You Can Overdose On Vitamins?

[Lyricaus]

Who knew? http://www.chemo.net/newpage35.htm
It seems by taking too many (granted large quantity's) Can lead to bad effects. I honestly never knew, since I figured if it was in your body to start with, your body should be used to vast amounts. Seems strange your body can be killed by such a trivial thing. Shows how weak we are, too little we die, too much we die. But yeah, who really knew this? Guess I better cut down to one vitamin a day. '_'

[Mercury126]

Taking too much of anything is bad for you, even too much water can kill you, it's rare but it does happen.

[Ozzylator]

I do know that Vitamin A is fatal in large quantities - eating a whole polar bear liver can kill you.

[Lyricaus]

I just find it strange it can do that, yet alot of vitamins not only differ on amounts given from brand to brand, but half give you your 100% daily allowance. So basically, any more of that vitamin you get during the day could be classed as a minimal overdose, although it'l be hardly anything at all, it still is.

[The Mna]

Are those vitamin supplements actually doing anything for you?

[Lyricaus]

To be honest, who knows? They say it does, but is it really a placebo? most things probably are. But hell, I know you need iron, etc and the tablets state its in there, so it must do something. Otherwise science would of proven them fake. And I am talking one a day multi vitamins, not just single vitamin A tablets, etc.

[by crikey!]

its the difference between water and fat soluble ones. i know this from biochem. you can overdose on fat soluble vitamins (vit K and A i think) and they can do you damage. water soluble ones like vit C can't be overdosed- you piss them right out, so they aren't in your body long enough to do harm if you have more than needed.

[Lyricaus]

Well now we're discussing vitamins in general, I changed the title (or tried) so tell me, do you all honestly think they do any good or are they not worth it?

[Mercury126]

its the difference between water and fat soluble ones. i know this from biochem. you can overdose on fat soluble vitamins (vit K and A i think) and they can do you damage. water soluble ones like vit C can't be overdosed- you piss them right out, so they aren't in your body long enough to do harm if you have more than needed.

Taking in too much protein or vit C over a prolonged period would be putting a heavy strain on your liver, and in the long term that would be bad, or not. Im not too good at biology but thats the way I think it goes.

[Sorcha]

its the difference between water and fat soluble ones. i know this from biochem. you can overdose on fat soluble vitamins (vit K and A i think) and they can do you damage. water soluble ones like vit C can't be overdosed- you piss them right out, so they aren't in your body long enough to do harm if you have more than needed.

This is basically correct. If you have extra of any vitamin that your body needs, because we have no way of storing vitamins (or minerals for that matter) - and also because we can't make vitamins in our body, we must consume them - the extra vitamins are disposed of as waste. Water soluble ones go out through your kidneys, and the fat soluble ones are filtered out by your liver.

If you have too many fat soluble ones your liver isn't really having a nice little party going on. Usually this wouldn't be a problem, but because with modern living, petrocarbons floating around in the air we breathe, chemicals in the water and food we consume, and alcohol/drugs/whatever your liver really isn't ever having a party. Giving it extra work is not good.

But honestly, unless you're in terrible physical condition, having 10 tablets shouldn't be a problem, maybe if you had the whole bottle... the other thing is a lot of nutritional supplements are toxic in themselves, yes they carry good stuff, but the filling and coating for the tablets is often soluble plastic. Yay! More petrocarbons.

Infact, soluble plastic is far more harmful in anything else. Plastic is always breaking down and chemicals dispersing into the air, namely synthetic estrogen which you absorb through your skin! Que infertility problems with all of society, and a cancer epidemic! (Cancer 'feeds' on estrogen.)

:eng101:

[Zhyl]

Chocolate poisoning. Never saw that one coming.

[Sorcha]

Water poisoning is pretty cool too.

It gives you life and can take it away!

[gembird]

I do know that Vitamin A is fatal in large quantities - eating a whole polar bear liver can kill you.

Bugger. I was going to say that.

[captain canuck]

<smart stuff>
:eng101: Consider me educated (and ignore the fact that I knew this already) ;)

[BlueIncaPilot]

Water poisoning is pretty cool too.

It gives you life and can take it away!


Drowning's been around for a while too.

Vitamins? Seems to be a good idea having little drops of goodness but ones made by Asda are going to be a bit of a con.

[terrorbite]

A lot of vitamin tablets say they contain 100% of your RDA of each vitamin, but that doesn't mean your body will absorb that 100%. Different forms of minerals in particular will have varying degrees of absorbtion depending on how they're made. Because for example, a lump of iron you find in a mine isn't chemically the same as the iron you'd find in a piece of meat.

