Can you take too many
vitamins?
In large doses some vitamins have
documented side effects, that tend to
be more severe with larger
dosage.
Vitamin Supplements
The
likelihood of consuming too much of any
vitamin from food is remote, but
overdosing from vitamin supplementation
does occur. At high enough dosages some
vitamins cause side effects such as
nausea, diarrhea, and
vomiting. When side effects
emerge, recovery is often accomplished
by reducing the dosage.
OD in the US
The concentrations
of vitamins an individual can tolerate
vary widely, and appear to be related
to age and state of health. In the
United States, overdose exposure to all
formulations of vitamins was reported
by 62,562 individuals in 2004 (nearly
80% of these exposures were in children
under the age of 6), leading to 53
“majorâ€
life-threatening outcomes and 3
deaths-- a small number in comparison
with the 19,250 people who died of
unintentional poisoning of all kinds in
the U.S. in the same year (2004).