How I Overdosed on a Vitamin and got Vitamin A Toxicity 
I am a big believer in doing everything natural and avoiding pharmaceutical medications whenever possible, but even though vitamins are viewed as healthy and a good natural option, this past week I realized how dangerous they can be. As you can tell by the title of my post, this week I have been trying to recover from vitamin A toxicity due to taking too much vitamin A.
If you’ve read some of my previous posts, you know that I mostly follow the paleo diet, I am a big fan of taking fermented cod liver (which is high in vitamin A) and probiotics. Over the past 3 years, I have been seeing a naturopathic doctor and go to get my blood checked by him regularly to see if I am low in any nutrients/vitamins.
At the beginning of last month, I got my blood checked for a variety of vitamins and a few other things, such as thyroid functioning.
The results of my blood test showed that I was very low in vitamin A, my level was only at 42mcg (picture of my blood test below).
I was surprised my vitamin A was so low because it has always been high on every previous blood test, as I take 2 teaspoons of fermented cod liver oil (FCLO) daily and also take grass-fed desiccated liver pills (because I’m not a fan of eating liver), which are both super high in vitamin A.
Since my vitamin A was low, my naturopath gave me a 100,000IU vitamin A supplement to add into my regimen. I started taking it in addition to my FCLO (about 33,000IU vitamin A) and desiccated liver pills (about 5,000IU vitamin A). After a few days of taking the large dose, I started to feel odd but, I just brushed it off. It wasn’t until 6 days after taking it, I started to get horrible symptoms (see my symptoms below) and I stopped taking all vitamin A.
Why did this happen to me? I thought, maybe it’s because I’m sensitive to the vitamin A and that’s why the symptoms are so bad. I didn’t think that the dosage would be a problem because I read online that many people take 100,000IU with no ill effects.
But, when I thought back, none of this made sense to me and it was odd that my vitamin A came out so low because I was taking FCLO and liver pills. One thing that happened concerned me though, I remembered that previous times I had tested my vitamin A, the person drawing the blood immediately wrapped the vial in foil and told me that it shouldn’t be exposed to the light as it could cause the test to be inaccurate.
Well, this last time I went to the blood drawing at the hospital, the phlebotomist, did not cover the vial at all and left it exposed to the bright fluorescent lights in the room. That was it! It must have been the reason the test was inaccurate. Studies show that when the blood vial is exposed to light, it decreases the accuracy of the measurement.
So, that was my answer! I took a high dose of vitamin A on top of normal vitamin A levels, that is what I believe caused me to get vitamin A toxicity.
There’s a lot of contradictory information online about how much vitamin A is safe to take. Even though, 100,000IU is a very high dose, I have not found it listed as an amount that will cause vitamin A toxicity (at least in the short-term).
Toxicity occurs with the following doses:
For adults- 25,000 IU per kg of body weight (acute-taken at one time)
-4,000 IU per kg of body weight (chronic-taken over several months)
For children- More than 300,000 IU (acute- taken at one time)
-More than 100,000 IU (chronic-taken over several months)
Even though these are the typical doses that can cause vitamin A toxicity that does not mean that lower doses cannot cause it or the symptoms. Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin, which means that excess of it gets stored in your liver and fatty cells for long periods of time so it can build up in the body and it does not leave the body quickly.
During the first few days of taking the Vitamin A supplement, I felt nervous, like I had high anxiety, but for absolutely no reason. I brushed it off for a few days. I even looked up a connection between anxiety and vitamin A, but found no information so I thought it couldn’t be connected, but I was wrong.
Then, suddenly on the 6th day of taking the vitamin A, after dinner I started to feel really dizzy, I had difficulty breathing, felt pressure on my head, nervousness, confusion (couldn’t think straight), bright lights bothered me, and my vision seemed off. I immediately stopped taking all vitamin A.
I went to two doctors to see if there was anything I could do to get the vitamin A out of my system faster and feel better. Their response was to just wait it out because it is a fat soluble vitamin. They said there isn’t much you can do. This was frustrating, I felt so terrible and to hear that I have to suffer with these symptoms and there was nothing I can do to get better faster made it even worse.
I researched vitamin A toxicity online to see what I could do and the only studies I found were mostly related to vitamin A toxicity in animals, but I figured the information and treatments may be worth a try. So here they are, this is what I did/am doing:
Today is the 5th day since I stopped taking the vitamin A supplement. I am feeling better since the first (worst) night I realized I had vitamin A toxicity, but still not feeling back to normal. My vision is still off, I feel dizzy, and off balance. I’m hoping that with each day I will start gradually feeling back to normal as the vitamin A decreases.
I’ll keep you posted on my progress.
I am a big believer in doing everything natural and avoiding pharmaceutical medications whenever possible, but even though vitamins are viewed as healthy and a good natural option, this past week I realized how dangerous they can be. As you can tell by the title of my post, this week I have been trying to recover from vitamin A toxicity due to taking too much vitamin A.
