Vitamin Overdoses?

Are there any vitamins/minerals out there that we could actually harm ourselves with if we took too big of a dose?

I take so stupid many vitamins now, and I'm pretty sure I'm taking appropriate dosages, but my alarmist mom is afraid I'm going to take too much of something will and end up dead or on life support or something. 

So, I figured I'd ask you guys and can hopefully glean some information to pass on to her.

Thanks in advance for any input you can offer.=)

 I believe that it is possible to get too much of certain vitamins. Some vitamins and minerals work with the body's electrical system and too much or too  little can cause one problems. 

The best way to make sure the amounts you are taking is okay, is to have regular lab work to check your levels.

 If you have lab work on a regular basis and your doctor hasn't said anything to you, then explain this to your mom and tell her not to worry so much. 

Zinc overdoses may be an issue if you take a zinc supplement, plus the zinc in your multi.  It may seem like a lot to non wt loss patients, but B12, D and others need to be taken at much higher doses than non wt loss surgery patients.  500mcg of b12 is suggested post op, but I used 1000mcg.  I had to back off to get down to around 1000 on labs, and finally stopped taking this supplement. At 5 years I'm back on a couple of 2500mcg b12 per week as labs showed a 665, lower than the desired 900-1000.  With vitamin D, shorages or proper levels are a common issue with the majority of patients.  You need a dry D3 to raise levels, which should be 80-90.  Each patient is different with their body's needs.  I took 4 of the 50K IU per week for over 2 years. Labs indicated a 65. Middle range number for non wt loss patients but research indicates we need 80-90 for overall general health, avoiding several cancers, and to maximize calcium absorption in our bones.  Calcium citrate may seem high to the not wt loss population too.  But you need a minimum of 1500-1800mg of calcium citrate daily, making sure you only use the CITRATE form of calcium for best absorption.  This form of calcium should only be taken in 500-600 mg doses (depending on data source), as taking the full day's dosage at one time WILL NOT be absorbed by your body.  She can easily google vitamin needs for RNY post ops, and glean through the hits to find vitamin levels recommended for RNY post ops. DAVE

You can take too much of many things, especially fat soluble vitamins like A and D.  However, it would be kinda hard for us to do that.  With our malabsorption, as because some of us have lower levels of things than others, we can't really say it's OK to take 50,000 IU D3 a day but it'll hurt you if you take more than that.  You have to base it on your labs.  For most of us, though, we'd have to take a really big dose of D3 for quite a while to get our levels high enough to worry about.

Let your mom know you are getting labs done every six months and if any of your levels start to get too high, then you'll start taking less of that vitamin.

Most vitamins are not like medications in the way that a single really high dose of pain killer or something could hurt you.  Taking 300,000 IU of vitamin D3 one time won't hurt you but if you took that much every day for a month, you could  have problems.

Your mom musy have some medical background? They are taught to be far more afraid of toxicity than deficiency, even looking right at deficiency!

A D E K in the oil forms, could potentially be a problem, if you are not an RNY or DS. But you are taking dry forms, so they don't store in the liver the same way.

Taking a BIG bottle of iron all in one day might be a problem.

Eventually reaching higher lab levels tells you that your dose of X might be more than you need, so you back it off, you don't stop.

The exception would be B12, where its high level is our LOW level. Go way beyond that.

If you are getting your D done at St. F, when I was still home, they had gone back to range from the dark ages, like 20-50. They had gone up to modern days at one point in ranges of 35-150.

Despite the mood the lab is in at a given moment, I want my D 25 around 100. It was 160 last time, so I trimmed it down just a hair.

B's cannot go toxic. B6 can produce symptoms if allowed to go waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too high for waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long. But it's pretty unlikely it could sneak past a diligent lab watcher. lol

If your blood calcium goes UP, you need more, not less.

The main thing is that your fat solubles are in water soluble forms, so they do not store in the liver.

amy,

how's your iron???  I hope its better!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Tamara

Hey Tamara! Funny you should ask about that today. This morning I went in and had labs done. It will be the first full set of labs I've had since I switched over completely to the heme iron in late June. HOPEFULLY, I will see a difference - and with the calcium as well.

Thanks so much for asking.

And thank you everyone else for taking the time to answer the question. I think I might hang a copy of the lab results on the bulletin board in my bedroom so I can compare them month to month and measure my own progress.