Vitamin D

For maintaining the overall health of an individual, Vitamin D plays a very essential role, might it be proper growth, functioning, and overall health of your muscle cells or it can be the adaptability and smooth functioning of the immune system, Vitamin D finds its place to be at the core of issues.

It also plays an important role in making your skeletal system more immune to any severe disorder.

That's why vitamin D levels should always be maintained to make your body immune to any infection, disease like demineralization of bone, and other known severe negative health conditions.

Vitamin D is very common. In fact, up to 76%  of Indians found vitamin D deficient or are having it's insufficiency. Worldwide, around 1 billion people are found vitamin D deficient.

Let's Look At The Causes 

The vitamin D doesn't produce in the body itself, you need to take it through sun exposure which is really hard to quantify by the body but in general, the Vitamin D supplements available in the market can be more beneficial as there are fewer chances of you getting your vitamin D scale tipping towards toxicity.

If suppose you got severe sunburn by sun exposure then you must look out for healing your sunburn first rather than vitamin D toxicity in the first place. Moreover, the toxicity of vitamin D should be in less consideration than its deficiency.

Like in children their vitamin D deficiency can lead to soft, fragile, and poorly structured bones 

A report by the American Academy of Pediatrics found out that you need to supplement your young ones if they breastfeed or have less sun exposure than required with vitamin D products in the market to normalize their vitamin D level.

So you can visit a doctor for professional advice based on your lifestyle, age, and other important factors to supplement your vitamin D levels.

Let's Understand Some Factors that Contribute to Vitamin D Deficiency 

• Geography
• Colour of your skin
• Absorbency level of vitamin D by the body
• Exposure to sun
• Bodyweight
• Certain medical conditions 

Nowadays many people around the world are having deficiency and insufficiency of vitamin D. They are treating this by having vitamin D supplements to bring their Vitamin D level back to normal as these supplements are safe to use and wipe out the chances of any toxicity. This is certainly because for vitamin D toxicity to happen you need to take an extremely large amount of vitamin D over a period of time.

Other Factors Contribute To Vitamin D Toxicity

Toxicity is more common in people with various medical conditions such as :

• Various lymphomas
• congenital disorders aggravate it
• granulomatous disorders

• When the metabolism of vitamin D dysregulated

Some Uncommon Causes Of Toxicity

• Medical prescription faults.
• Unintentional overdose
• High-doses of vitamin D products.

Vitamin D toxicity is also known by the names as vitamin D intoxication and hypervitaminosis D.

​​Daily Recommended Dose 

For proper absorption of calcium by the body we need Vitamin D. Therefore, vitamin D plays an important role in helping your required growth to occur and maintain healthy bone tissue.

There are only two ways by which we can get vitamin D, First is through sun exposure while the other is from including certain foods in your diet.  According to the National Institutes of Health how much vitamin D is required by your body completely depends upon your age. Like, adults need less amount of Vitamin D than people over 60 as their skin produces less amount of vitamin D. It also recommends that 600 IU(International Unit) is the daily dose for adults, and for good overall growth you can take in between 600 IU to 4000 IU of vitamin D daily.

Signs Of Vitamin D Overdose

However, a high amount of vitamin D in the body is of much concern as it causes toxicity. Before it causes much trouble to your health you must stop having any more of its supplements. Some of the signs of its high levels are:

• Hypercalcemia

Hypercalcemia is a very common sign of high levels of Vitamin D in your body. Vitamin D nutrient helps your body to easily absorb calcium, which is essential for building  healthy bones. However, high levels of it in the body can lead to hypercalcemia which is a condition that indicates high levels of blood calcium, which can potentially cause discomfort and is dangerous for the body.

Normally, the desired level of calcium is between 8.5 to 10.8 mg/dL in the body. When it crosses the normal range, it could trigger many gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting, dizziness, nausea, and weakness.

• Gastrointestinal Disorder

The major side effect of high vitamin D levels in the body is high levels of calcium in the blood which in turn make your body have other gastrointestinal symptoms as a result of hypercalcemia.

Some of the major symptoms of hypercalcemia are:

• Vomiting
• Dizziness
• Nausea
• Constipation
• Loss of appetite
• Diarrhea

However, symptoms sometimes vary with people suffering from hypercalcemia.

In one case study, it is found that a boy suffered from a stomach problem like constipation after taking a vitamin D supplement while another family member was found with increased blood levels without having other symptoms.

• Kidney problems

Hypercalcemia can also lead to certain kidney problems due to vitamin D toxicity.

When blood calcium elevates beyond requirement,  it can harm the kidney's ability to do its work properly so the individual can not concentrate on urine which results in large quantity urination, a condition called polyuria.

Take Away

Things To Consider:

• Take vitamin D supplement on the advice of the doctor only.
• Read the label of the supplement carefully.
• Must be a trusted and reputed brand.
• Product must be third-party tested.
• Long term use of supplement results is still unknown.
• Natural way is having 20 minutes of sun exposure daily.
• When toxicity symptoms appear, visiting a known doctor must be the first thing to do.
• Avoid ' More Is Better' philosophy.