If you’ve read some of my previous posts, you know that I mostly follow the paleo diet, I am a big fan of taking fermented cod liver (which is high in vitamin A) and probiotics. Over the past 3 years, I have been seeing a naturopathic doctor and go to get my blood checked by him regularly to see if I am low in any nutrients/vitamins.
At the beginning of last month, I got my blood checked for a variety of vitamins and a few other things, such as thyroid functioning.
The results of my blood test showed that I was very low in vitamin A, my level was only at 42mcg (picture of my blood test below).
I was surprised my vitamin A was so low because it has always been high on every previous blood test, as I take 2 teaspoons of fermented cod liver oil (FCLO) daily and also take grass-fed desiccated liver pills (because I’m not a fan of eating liver), which are both super high in vitamin A.
Why I got vitamin A toxicity
Since my vitamin A was low, my naturopath gave me a 100,000IU vitamin A supplement to add into my regimen. I started taking it in addition to my FCLO (about 33,000IU vitamin A) and desiccated liver pills (about 5,000IU vitamin A). After a few days of taking the large dose, I started to feel odd but, I just brushed it off. It wasn’t until 6 days after taking it, I started to get horrible symptoms (see my symptoms below) and I stopped taking all vitamin A.
Why did this happen to me? I thought, maybe it’s because I’m sensitive to the vitamin A and that’s why the symptoms are so bad. I didn’t think that the dosage would be a problem because I read online that many people take 100,000IU with no ill effects.
But, when I thought back, none of this made sense to me and it was odd that my vitamin A came out so low because I was taking FCLO and liver pills. One thing that happened concerned me though, I remembered that previous times I had tested my vitamin A, the person drawing the blood immediately wrapped the vial in foil and told me that it shouldn’t be exposed to the light as it could cause the test to be inaccurate.
Well, this last time I went to the blood drawing at the hospital, the phlebotomist, did not cover the vial at all and left it exposed to the bright fluorescent lights in the room. That was it! It must have been the reason the test was inaccurate. Studies show that when the blood vial is exposed to light, it decreases the accuracy of the measurement.
So, that was my answer! I took a high dose of vitamin A on top of normal vitamin A levels, that is what I believe caused me to get vitamin A toxicity.
What amount causes vitamin A toxicity?
There’s a lot of contradictory information online about how much vitamin A is safe to take. Even though, 100,000IU is a very high dose, I have not found it listed as an amount that will cause vitamin A toxicity (at least in the short-term).
Toxicity occurs with the following doses:
For adults- 25,000 IU per kg of body weight (acute-taken at one time)
-4,000 IU per kg of body weight (chronic-taken over several months)
For children- More than 300,000 IU (acute- taken at one time)
-More than 100,000 IU (chronic-taken over several months)
Even though these are the typical doses that can cause vitamin A toxicity that does not mean that lower doses cannot cause it or the symptoms. Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin, which means that excess of it gets stored in your liver and fatty cells for long periods of time so it can build up in the body and it does not leave the body quickly.
My symptoms- How I found out the vitamin was the cause
During the first few days of taking the Vitamin A supplement, I felt nervous, like I had high anxiety, but for absolutely no reason. I brushed it off for a few days. I even looked up a connection between anxiety and vitamin A, but found no information so I thought it couldn’t be connected, but I was wrong.
Then, suddenly on the 6th day of taking the vitamin A, after dinner I started to feel really dizzy, I had difficulty breathing, felt pressure on my head, nervousness, confusion (couldn’t think straight), bright lights bothered me, and my vision seemed off. I immediately stopped taking all vitamin A.
What I did to Treat it
I went to two doctors to see if there was anything I could do to get the vitamin A out of my system faster and feel better. Their response was to just wait it out because it is a fat soluble vitamin. They said there isn’t much you can do. This was frustrating, I felt so terrible and to hear that I have to suffer with these symptoms and there was nothing I can do to get better faster made it even worse.
I researched vitamin A toxicity online to see what I could do and the only studies I found were mostly related to vitamin A toxicity in animals, but I figured the information and treatments may be worth a try. So here they are, this is what I did/am doing:
- Taking zinc (supposed to help counteract)
- Taking vitamin C and eating a lot of foods high in vitamin C (also supposed to help counteract)
- Taking Vitamin E -I just started this today, so I can’t say whether it’s helping or not yet but, this study found in rabbits that it counteracted the vitamin A toxicity effects.
- Drinking a lot of water- Not sure how much this helps but, I do feel better staying hydrated and I figure it must help to just flush everything out of my system.
- Eating good meals that have little to no vitamin A
- Trying to exercise/move around to increase my metabolism as much as possible, despite feeling bad.
- Doing a magnesium or Epsom salt foot bath 2 times a day
- Drinking salt water sole 3 times a day
How I’m doing now:
Today is the 5th day since I stopped taking the vitamin A supplement. I am feeling better since the first (worst) night I realized I had vitamin A toxicity, but still not feeling back to normal. My vision is still off, I feel dizzy, and off balance. I’m hoping that with each day I will start gradually feeling back to normal as the vitamin A decreases.
I’ll keep you posted on my progress.
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