Too Much of Which Vitamins Can Have Bad Effects on Your Body?

Although you only require them in small amounts, vitamins play an essential role in your health and carry out a range of roles that include supporting your metabolism and strengthening your tissues. A few vitamins -- such as vitamin B-1 and B-2 -- don't pose a health risk even in large amounts, but others can negatively affect your health if you consume too much. If you take vitamin supplements, consult your doctor so that you can avoid an accidental vitamin overdose.

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Vitamin A

One of the most potentially toxic vitamins is vitamin A. As a fat-soluble vitamin, excess vitamin A dissolves in your fatty tissue and accumulates over time, which can pose a serious risk to your health. Hypervitaminosis A -- the condition brought on by vitamin A overdose -- causes your skin to crack, peel and itch. It also leads to bone pain, damages your liver and causes fluid to accumulate in your brain, which can prove fatal. To avoid side effects, limit your vitamin A intake to 10,000 international units daily, advises the Institute of Medicine.

Vitamin D

Too much vitamin D also harms your health -- like vitamin A, it dissolves in fat and accumulates in your system. Because vitamin D plays an important role in helping your body use calcium properly, high levels of vitamin D can negatively affect your calcium levels. Too much vitamin D increases the amount of calcium in your blood, which can lead to calcium deposits in tissues throughout your body. It also removes calcium from your bones, causing bone damage. Don't exceed a daily vitamin D intake of 4,000 international units, recommends the Institute of Medicine.

Vitamin E

Fat-soluble vitamin E can also threaten your health if you take too much. Normally, vitamin E plays a beneficial role in cardiovascular health by helping to regulate blood clot formation. However, too much vitamin E can excessively thin your blood, increasing the risk of internal bleeding. Taking high doses of vitamin E supplements might increase the risk of death from cardiovascular disease, but the Linus Pauling Institute explains that studies into the risks of vitamin E have yielded conflicting results. To avoid the possibility of side effects, don't consume more than 1,500 IU of vitamin E daily, recommends the Institute of Medicine.

B-Complex and Vitamin C

Vitamin C and the B-complex family of vitamins dissolve in water, and your system can flush excess vitamin each day. However, some of these vitamins still cause side effects if you consume too much. Large doses of vitamin B-3 supplements can damage your liver and lead to a burning sensation in your skin, while too much vitamin B-6 can cause nerve damage over time. Excess amounts of vitamin B-9 don't cause symptoms directly, but they can hide the early signs of a vitamin B-12 deficiency, preventing a proper diagnosis, and put you at risk of nerve damage caused by low B-12 levels. Too much vitamin C can cause digestive upset, and might increase the risk of kidney stones in some individuals.

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About the Author

Sylvie Tremblay holds a Master of Science in molecular and cellular biology and has years of experience as a cancer researcher and neuroscientist. Based in Ontario, Canada, Tremblay is an experienced copywriter, journalist and blogger specializing in nutrition, fitness, lifestyle, health and biotechnology, as well as real estate, agriculture and clean tech.

Vitamin Overdose: Taking Too Many Vitamins Can Be Bad For Your Health, But How Many Would It Take To Kill You?

One wouldn’t take an antibiotic without being sick, but for some reason countless individuals are taking vitamins despite having no deficiencies. While in most cases this is simply a waste of money and the extra vitamins are simply flushed out in urine, for those who take large quantities of unnecessary vitamins, the health consequences are serious. But just how many vitamins does it take to kill a person?

Vitamins are organic compounds needed in small quantities to sustain life, Medical News Today reported. We normally get the necessary amount from our daily diet, but sometimes, due to dietary restraints, individuals will develop vitamin deficiencies. However, Marissa Puleo, a registered diectian working in Pennsylvania, told Medical Daily that one needs to be careful with vitamin intake.

"Taking too many vitamins and supplements does have negative consequences," Puleo said. Although many water soluable vitamins are excreted when too much is taken, others remain in the body. "These vitamins can reach toxic levels and cause adverse side effects."

Iron

Anemia is a condition when one doesn’t have enough healthy red blood cells to carry adequate oxygen to your tissues. It’s more common among women and can cause symptoms such as fatigue and feeling weak. Do not self-diagnose your anemia and especially don’t self-treat it. Unnecessary iron can accumulate in the body and even rise to toxic levels. Taking more than the recommended amount of iron over time can cause brown skin discoloration, an enlarged liver or spleen, abdominal pain, congestive heart failure, an irregular heart rhythm, and insulin dependent diabetes, just to name a few.

