2 ms·

Interesting stuff, I hear people advocating vitamin D supplement all the time. I'm wary of supplements in general so have mostly avoided it but never realized i

Interesting stuff, I hear people advocating vitamin D supplement all the time. I'm wary of supplements in general so have mostly avoided it but never realized it could be dangerous (I tend to think I should be able to get everything I need from my diet)

pcthrowaway 3y ago
I live in a place where there is very little sunlight during the winter, and take occasional vitamin D supplements. My supplement is 1000 IU. I took a look on amazon and of the first page of results, most were 1000IU and some were 2500 IU It sounds like the upper end of the recommended range for Vitamin D blood levels is much higher than it should be, and that is the primary reason the person mentioned here had the problems she had, but it also just seems like common sense that you're taking 2-5 times the normal supplementation dose of something, daily, for 5 years you should have a very good reason to do so. I'm curious if taking 1000 IU every few days could cause similar issues in people who aren't in the sun all day every day.
thinkingtoilet 3y ago
In the story, the women was taking 5000 units daily, which is extremely high. Most multi-vitamins have something between 400-800 units.
- mattgreenrocks 3y ago
  You can definitely buy 5000 IU pills though.
aidenn0 3y ago
> (I tend to think I should be able to get everything I need from my diet) I should note that pale skin is a mutation developed because Europeans in a certain range could not get sufficient vitamin D from their diet, which was mostly cereal crops. Also, disease can change things. A family member had leukemia and after it was in remission, she has needed to take very high levels of vitamin D to maintain recommended blood levels. Her required supplementation is high enough that her doctor has her take regular blood tests to make sure it doesn't go too high.
shadowgovt 3y ago
That advocacy makes sense for a lot of Americans. A combination of living in latitudes north of 45 degrees and the general trend of people moving to work indoors really depresses natural generation of the vitamin for a lot of people. But as with so many other things, it's not hard to go overboard.
mixmastamyk 3y ago
Very little D comes from diet. You can overdose on water if you try hard enough. Similarly it is really hard to overdose on D—most likely you are deficient.

pcthrowaway 3y ago

I live in a place where there is very little sunlight during the winter, and take occasional vitamin D supplements. My supplement is 1000 IU. I took a look on amazon and of the first page of results, most were 1000IU and some were 2500 IU It sounds like the upper end of the recommended range for Vitamin D blood levels is much higher than it should be, and that is the primary reason the person mentioned here had the problems she had, but it also just seems like common sense that you're taking 2-5 times the normal supplementation dose of something, daily, for 5 years you should have a very good reason to do so. I'm curious if taking 1000 IU every few days could cause similar issues in people who aren't in the sun all day every day.

thinkingtoilet 3y ago

In the story, the women was taking 5000 units daily, which is extremely high. Most multi-vitamins have something between 400-800 units.

mattgreenrocks 3y ago
You can definitely buy 5000 IU pills though.

aidenn0 3y ago

> (I tend to think I should be able to get everything I need from my diet) I should note that pale skin is a mutation developed because Europeans in a certain range could not get sufficient vitamin D from their diet, which was mostly cereal crops. Also, disease can change things. A family member had leukemia and after it was in remission, she has needed to take very high levels of vitamin D to maintain recommended blood levels. Her required supplementation is high enough that her doctor has her take regular blood tests to make sure it doesn't go too high.

shadowgovt 3y ago

That advocacy makes sense for a lot of Americans. A combination of living in latitudes north of 45 degrees and the general trend of people moving to work indoors really depresses natural generation of the vitamin for a lot of people. But as with so many other things, it's not hard to go overboard.

mixmastamyk 3y ago

Very little D comes from diet. You can overdose on water if you try hard enough. Similarly it is really hard to overdose on D—most likely you are deficient.