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- Taking too much vitamin D causes side effects like nausea, vomiting, weakness, and abdominal pain.
- The average adult should not take more than 4000 international units of vitamin D per day.
- Vitamin D toxicity can be treated by stopping your supplement and avoiding foods that contain vitamin D.
- Visit Insider’s Health Reference Library for more tips.
With about one in four Americans having low levels of vitamin D, it’s no surprise that many people consider a supplement, especially since very few foods contain the essential nutrient.
However,
Vitamin D
supplements can have side effects, especially if you take a high dose. This is because vitamin D is fat soluble, which means it can build up in the body’s fat stores, eventually reaching toxic levels.
Here’s how to tell if you’re taking too much vitamin D and what side effects it may cause.
How Much Vitamin D Is Too Much?
To avoid vitamin D toxicity, most adults should not take more than 4000 IU / day of vitamin D supplements.
Therefore, if you take a vitamin D supplement, you should have your blood levels checked every three to six months, according to Rajsree Nambudripad, MD, an integrative medicine specialist at Providence St. Jude Medical Center.
A healthy range for vitamin D blood concentration is between 60 and 80 ng / ml. So, you should stop taking vitamin D supplements if the blood levels exceed 100 ng / ml, this is when side effects may appear, explains Nambudripad.
Side Effects of Vitamin D Supplements
Vitamin D toxicity – which includes symptoms such as confusion and abdominal pain – occurs when vitamin D reaches a concentration of at least 150 ng / ml in a person’s blood.
Potential side effects of vitamin D toxicity include:
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Abdominal pain
- Loss of appetite
- Weakness
- Excessive thirst and urination
- Kidney stones
- Confusion
- Pain
However, vitamin D toxicity is rare: “In general, you need to take plenty of vitamin D daily before you start having toxic effects,” says Erin R. McNeely, MD, internist at Spectrum Health.
Excess vitamin D and calcium
Some of the side effects of vitamin D toxicity are caused and / or exacerbated by too much vitamin D causing hypercalcemia, or when blood calcium levels are too high. This is because vitamin D facilitates the absorption of calcium.
If you experience side effects from vitamin D toxicity, McNeely recommends stopping your supplement and avoiding foods high in calcium like dairy products, which can contribute to hypercalcemia. In most cases, all of the treatment is needed. However, some hypercalcemic patients may also need IV hydration.
After starting treatment most people should start to feel better, but it may take some time. For example, a 2011 case report of two people who took 1,000 times the recommended daily dose of vitamin D found that they had elevated calcium levels for a year, even after stopping supplementation and that they showed symptoms. However, after a year, their symptoms disappeared and they had no long-term health consequences.
Insider takeaways
Many people can benefit from vitamin D supplements, but it is a good idea to talk to your doctor or health care professional before taking high doses. They can help you decide the right dose for you and help you avoid side effects like nausea or confusion.
If you take more than 2,000 IU of vitamin D per day, be sure to have blood tests every 3 to 6 months to make sure that you are not building up too much vitamin D in your blood.
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