Vitamin D Warning: 4 Symptoms You Shouldn’t Ignore
Vitamin D is essential for healthy bones and normal muscle function, but excessive supplementation can be harmful. The problem is usually taking too much vitamin D over time, rather than getting vitamin D from ordinary food or sunlight.
Too much vitamin D can cause hypercalcemia—an abnormally high level of calcium in the blood. Possible warning symptoms include:
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Nausea or vomiting — Excess calcium can upset the digestive system.
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Extreme thirst and frequent urination — These can occur when calcium levels become too high. taking a prescribed vitamin D treatment, don’t discontinue it solely because of a social-media warning. Instead, contact your doctor or pharmacist and tell
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Unusual weakness or fatigue — Hypercalcemia can make you feel profoundly tired or weak.
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Confusion or changes in thinking — Severe hypercalcemia can affect the nervous system and requires prompt medical attention.
Other possible effects include constipation, loss of appetite, dehydration, kidney stones, and kidney damage.
Don’t automatically stop prescribed vitamin D
These symptoms do not prove vitamin D toxicity, because they can have many other causes. If you’re taking a prescribed vitamin D treatment, don’t discontinue it solely because of a social-media warning. Instead, contact your doctor or pharmacist and tell them the exact product and dose you’re taking.
If you have severe vomiting, confusion, profound weakness, dehydration, or needed, but high-dose supplementation should be used appropriately and, when medically indicated, monitored with blood tests such as calcium and symptoms of an abnormal heartbeat, seek urgent medical care.
The takeaway: Vitamin D can be beneficial when needed, but high-dose supplementation should be used appropriately and, when medically indicated, monitored with blood tests such as calcium and 25-hydroxyvitamin D.