Excessive amounts of iron are especially common in pregnant women. A recent study by a team of doctors in India found that excessive iron dosage among healthy non-anemic women could lead to problems, including low birth weight, premature birth, and poor growth of the baby while in the womb.

Lisha Shastri, a final year MBBS student and one of the lead researchers on the study, explained to the Bangalore Mirror that her findings suggest the need for women without anemia to stay away from additional iron supplements, especially during pregnancy.

“Iron in high daily doses could be responsible for cellular damage through oxidative stress,” Shastri said. “This needs to be balanced with sufficient anti-oxidants, which can be obtained from fruits rich in vitamin C. The dosage of iron varies from one individual to another, which is why there cannot be a standardized dosage that can be fixed for everyone."

Often women who are menstruating or women who partake in particularly strenuous sports, such as distance runners, are at greater risks for iron deficiencies, but there are many ways to introduce more iron into your diet without using supplements. Meat and eggs are particularly high in iron, and for vegetarians, beans and tofu are also great sources of the vitamin.

How Much Can Kill You
As reported by Livestrong, a one-time overdose of iron can kill you. The limit for iron intake is put at around 20mg of elemental iron per kilogram of body weight. Any more than this and a person may experience abdominal pain, persistent vomiting, rapid breathing, and coma. 
   
   

iron
A one-time overdose of iron can prove fatal. US CPSC CC BY 2.0
Vitamin C

Vitamin C is arguably one of the most popular and widely recognized of all vitamins. Deficiencies of vitamin C can cause tooth lose, acne, fatigue, and even death. Taking vitamin C to help fight off a cold is also recommended by doctors. Still, despite all this there is still such a thing as having too much of it.

Unless you have a cold or it’s recommended by doctors, you’re safer getting your daily dose of vitamin C in food. Citrus fruits, berries, and vegetables such as broccoli and Brussels sprouts have high levels, the University of Maryland Medical Center advises. Also, many foods such as cereal and drinks are actually fortified with vitamin C, so chances are you’re probably getting the recommended amount without even realizing it.

How Much Can Kill You
The good news is that overdoing it on vitamin C will not kill you. Around 2,000mg of vitamin C is considered the limit. For those who consume this amount in a day, symptoms such as vomiting, heartburn, headache, insomnia, and kidney stones may follow.  However, anything over 1,000mg can lead to diarrhea.
  
   

oranges
Eating fruit such as oranges is an easy and natural way to get vitamin C. Photo courtesy of José Luis Sánchez Mesa CC BY 2.0
Vitamin A

Vitamin A is known for promoting good vision but also helps to form and maintain healthy skin, teeth, skeletal and soft tissue, and the mucous membrane. Medline Plus reports that individuals who do not get enough vitamin A are more likely to get infectious disease and vision problems. 

A high dose of vitamin A can cause the following side effects: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite, tiredness, headaches, dizziness, blurred vision, poor muscle coordination, itchiness and scaling of the skin, bone pain, hair loss, irregular menstruation in women, osteoporosis, and temporary or permanent liver damage. High doses of vitamin A are also known to increase the risk of lung cancer in smokers, the BBC reported.

Acute hypervitaminosis is a severe condition resulting from consuming too much vitamin A during a short period of time. It was first documented in arctic explorers who unknowingly consumed vitamin A-rich livers of many artic animals, such as seals, husky dogs, and yes, even the polar bear. The symptoms of the extremely unpleasant condition are loss of skin and hair, liver damage, hemorrhage, coma, and even death.

How Much Can Kill You
The problem with vitamin A is that unlike other vitamins, excess amounts don’t flush out in urine but rather build up in the liver. However, unless you’re eating polar bear liver, it’s unlikely you’ll consume enough vitamin A to kill you. According to the San Francisco Gate, 3,000mg of vitamin A a day is the limit and any more can have unpleasant consequences. To put that into perspective, that’s around 79 to 115 chickens eggs, according to How Stuff Works.
  
vitamin A
Ingesting too much vitamin A can cause severe skin loss and even coma. Photo courtesy of Colin Dunn CC BY 2.0
Gummy Multivitamins

In an article published by BuzzFeed earlier this year, Dr. Ken Spaeth from North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System explained that in high quantities those gummy fruity vitamin supplements are no good for your health.

