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It's really, really hard to overdose on Vitamin D, and most researchers working on this have been taking much bigger doses than what's officially recommended. I

It's really, really hard to overdose on Vitamin D, and most researchers working on this have been taking much bigger doses than what's officially recommended. IIRC, some researchers were taking 10,000 IUs/day. Overdosing requires doses orders of magnitude bigger. Those official levels were set to prevent people from getting rickets, NOT to prevent degenerative diseases or maintain optimum health. In fact those official recommendations have been creeping upwards in a lot of places. Best would be to get a doctor to check your blood levels and supplement appropriately. This will be a lot more accurate than assessing daily intake, since dose mainly correlates to time in the sun, which varies by location and time of day.

wamatt 14y ago
Well, I wouldn't say it's really hard to OD if one is not paying attention, although it's probably a very uncommon occurrence compared to deficiency rates. I have seen products with 50k IU available OTC and on the web, intended to be taken weekly. One could see a scenario where this ends up getting consumed daily by mistake, and nutritionists would consider 50 000IU way to much in this case. (unless you have a specific condition, or post-op etc ad have been medicated in terms of therapy).
- danielharan 14y ago
  Try to find cases in the literature; you'll find cases of people taking orders of magnitude more than that for a month. But nothing serious from anyone taking 50k IUs/day, let alone per week.
  - wamatt 14y ago
    I get your point that the studies are limited at such high doses, but Mayo clinic and various others disagree that it's non-toxic. "Taking 50,000 international units (IU) a day of vitamin D for several months has been shown to cause toxicity" [1] Regardless of that though, I agree that the UL is really difficult to quantify. Furthermore I'm not sure anyone could cite any article that shows a significant health benefit to supplementing above 10k vs below, hence, the rational choice would be to try stay below that. However all of this talk about IU intake is secondary to the blood serum level. For the moment, that is the gold standard measure, until something something better comes along [1] https://www.mayoclinic.com/health/vitamin-d-toxicity/AN02008 https://www.mayoclinic.com/health/vitamin-d-toxicity/AN02008
    - danielharan 14y ago
      Definitely agree with blood serum levels. In fact, I should get that done soon! :) As far as really difficult, in Canada, ingesting enough pills to get to 50,000 IUs per day would be a chore. IIRC the last I checked the biggest OTC doses were 1,000 IUs. This might be different where you are.

wamatt 14y ago

Well, I wouldn't say it's really hard to OD if one is not paying attention, although it's probably a very uncommon occurrence compared to deficiency rates. I have seen products with 50k IU available OTC and on the web, intended to be taken weekly. One could see a scenario where this ends up getting consumed daily by mistake, and nutritionists would consider 50 000IU way to much in this case. (unless you have a specific condition, or post-op etc ad have been medicated in terms of therapy).

danielharan 14y ago
Try to find cases in the literature; you'll find cases of people taking orders of magnitude more than that for a month. But nothing serious from anyone taking 50k IUs/day, let alone per week.
- wamatt 14y ago
  I get your point that the studies are limited at such high doses, but Mayo clinic and various others disagree that it's non-toxic. "Taking 50,000 international units (IU) a day of vitamin D for several months has been shown to cause toxicity" [1] Regardless of that though, I agree that the UL is really difficult to quantify. Furthermore I'm not sure anyone could cite any article that shows a significant health benefit to supplementing above 10k vs below, hence, the rational choice would be to try stay below that. However all of this talk about IU intake is secondary to the blood serum level. For the moment, that is the gold standard measure, until something something better comes along [1] https://www.mayoclinic.com/health/vitamin-d-toxicity/AN02008 https://www.mayoclinic.com/health/vitamin-d-toxicity/AN02008
  - danielharan 14y ago
    Definitely agree with blood serum levels. In fact, I should get that done soon! :) As far as really difficult, in Canada, ingesting enough pills to get to 50,000 IUs per day would be a chore. IIRC the last I checked the biggest OTC doses were 1,000 IUs. This might be different where you are.