A 54-year-old Canadian suffers from serious kidney problems after consuming too much vitamin D in a dietary supplement.
Food supplements can be false friends: the experience of a 54-year-old Canadian proves it. The man was taking high-dose vitamin D supplementation which damaged his kidneys. His story is told in the canadian medical association journal.
Watch your vitamin D intake, excess may up kidney failure risk #CMAJ https://t.co/YGttneOJHW pic.twitter.com/QQg9wWZBv1
—Mike Bryan (@functionalfood) April 8, 2019
Too high a creatinine level
The man was returning from vacation in Southeast Asia where he had spent two weeks in the sun. After a visit to his doctor, he was admitted to the emergency room because his blood creatinine level was very high. This substance is a waste present naturally in the body: measuring its level precisely makes it possible to check that the functioning of the kidneys is normal.
More than 10 times the maximum recommended dose
Several examinations were necessary to understand the origin of the kidney problem: too much vitamin D supplementation. The 54-year-old man had been taking it for two and a half years, following a recommendation from a naturopath, but he did not suffer from ‘no deficiency or any bone problem.
Every day, he took between 8 and 12 drops, which represents between 8,000 and 12,000 international units (IU). The recommended daily dose is between 400 and 1000 IU per day, and between 800 and 2000 IU for people who are deficient. Such amounts of vitamin D in his body increased the amount of calcium in his blood, and in the long term, damaged his kidneys.
A year after the diagnosis, the man has regained normal levels of calcium and vitamin D in his blood, but he now suffers from lifelong chronic kidney disease. For the Canadian doctors who cared for this patient, the case reminds us that any treatment dietary supplement must be monitored, because if some vitamins are not dangerous or toxic in small doses, they can become so and their effects can be irremediable.
.