“On the whole, it would be a very bad idea and potentially dangerous to take excessive amounts of multivitamins, even tasty ones such as the gummy variety,” Spaeth said. “While the recommended amounts pose virtually no risk, consuming an entire bottle of vitamins can cause permanent and serious harm,” Spaeth said. “The body is not able to clear excessive amounts of this type quickly, and the subsequent buildup of high levels can inflict an array of injury to various organ systems, including the brain.”

How Much Can Kill You

The article noted that, theoretically, consuming the entire bottle of gummy supplements in one sitting could kill you; however, this is largely dependent on the type of vitamins present.

gummy
We know they taste good, but please don't eat the whole bottle in one go. Photo courtesy of martakat83 CC BY 2.0
In conclusion, Puleo gave Medical Daily one rule of thumb to go by when it comes to monitoring your vitamin intake: "Eating a varied nutrious diet is the best source of any vitamin or mineral. If you want to increase vitamin C, it's sggested to eat more citrus rather than take a vitamin C pill."

Vitamin A and Bone Health

Vitamin A is essential for good health. It promotes growth, the immune system, reproduction, and vision. However, recent research suggests that too much vitamin A, particularly in the form of retinol, may be bad for your bones. This fact sheet explains where we get vitamin A, how much of this important vitamin we need, how it can build up in the body to excessive levels, and how you can assess your own vitamin A intake.

• What Is Vitamin A?
• How Much Vitamin A Do I Need?
• How Does Vitamin A Affect My Bones?
• How Can I Make Sure I Get the Right Amount of Vitamin A?
• Are Some People at Special Risk of Getting Too Much Vitamin A?
• Where Can I Find More Information?
• For Your Information

What Is Vitamin A?

Vitamin A is a family of compounds that play an important role in vision, bone growth, reproduction, cell division, and cell differentiation. We get vitamin A from a variety of sources. Two of the most common sources are retinol and beta-carotene.

Retinol is sometimes called “true” vitamin A because it is nearly ready for the body to use. Retinol is found in such animal foods as liver, eggs, and fatty fish. It also can be found in many fortified foods, such as breakfast cereals, and in dietary supplements.

Beta-carotene is a precursor for vitamin A. The body needs to convert it to retinol or vitamin A for use. Beta-carotene is found naturally in mostly orange and dark green plant foods, such as carrots, sweet potatoes, mangos, and kale.

The body stores both retinol and beta-carotene in the liver, drawing on this store whenever more vitamin A is needed.

How Much Vitamin A Do I Need?

The Institute of Medicine developed the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for vitamin A (retinol). The recommended intakes are listed in International Units (IU) in the table, below:

Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for Vitamin A in International Units (IU)

Age (yrs)	Children	Men	Women	Pregnancy	Lactation
Source: Institute of Medicine, 2001.
1 to 3	1,000
4 to 8	1,320
9 to 13	2,000
14 to 18		3,000	2,310	2,500	4,000
19+		3,000	2,310	2,565	4,300

The body can convert beta-carotene into vitamin A to help meet these requirements. Although there is no RDA for beta-carotene, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Dietary Supplements recommends eating five or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day, including dark green and leafy vegetables and deep yellow or orange fruits to get appropriate amounts of beta-carotene.

How Does Vitamin A Affect My Bones?

Vitamin A is a family of fat-soluble compounds that play an important role in vision, bone growth, reproduction, cell division, and cell differentiation. Vitamin A is important for healthy bones. However, too much vitamin A has been linked to bone loss and an increase in the risk of hip fracture. Scientists believe that excessive amounts of vitamin A trigger an increase in osteoclasts, the cells that break down bone. They also believe that too much vitamin A may interfere with vitamin D, which plays an important role in preserving bone.

Retinol is the form of vitamin A that causes concern. In addition to getting retinol from their diets, some people may be using synthetic retinoid preparations that are chemically similar to vitamin A to treat acne, psoriasis, and other skin conditions. These preparations have been shown to have the same negative impact on bone health as dietary retinol. Use of these medications in children and teens also has been linked to delays in growth.

