Vitamin complexes are sold without a prescription and many people “prescribe” them to themselves without consulting a doctor. But taking vitamins is not necessary for everyone and is not always safe. Often their excess leads to serious poisoning of the body. We talk about the causes and consequences of hypervitaminosis in our article.
What Are Vitamins?
Vitamins are special substances of organic nature, combined according to a number of characteristics. They are necessary for human life, and their deficiency leads to the development of various diseases.
Our body does not produce proteins, fats and carbohydrates, which have caloric value. The same applies to vitamins – they are either not produced in the body, or are synthesized in insufficient quantities.
What Groups of Vitamins Exist?
There are two types of vitamins: water- and fat-soluble. Some dissolve well in water, others in fats.
Water-soluble are vitamins C and group B. They immediately enter the blood, are filtered by the kidneys and are excreted from the body in the urine. Thanks to this property, we rarely encounter hypervitaminosis of these vitamins. But at the same time, they accumulate poorly in the body, which means their deficiency can manifest itself faster.
Fat-soluble are vitamins A, D, E, K. They can be stored in tissues that contain fat.” Thanks to this property, it is easy to make up for their deficiency, but there are also disadvantages. Due to rapid accumulation in fats, excess consumption of vitamins A, D, E, K can lead to dangerous hypervitaminosis.
We get most of our vitamins from food. Vitamins perform important functions in the body. Vitamin D, for example, because of the strength of its effect on humans, is usually called a prohormone. There are compounds that act as a cofactor. They trigger important processes in the body.
Signs of Excess Vitamins
When there is too much of something in the body, it is always bad. Most often, excess vitamins occur in children due to unreasonable consumption of supplements. Parents try to give their kids the best and, with good intentions, exceed possible dosages.
Acute hypervitaminosis is rare. To do this, you need to take a huge amount of multivitamins at the same time. This can happen if a child eats a lot of pills without adult supervision. But
such situations, of course, are rare. Acute hypervitaminosis manifests itself like any poisoning – nausea and vomiting, neurological disorders.
Chronic hypervitaminosis is more common; in this case, vitamins are taken for a long time in doses exceeding the recommended norm. It is important to know that symptoms of oversupply may not appear immediately.
Consequences of Hypervitaminosis
Sometimes people rely on information from the Internet and begin to treat minor diseases by taking large doses of vitamin-containing medications. Our expert, Ekaterina Serebrennikova, talks about the consequences of an overabundance of the most popular vitamins:
Vitamin A
A is a fat-soluble vitamin. Symptoms of its overdose may include: loss of appetite, mouth ulcers, bone pain, cracks in the nails and corners of the mouth, dizziness, increased sensitivity to light, hair loss. That is, in fact, the symptoms of vitamin A hypervitaminosis coincide with the symptoms of deficiency.
Vitamin B
With hypervitaminosis of B vitamins, which affect the nervous system, excitability increases, frequent mood swings occur, rapid heartbeat and sleep disturbances occur. By analogy with A, deficiency and excess of vitamin B have the same symptoms.
Vitamin C
Hypervitaminosis C can be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and other problems with the gastrointestinal tract (GIT): irritation of the intestines and stomach, heartburn and abdominal pain. Tooth enamel may be damaged, arrhythmia and sleep disturbances may occur.
Excess vitamin C predisposes to stone formation – first, oxalates (salts and esters of oxalic acid) appear in the blood, and then kidney stones. It is for this reason that you should not get too carried away with products containing a lot of ascorbic acid.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D, which is now very popular, if used excessively, can affect calcium metabolism, turn into salts, injure the kidneys, provoke high blood pressure, sleep disturbances, joint and muscle pain.
Vitamin E
Hypervitaminosis E can adversely affect the functioning of the immune system, vision, muscles, and be one of the factors in the development of cancer.
Long-term use of the vitamin in large doses (above 1000 mg) simultaneously with taking coagulants (blood clotting drugs) can increase the risk of bleeding.
Vitamin K
It is almost impossible to overdose on vitamin K. However, in rare cases, hypervitaminosis can affect the production of red blood cells and provoke jaundice in infants. Therefore, taking vitamin K is contraindicated in patients with anemia and hepatitis.
Treatment and Prevention of Vitamin Excess
If a person was in a state of hypervitaminosis for a short time and caught it in time, it would not be difficult to normalize his condition. It is enough to stop taking supplements and adjust the diet. But if the poisoning is acute, you need to remove the intoxication, and hospitalization may be required.
Vitamin complexes perform their positive function only in the presence of a deficiency. If the deficiency is filled, then it is useless to continue taking them. You will not see any improvement. Take supplements only as prescribed by your doctor or in short courses of 1-1.5 months.
You should not overuse vitamins or take them for years. If a deficiency is identified, it is necessary to monitor how much the deficiency is replenished. It is better to look at the content of some vitamins in the hair, while others are in the blood.
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If you feel well, you can regularly visit a doctor once a year to prevent hypervitaminosis or vitamin deficiency. The specialist will recommend studies that will help determine the content of vitamins in the body and promptly adjust the diet, taking or eliminating vitamin supplements.