But anyway, I take a few supplements:

- Multi vitamin/mineral tablets
- Vitamin B complex tablets
- Zinc picolinate tablets
- Flaxseed oil capsules

Zinc picolinate is an example of what I was saying before. Its one of the best forms of zinc to actually be absorbed into your body. Multi vitamin tablets usually contain a cheap form like zinc oxide or zinc citrate.

Vitamin B tablets have about 5000% of your RDA of each compound, but its ok cause you piss the excess out (its water soluble). Makes you pee turn illuminous yellow which is cool (cause of the vitamin B2 - riboflavin).

I don't take all those tablets every day. Usually just the multi vitamin and the flaxseed oil capsules (with non gelatin shells), and the others every few days.

[Martinus]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeostasis

[faragher]

Are those vitamin supplements actually doing anything for you?There are a number of diseases related to vitamin deficency - scrurvy, rickets etc. They are rare in the western world nowadays cos of readily available fruit and a more balanced diet, but they do still occasionally happen.

It is also generally believed that certain vitamins/minerals can boost the various systems of the body - vitamin C for your immune system or zinc for male fertility for example.

[Hydralisk]

... and this is why it's so much simpler just to make sure you have a freakin' decent diet with lots of the proper stuff in it. :eng101:

[Ozzylator]

B-vitamins in particular are incredibly good for your brain.

[TheSheep]

even too much water can kill you, it's rare but it does happen.

it's bound to have been said on these ere forums but in America a locala radio station was holding a competition to win a Wii and the competition was 'how much water you coukd drink without going to the loo' a woman died from water poisoning

[tom93]

it's bound to have been said on these ere forums but in America a locala radio station was holding a competition to win a Wii and the competition was 'how much water you coukd drink without going to the loo' a woman died from water poisoning
Australia, I believe. And it was called "Hold your wee for a Wii"

On topic, I might be completely wrong, but can't you die from too much Oxygen at once, even?

[Mercury126]

Hyperventilating repeatedly can kill you, I think. I also remember something about some form of pure oxygen being fatal.

[ZOIDBERG]

Australia, I believe. And it was called "Hold your wee for a Wii"

On topic, I might be completely wrong, but can't you die from too much Oxygen at once, even?
It was in California. And yes, pure oxygen can kill you.

[tom93]

It was in California. And yes, pure oxygen can kill you.
Oh well, half right.
I think the guy on the show had an Australian accent, maybe.

[Ozzylator]

Most things can kill you.

[Mutey]

According to the side of the bottle, taking too many Vitamin C tablets can cause a lacsative effect.
Oh great. :D

[terrorbite]

According to the side of the bottle, taking too many Vitamin C tablets can cause a lacsative effect.
Oh great. :D
According to whfoods.com (an excellent food/nutrition site btw):

"At high supplemental doses involving 5 or more grams of vitamin C, diarrhea can result from the fluid in the intestine becoming too concentrated ("osmotic diarrhea")."

[Martinus]

Hyperventilating repeatedly can kill you, I think. I also remember something about some form of pure oxygen being fatal.

There is only one form of pure oxygen. :)
Irrespective, it's not the 'purity' that kills you it's the concentration.

The link I posted above on homeostasis describes the fact that all excessive consumption is potentially lethal.

[Boyinabox]

According to the side of the bottle, taking too many Vitamin C tablets can cause a lacsative effect.
Oh great. :D

Well tablets aren't a great source of roughage. :p

[Mutey]

Hyperventilating repeatedly can kill you, I think. I also remember something about some form of pure oxygen being fatal.

I heard somewhere that oxygen becomes poisonous when your really really deep under the sea. So you have to breathe helium, or someother gas that makes your voice really high.

Oh what a wonderful fact filled thread. ^_^

[captain canuck]

nitrogen?

the atmosphere is, after all, made up primarily of it.

i'm probably wrong, though :p

[Hydralisk]

It's a mixture of Oxygen/Air and Helium if you are going deep sea diving :D

[gxfu]

I once had a whole bottle of vitamin gummy bears. They didn't do anything to me, except my pee smelled like medicine and glowed a neon yellow. Is that bad?

[terrorbite]

glowed a neon yellow. Is that bad?
That's the excess riboflavin (vitamin b2) being excreted.

[by crikey!]

I once had a whole bottle of vitamin gummy bears. They didn't do anything to me, except my pee smelled like medicine and glowed a neon yellow. Is that bad?