Beta-carotene, on the other hand, is largely considered to be safe and has not been linked to adverse effects in bone or elsewhere in the body.

How Can I Make Sure I Get the Right Amount of Vitamin A?

Surveys suggest that most Americans are getting adequate amounts of vitamin A. The Institute of Medicine cautions against daily intakes of retinol above 10,000 IU.

The chart below identifies some common food sources of retinol. Most of the reported cases of vitamin A toxicity have been blamed on the use of supplements. Healthy individuals who eat a balanced diet generally do not need a vitamin A supplement.

Common Food Sources of Retinol

Food Sources of Retinol	Vitamin A (IU)
Source: NIH Office of Dietary Supplements
Liver, beef, cooked 3 oz.	30,325
Liver, chicken, cooked, 3 oz.	13,920
Egg substitute, fortified, ¼ cup	1,355
Fat-free milk, fortified with vitamin A, 1 cup	500
Cheese pizza, ⅛ of a 12-inch pie	380
Milk, whole, 3.25% fat, 1 cup	305
Cheddar cheese, 1 oz	300
Whole egg, 1 medium	280

Plant sources of beta-carotene are not as well absorbed as the animal sources of vitamin A listed in the chart, but they are still an important source of this vitamin. Dark orange and green vegetables and fruit, including carrots, sweet potatoes, spinach, cantaloupe, and kale are excellent sources of beta-carotene. Because of concerns about the negative effects of too much retinol, some people prefer to eat more foods rich in beta-carotene to satisfy their need for vitamin A.

Are Some People at Special Risk of Getting Too Much Vitamin A?

The 1988–94 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) found high levels of retinol in 5 to 10 percent of the survey participants. Increased levels were more common in men age 30 and older and in women age 50 and older.

Older people who regularly take dietary supplements containing vitamin A may be at higher risk of getting too much vitamin A.

Studies suggest that taking dietary supplements is a common practice among many older adults. However, the routine use of vitamin A supplements, as well as fortified foods, in older men and women is increasingly being questioned. Older adults are at significant risk for osteoporosis and related fractures, and their serum (blood) levels of retinol increase with age. As a result, fortified foods and supplements containing vitamin A in the form of beta-carotene may be a better choice for bone health in this population.

The supplement label provides information about how much vitamin A is provided, in both International Units and as a percentage of the RDA. The list of ingredients will contain information about which forms of vitamin A are included. Other names for retinol include retinyl, palmitate, and retinyl acetate.

Where Can I Find More Information?

For more information on bone health, visit:

NIH Osteoporosis and Related Bone Diseases ~ National Resource Center

Website: http://www.bones.nih.gov
Phone: 202-223-0344
Toll free: 800-624-BONE (2663)

For more information on vitamin A, visit:

NIH Office of Dietary Supplements

Website: http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/
Phone: 301-435-2920

For Your Information

This publication contains information about medications used to treat the health condition discussed here. When this publication was developed, we included the most up-to-date (accurate) information available. Occasionally, new information on medication is released.

For updates and for any questions about any medications you are taking, please contact

U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Toll Free: 888–INFO–FDA (888–463–6332)
Website: http://www.fda.gov

For additional information on specific medications, visit Drugs@FDA at www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/drugsatfda. Drugs@FDA is a searchable catalog of FDA-approved drug products.

NIH Osteoporosis and Related Bone Diseases ~ National Resource Center

2 AMS Circle
Bethesda, MD 20892-3676
Phone: 202-223-0344
Toll Free: 800-624-BONE (2663)
TTY: 202-466-4315
Fax: 202-293-2356
Email: NIHBoneInfo@mail.nih.gov
Website: http://www.bones.nih.gov

The NIH Osteoporosis and Related Bone Diseases ~ National Resource Center provides patients, health professionals, and the public with an important link to resources and information on metabolic bone diseases. The mission of NIH ORBD~NRC is to expand awareness and enhance knowledge and understanding of the prevention, early detection, and treatment of these diseases as well as strategies for coping with them.

The NIH Osteoporosis and Related Bone Diseases ~ National Resource Center is supported by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases with contributions from:

• National Institute on Aging
• Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
• National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research
• National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
• NIH Office of Research on Women's Health
• HHS Office on Women's Health.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

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