If you often take vitamins as if they were fruits and vegetables, be careful of overdosing and developing vitamin poisoning. Vitamin A poisoning can lead to symptoms such as loss of appetite, drowsiness, and excessive sweating. Vitamin D poisoning can cause symptoms like muscle weakness, hypercalcemia, headaches, and nausea. Vitamin E poisoning can... Below, the editor shares 5 dangers of vitamin poisoning to remind you not to abuse vitamin supplements.
When your body is in a sub-health state, you cannot relax your requirements for quality of life. Under the influence of these two factors, supplementing with vitamins has become a necessity for many. Views such as "supplementing with vitamins is just eating fruits and vegetables" and "there's no harm in taking some extra vitamins" are very common. Although vitamins are good, excessive amounts can also be harmful to the human body. Abusing vitamin supplements can even lead to poisoning!
Symptoms of Vitamin Poisoning
Vitamin poisoning refers to the toxic condition that occurs after taking an excessive dose of vitamins. However, only an overdose of vitamins can cause vitamin poisoning; the vitamins found in fruits and vegetables in daily life will not cause it.
1. Vitamin A Poisoning
It is divided into acute and chronic types. Acute type manifests as loss of appetite, irritability or drowsiness, vomiting, and papilledema. In the early stages of the chronic type, irritability, loss of appetite, low-grade fever, excessive sweating, and hair loss may occur, followed by typical bone pain symptoms.
2. Vitamin D Poisoning
Vitamin D is the most toxic of all vitamins. Its main poisoning symptoms and signs include: hypercalcemia, muscle weakness, apathy, headache, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, bone pain, ectopic calcification, proteinuria, hypertension, and arrhythmia. Chronic hypercalcemia can lead to calcification of blood vessels throughout the body, kidney calcification, and rapid onset of renal failure.
Taking 60,000 IU (1.25 mg) daily can lead to poisoning symptoms.
3. Vitamin E Poisoning
Generally speaking, long-term use of vitamin E is not easy to cause poisoning, but if more than 300-800 mg of vitamin E is taken daily, poisoning symptoms such as muscle weakness, fatigue, headache, and nausea will appear. An overdose of vitamin E can also cause major bleeding.
For people taking anticoagulant drugs (such as aspirin), excessive intake of vitamin E is more dangerous.
For smokers, the risk of hemorrhagic stroke increases by 50% when taking 50 mg of vitamin E daily.
4. Vitamin K Poisoning
Vitamin K is related to blood clotting, maintaining healthy bones, and repairing damaged bones. The recommended daily intake is 60-65 micrograms for adult women and 70-80 micrograms for adult men. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends a daily requirement of about 1 microgram of vitamin K per kilogram of body weight.
An overdose of vitamin K can lead to cancer and rashes in the body. Pregnant women taking large doses of vitamin K can cause jaundice in newborns. Taking multivitamins high in vitamin K also affects the effectiveness of oral anticoagulants.
5. Vitamin C Poisoning
Some people advocate taking large doses of vitamin C long-term to prevent colds and cancer, and to lower blood lipids, but you should be strictly careful to prevent overdose. Taking 1 gram of vitamin C daily can easily cause diarrhea, and taking 4 grams at once can lead to uric aciduria. Long-term, high-dose use can cause some patients to form oxalate stones in the urinary tract and can cause hemolysis in patients with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G-6-PD) deficiency.
After pregnant women take large doses of vitamin C, their babies may develop scurvy.
Taking large doses of vitamin C can also reduce the effectiveness of oral anticoagulants.
6 Major Groups of People Suitable for Vitamin Supplementation
Vitamins are a type of trace organic substances that humans and animals must obtain from food to maintain normal physiological functions, playing an important role in the process of human growth, metabolism, and development. If a certain vitamin is lacking for a long time, it will cause physiological dysfunction and lead to certain diseases.
However, considering the current national economy and living standards, the general population does not suffer from vitamin deficiency. Vitamin supplements have specific target groups:
1. For adults, supplementation should only be considered when there is a deficiency of a certain vitamin, and it must not be done blindly.
2. For those who have been diagnosed with a vitamin deficiency, supplementation is definitely necessary.
3. Those with low vitamin intake, such as picky eaters or people on a diet.
4. Those with high requirements, such as pregnant women and adolescents.
5. People with poor digestion and absorption, such as the elderly, patients with gastrointestinal diseases, and people with special medical conditions.
6. Other groups: In addition to these, people with long-term irregular diets who cannot guarantee three meals a day; people often in special work conditions, such as those always sitting in front of a computer, under high nervous tension, or frequently flying; or people working in high-temperature or cold environments year-round; and people with bad habits such as smoking, drinking, and staying up late can all consider taking vitamin supplements appropriately.
● Precautions for Vitamin Supplementation
1. Avoid alcohol when taking vitamin A. The main function of vitamin A is to convert retinol into retinal, and alcohol metabolism inhibits the production of retinal, seriously affecting the visual cycle and male sperm production function.
2. Avoid rice soup when taking vitamin AD. Because it contains lipoxidase, it can dissolve and destroy fat-soluble vitamins, leading to the loss of vitamin AD and vitamin D.
3. Vitamin supplementation must be targeted. Pay attention to your body and supplement what is lacking. For example, when vitamin A is insufficient, symptoms such as rough skin, itching, and dry hair may appear.
4. Be alert to drug interactions. For example, taking vitamin E with warfarin (an anticoagulant) can actually increase the possibility of abnormal bleeding. A type of cholesterol-lowering drug called bile acid sequestrants reduces the absorption of vitamin E. Vitamin E interacts with cyclosporine (a cancer drug), reducing the effectiveness of both.
5. It should be noted that vitamins are divided into two types: pharmaceutical and health food. Pharmaceutical vitamins are chemically synthesized and usually contain some other chemical components besides the vitamins. Health food-type vitamins are mainly for supplementation, maintenance, and health. In fact, the most natural source of vitamins is still from a normal diet.