Vitamin Friends, gummy gnomes from Lidl, with added vitamins. yeah, i ate an entire 3 packets of them and it had the same effect. they are damn good.

[kikii]

Taking too much of anything is bad for you, even too much water can kill you, it's rare but it does happen.


Yeah. You internally drown yourself... :S

[gembird]

I've never had to take any vitamins or owt. I was always one of those weird kids that actually liked eating my greens...

[JaffaCakeMan]

nitrogen?

the atmosphere is, after all, made up primarily of it.

i'm probably wrong, though :p

Spot on actually.

Earth's atmosphere is made up of the following:

Nitrogen-78.084%
Oxygen-20.946%
Argon-0.934%
Carbon dioxide-0.038%
Water vapor-1%
Other-0.002%

I hate to think what the "other" is. :D

[by crikey!]

I've never had to take any vitamins or owt. I was always one of those weird kids that actually liked eating my greens...

me too. brocolli and spinach being my favourites and carrots being bearable. its just TV which gives the stereotype of kids which don't like vegetables. its also the fact that i don't like taking tablets for anything, so i just ate my greens.

[JaffaCakeMan]

me too. brocolli and spinach being my favourites and carrots being bearable. its just TV which gives the stereotype of kids which don't like vegetables. its also the fact that i don't like taking tablets for anything, so i just ate my greens.

Bah! Junk food all the way for me. I don't care if it's unhealthy so spare me the lecture. At least it tastes nice... :)

Although i do have to take a multivitamin tablet/chewy sweet thing everyday but it's surprisingly tasty so i don't care. Yum, orange flavour.

Don't worry, i don't do an in-human amount of exercise to keep fit.

[gembird]

...brocolli and spinach being my favourites...

Damn straight. Broccoli is made of chlorophyll and win.

[FuriousPanda]

You odd people..

I realsied the other day that theres a metric fucktonne of vitamin b12 in energy drink. Apparently it can cause paralysis in big doses. I went off energy drink after that. That and after drinking 14 cans in one night my right arm went completely numb and all of my blood sugar went... I havd to have a bag of marshmellows to not die. Yeah, so dont drink energy drink kids!

[JaffaCakeMan]

At least you had the reward of eating a whole bag of marshmallows. Oh, yes.

[Mash89]

You odd people..

I realsied the other day that theres a metric fucktonne of vitamin b12 in energy drink. Apparently it can cause paralysis in big doses. I went off energy drink after that. That and after drinking 14 cans in one night my right arm went completely numb and all of my blood sugar went... I havd to have a bag of marshmellows to not die. Yeah, so dont drink energy drink kids!

Or, don't drink 14 cans of it. I drink two cans a day to get me through work.

[FuriousPanda]

Or, don't drink 14 cans of it. I drink two cans a day to get me through work.
You know, thats a good idea... 18 packets of skips probably didnt help either. That was a fun yet scary night...

[The Mna]

Or, don't drink 14 cans of it. I drink two cans a day to get me through work.

After a while of taking stimulants, like caffeine, your body does build up an immunity to them, and I imagine they do more harm than good. Not a fan of coffee, etc.

[Martinus]

You get depression if you quit caffene based drinks that were habitually consumed.

Your brain gets used to operating at a higher rate (for want of a better description).

[captain canuck]

Yup. I'm terribly moody without my morning cup of coffee. ^_^

[Smokey]

Your body is very fragile. Most of your organs are used to take just the right amount of everything from what you eat.

Interestingly Vitamin D is a steroid derrivative.

[wayland jr]

Spot on actually.

Earth's atmosphere is made up of the following:

Nitrogen-78.084%
Oxygen-20.946%
Argon-0.934%
Carbon dioxide-0.038%
Water vapor-1%
Other-0.002%

I hate to think what the "other" is. :D

Other is just other gases, such as: Carbon Monoxide, Hydrogen etc. There is so little of it and so many different gases present in this category, that it would be inappropriate to list them all.

[Norbington]

Oho I know all about vitamin shenanigans.

When I was a little tyke I ate an awful lot of delicious Superted (\o/) Vitamin C tablets. My child reasoning was that they tasted like sweets so YAY!

Unfortunately I became quite ill for a good few days, although I never told my mother why. Also, I couldn't eat vitamin c tablets for years afterwards. Terrible.

[HChinaski]

whenever I've tried taking one of those big multi-vitamins I get all flushed and start to feel like I have a slight cold because obviously my body doesn't need it and is suffering ill effects until it can expel the excess and restore balance, so i can see it.