffered from abdominal pain, his legs began to cramp, and his ears rang constantly.
After suffering for three months, the man finally sought medical help. By the time he got to the hospital, he had lost 28 pounds. Tests showed that his blood contained high levels of serum creatine, which is a waste product that healthy kidneys filter out.
In the end, the man ended up staying at the hospital for eight days. Doctors hooked him up to an IV to rehydrate him and he gradually recovered. Since being released from the hospital, doctors have encouraged him to come back for regular checkups to monitor his kidneys.