Globally increasing cases .. Warning of the dangers of excessive “vitamin D”

The intensive supplement regimen of a middle-aged man led to his hospitalization, a report by doctors in the UK said.

In a new medical report published in a medical journal, doctors detail how the man fell ill shortly after he began taking large doses of vitamins and minerals.

And although vitamin D overdoses are uncommon, the study authors say, cases appear to be on the rise globally.

According to the BMJ Medical Journal, which published the report, a middle-aged man was referred to the emergency department by his GP.

For nearly three months, the newspaper explained, he suffered from a variety of persistent symptoms, including vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, dry mouth, tinnitus and leg cramps.

He also lost nearly 15 kilos of weight.

Tests quickly ruled out other possible causes of his illness, such as infection.

 But doctors found evidence of acute kidney injury, as well as much higher than normal levels of vitamin D and calcium (a common sign of a vitamin D overdose), and the man reported that his symptoms began about a month after he made the decision to take these supplements, part of a long list. A dietary supplement recommended by a special dietitian.

But his assigned doses were well above the recommended daily amount.

The report said he took 50 milligrams of vitamin D, for example, or twice the amount of a vitamin cocktail and supplement we should get daily (other supplements include vitamin K2, vitamin C, vitamin B9, omega-3, zinc and magnesium).

The man said he stopped taking the cocktail after his symptoms started, but they persisted nonetheless.

The man was given intravenous fluids and hospitalized for eight days, where doctors monitored his blood daily to make sure he was improving.

He also received advice and medication known as bisphosphonates to control high calcium levels during and after his hospitalization.

After two months in the hospital, follow-up examinations showed that his calcium levels had returned to nearly normal, but not his vitamin D levels.

People naturally get vitamin D from food or from regular exposure to sunlight.

Although there is some evidence that many people may have insufficient levels of vitamin D, there is no evidence that taking large doses of vitamin D or other nutritional supplements will improve health.

On the other hand, vitamin D intoxication, or hypervitaminosis D, is almost always associated with improper supplementation.

Scattered data suggest how often this occurs, but a 2016 analysis of US poison control data found more than 25,000 vitamin D-related reports documented between 2000 and 2014. According to Gismando.

Although most reports of illness have been mild to moderate, with no related deaths, exposures appear to be becoming more common over time - a trend noted by the current study authors.

“Globally, there is a growing trend of hypervitaminosis D, a clinical condition characterized by elevated levels of vitamin D3 in the blood,” they wrote, adding that conditions are more common in women, children and surgical patients.

Supplementation can be beneficial for certain groups, such as people with obvious nutritional deficiencies or pregnant women who need additional folic acid.

But many doctors remain skeptical about their use for the average person.

In fact, an influential panel of experts recently recommended against taking vitamin E or beta-carotene supplements to prevent cancer or heart disease, citing a lack of good evidence of their benefits as well as some evidence that they can actually be harmful.

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