Hypervitaminosis Information
Vitamin poisoning, hypervitaminosis or vitamin overdose refers to a condition of high storage levels of vitamins, which can lead to toxic symptoms. The medical names of the different conditions are derived from the vitamin involved: an excess of vitamin A, for example, is called hypervitaminosis A.
With few exceptions, like some vitamins from B complex, hypervitaminosis usually occurs more with fat-soluble vitamins, which are stored in the liver and fatty tissues of the body. Because of this, these vitamins build up and remain for a longer time in the body than water soluble vitamins.[1]
High dosage vitamin A; high dosage, slow release vitamin B3; and very high dosage vitamin B6 alone (i.e. without vitamin B complex) are sometimes associated with vitamin side effects that usually rapidly cease with supplement reduction or cessation.
Vitamin C has a brief, pronounced laxative effect when taken in large amounts, typically in the range of 5-10 grams per day in divided doses for a person in normal "good health," although seriously ill people,[2] may take 80-100 grams without inducing vitamin poisoning[citation needed].
High doses of mineral supplements can also lead to side effects and toxicity. Mineral-supplement poisoning does occur occasionally due to excessive and unusual intake of iron-containing supplements, including some multivitamins, but is not common.
Generally, toxic levels of vitamins are achieved through high supplement intake and not from dietary sources. Toxicities of fat-soluble vitamins result also can be caused by a large intake of highly fortified foods, but foods rarely deliver dangerous levels of water-soluble vitamins.[1]
The Dietary Reference Intake recommendations from the United States Department of Agriculture define a "tolerable upper intake level" for most vitamins.
Comparative safety statistics
Death by vitamin poisoning appears to be quite uncommon in the US, typically none in a given year.[3]
Before 1998, several deaths per year were associated with pharmaceutical iron-containing supplements, especially brightly-colored, sugar-coated, high-potency iron supplements, and most deaths were children.[4] Unit packaging restrictions on supplements with more than 30 mg of iron have since reduced deaths to 0 or 1 per year.[4] These statistics compare with 59 deaths due to aspirin poisoning in 2003 [5] and 147 deaths associated with acetaminophen-containing products in 2003.[5]
See also
- Hypervitaminosis A
- Vitamin B6 excess
- Hypervitaminosis D
- Hypervitaminosis E
- Avitaminosis
- Orthorexia nervosa
References
- ^ a b Sizer, Frances Sienkiewicz; Ellie Whitney (2008). Nutrition: Concepts and Controversies (11 ed.). United States of America: Thomson Wadsworth. pp. 221,235. ISBN 0495390658.
- ^ Vitamin C, Titrating To Bowel Tolerance, Anascorbemia, And Acute Induced Scurvy Robert F. Cathcart, III, M.D. 1994
- ^ http://www.orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v05n04.shtml
- ^ a b Tenenbein M (2005). "Unit-dose packaging of iron supplements and reduction of iron poisoning in young children". Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 159 (6): 557–60. doi:10.1001/archpedi.159.6.557. PMID 15939855. http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/159/6/557.
- ^ a b Watson WA, Litovitz TL, Klein-Schwartz W, et al. (2004). "2003 annual report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers Toxic Exposure Surveillance System". Am J Emerg Med 22 (5): 335–404. doi:10.1016/j.ajem.2004.06.001. PMID 15490384. http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S073567570400141X.
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Categories: Vitamins | Toxicology |
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