Warning Patients About Vitamin D Overuse

With word spreading about the insidiousness of vitamin D deficiency, patients may be overdoing it with vitamin D supplements, Gunda Siska, PharmD, recently warned.

“Our society was previously very low on vitamin D, now we are at risk of going to the other extreme,” Dr Siska wrote in a recent column in Pharmacy Times (May 23, 2017). “We need to find the perfect balance that resides in the middle.”

While too little vitamin D can cause brain fog, weakness, and frequent infections, taking too much in supplement form (overdosing on vitamins from food is unlikely) can cause dangerous adverse effects, including kidney failure, she explained.

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“Vitamin D forces our bodies to absorb calcium and phosphorous. You may think that is a good thing, but without the hormones in place to deposit the calcium and phosphate into the bones, the calcium and phosphate deposit into soft tissues,” she wrote. “This is called metastatic calcification, and the FDA warns that too much vitamin D can cause this. The first place we notice this calcification is in our kidneys.”

The column showed a chart of vitamin D doses and how they affect the body. Any dose higher than 2000 IU/day, according to the chart, comes with the potential for risks. Doses higher than 10,000 IU/day can lead to soft tissue calcification and renal failure, Dr Siska warned, while doses higher than 5000 IU/day can yield blood levels linked with an increase in all-cause mortality, greater risk of cancer, increased risk of cardiovascular events, and fractures in older adults.

To avoid the potential of vitamin D overuse, she recommends patients concerned about possible vitamin D deficiency see a healthcare provider for appropriate guidance and lab monitoring.

“When a vitamin deficiency is restored to normal, miraculous things happen; life is extended, all diseases are made better, energy is restored, the immune system is optimized, chronic wounds heal, the skin looks great, the mood is happy,” the pharmacist wrote.

“But when a normal vitamin level is elevated even higher with synthetic supplements, good things no longer happen and sometimes bad things happen.”

—Jolynn Tumolo