A British man was sent to the hospital for vomiting that caused severe weight loss after he allegedly overdosed on vitamin D.
The individual paid a visit to a private nutritionist and started to take more than 20 over-the-counter supplements every day. This included 50,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D three times a day. The dose is several hundreds of times higher than standard nutritional recommendations.
Vitamin D Overdose
After about a month of taking the supplements, 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 patient, whose name was not revealed to the public, heard about the supplements from a radio talk show and contacted the nutritionist on the show afterward, said Dr. Alamin Alkundi. The health professional is a co-author of the report and an endocrinologist at William Harvey Hospital in East Kent in the UK and is the one who treated the man, as per CNN.
In an email, Alkundi said that registration by regulator is not compulsory for nutritionists in the UK and noted that their title is not protected, which means anybody can practice as a nutritionist.
Vitamin D and its cousins, A, E, and K, unlike water-soluble vitamins, which the body can easily eliminate, are stored in the liver and fat cells of the human body until they are needed. If a person consumes well over the daily recommended dose, it can quickly build up to toxic levels.
According to Yahoo News, blood tests conducted on the patient showed that his vitamin D levels were seven times the recommended amount. Due to the vitamin helping to regulate the amount of calcium in the body, the man's calcium levels were dangerously high. The tests also showed that the patient's kidneys were at risk of being damaged.
Dangerously High Calcium Levels
The authors of the report said that the man's case was uncommon and noted that excessive levels of vitamin D can cause effects on the body that can be "debilitating." Vitamin D is fundamental for bone health and is naturally obtained from sunlight and foods such as oily fish or mushrooms.
However, excessive amounts, usually coming from a supplement overdose, can be toxic for many human organs, including the guy, heart, and kidneys. Such an overdose can also cause dangerously high levels of calcium in the body, which risks neurological symptoms, including drowsiness, psychosis, and coma.
The authors of the report said that it takes roughly two months for the human body to clear half the original amount of vitamin D taken, so symptoms can last for several weeks. During the patient's eight-day hospital stay, he was re-hydrated with fluids through a drip and given drugs that stop bone breakdown.
The man was also treated with anti-nausea medication and bisphosphonates, which are typically used to reduce high levels of calcium in the blood or limit bone loss in patients suffering from osteoporosis. Two months after discharge, the patient's calcium levels had returned to normal but his vitamin D levels were still extremely high, said Alkundi, ABC reported
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