PostedJuly 7, 2022, 06:56
A Briton found himself in a terrible state after a massive ‘cure’ of dietary supplements.
The man took 20 different dietary supplements every day.
Getty Images
In the United Kingdom, a man ingested 80 times the recommended dose of vitamin D for several weeks. He ended up having a sort of overdose. Taken care of, he remained hospitalized for 8 days before being deemed sufficiently recovered to be able to leave.
The study of this case was published in the “British Medical Journal”. The middle-aged man started taking vitamins after consulting a nutritionist. He was taking 20 different dietary supplements every day, relate “The Independent”: various vitamins, omega 3, magnesium, minerals or nutrients. Above all, with this cocktail, he ingested 50,000 mg of vitamin D while the recommended dose is 600 mg, according to a communiqué of the authors of the article.
After a month of this “cure”, the man began to suffer from numerous ailments: recurrent vomiting, nausea, abdominal pain, leg cramps, tinnitus, increased thirst, diarrhoea… However, he continued to ingest his supplements, then finally gave up. But his symptoms did not go away.
Affected kidneys
Four months after he started taking his supplements, he visited his doctor. Who sent him to the hospital. Blood tests showed a very high level of calcium in the blood. And a level of vitamin D seven times higher than the required level. In addition, his kidneys no longer functioned properly and he had lost almost 13 kilos.
After his passage to the hospital and despite the treatments received, it still took two months for the level of calcium in the blood to return to normal. But that of vitamin D remained abnormally high.
A vitamin D overdose, or “hypervitaminosis D”, primarily causes excess calcium in the blood. Which can lead, the authors list: drowsiness, confusion, apathy, psychosis, depression, anorexia, abdominal pain, vomiting, ulcers, pancreatitis, high blood pressure, heart rhythm abnormalities, kidney failure or even coma.
Cases of hypervitaminosis D are rare. But would be increasing, according to the authors. “This case report highlights the potential toxicity of dietary supplements, which are widely considered safe until taken in unsafe amounts or in unsafe combinations,” they conclude.