Vitamin supplements and Cod liver oil

brianthebard

So I got a men's suppliment (ie sans iron) and also cod liver oil which has added vitamins. Some of the vitamins listed on the tablets are a few 100 times over RDA, like B vitamins and the like. While that's normal enough for those vitamins, I was wondering how I'll know if I were getting too much by taking the cod liver oil as well. I only plan on taking the vitamins supp for the duration of the bottle, I usually have to get one every 4-6 months. Opinions please?

(looking in G'em's position in particular, oh guru of biologyness;) )

g'em

brianthebard wrote:

So I got a men's suppliment (ie sans iron) and also cod liver oil which has added vitamins. Some of the vitamins listed on the tablets are a few 100 times over RDA, like B vitamins and the like. While that's normal enough for those vitamins, I was wondering how I'll know if I were getting too much by taking the cod liver oil as well. I only plan on taking the vitamins supp for the duration of the bottle, I usually have to get one every 4-6 months. Opinions please?

(looking in G'em's position in particular, oh guru of biologyness;) )

Gah!! the pressure!!!

When it comes to "overdosing" with vitamins the ones you need to worry about are the fat soluble ones: A, D, E and K (although too much vit K doesn't seem to do much harm?). These vitamins will be stored in the liver and used when they're needed. In reality with a good diet and healthy lifestyle it's rare for people to be deficient in these vitamins. Spending time outdoors for example helps keep vit D3 levels up as your body can produce it in repsonse to sunlight.

Cod Liver oil is very rich in vitamins A and D so check how much of each is in each capsule. Most cod liver supps run in at about 1000mg of oil per tablet so one or two a day will suffice. But it there's already vitamins A and D in the multivit (which I'm presuming there are) then you may need to reduce it. You'll normally see most multivits have a smaller amount of the fat-soluble vitmains in them for this reason- they won't normally have more than 100% of the RDA.

fwiw though, I'd be more inclined to take fish oils than a multi-vit. More people are deficient in Omega-3's than vitamins.

brianthebard

Well I got the fish oil cause I read that it helps ease asthma and wanted to try it out, as well as know it has other health benefits obviously.

Just checked the numbers now-Cod liver supp has 4000 I.U (is that a unit of measurement of some sort?) per 10mls, and the vitamins has ~370mg, which the box says is about 45% RDA. Thats the biggest one listed on the Cod liver, the rest, like Vit D, are in around 400 I.U.

g'em

brianthebard wrote:

Just checked the numbers now-Cod liver supp has 4000 I.U (is that a unit of measurement of some sort?) per 10mls, and the vitamins has ~370mg, which the box says is about 45% RDA. Thats the biggest one listed on the Cod liver, the rest, like Vit D, are in around 400 I.U.

I.U. is an old measurement of vitamin activity determined by biological methods as opposed to new measurements that are determined by direct chemical analysis.

For Vitamin A, 1 I.U. = 0.3µg retinol, 3.6µg b-carotene, or 7.2µg other vitamin A carotenoids
For Vitamin D, 1 I.U. = 0.025µg cholecalciferol

The RDA for Vit A is around 700-900 mg (3000 I.U.) for adult men and women, for Vit D it's 5mg (around 400 I.U.). With the Vit A if it's in the form of beta-carotene apparently the body is more tolerable of it though (should say it on the label). If you have 4000 I.U. per 10ml though you'll be fine (Each capsule will be around 0.75-1ml?)

brianthebard

Its not capsule its a bottle. I guess that makes my teaspoon measuring a bit inaccurate but I didn't see any capsules. So I'm not likely to be overdosing anyways? Excellent.

g'em

You're fine. 1 teaspoon = just under 5ml (4.89 actually )

brianthebard

Well its 10ml a day, so two spoons = 4000 I.U, but good to know I'm not overdoing it anyways, thanks.

GreenHorn

Just wanted to ask in relation to this topic - How would you know if you were taking too many vits, oils etc? What would the symptoms be and how dangerous/hazardous to your health is overdoing it?

Thanks lads/lassies...

GreenHorn

g'em

GreenHorn wrote:

Just wanted to ask in relation to this topic - How would you know if you were taking too many vits, oils etc? What would the symptoms be and how dangerous/hazardous to your health is overdoing it?

Thanks lads/lassies...

GreenHorn

There's two types of vitamins, water soluble (thiamine, niacin, riboflavin, pantothenate, vitamin B12, folic acid, ascorbic acid or vit c) and fat soluble (vitamin E, vitamin D, vitamin A, vitamin K). Generally speaking it's hard to "overdose" on the water soluble ones- your body just eliminates them in your pee, but the fat soluble ones will get stored by the body.

vitamin A: toxic @ 100,000 units/day
Causes irritability, fatigue, insomnia, painful bones and joints, abnormal bone growth, loss of hair, itchy skin, anorexia, decreased blood clotting time, birth defects, abortions. In children: malaise and fatigue, desquamation of the skin and mucous membranes, abnormal growth, and pain an tenderness in the long bones. Pseudotumour cerebri, manifesting as headache and irritability
vitamin E: toxicity - Not established (probably high)
Causes possible increase in blood pressure
vitamin D: toxic @ 4000-10,000IU /day
Causes nausea, diarrhea, muscular weakness, joint pains, calcification of soft tissues, resorption of bone. In children: weakness, lethargy, anorexia and constipation, and chronic overdosage results in hypercalcemia, nephrocalcinosis and eventually azotemia
vitamin K3 (menadione): toxicity not established
Causes possible thrombosis, vomiting, porphynuria in pregnancy can cause jaundice in the newborn, block the effects of oral anticoagulants.
vitamin K1 (phytonadione): Not considered toxic
vitamin K2 (menaquinone): Not considered toxic

(Sourced from a variety of physiology textbooks)

The reality is that eating a healthy balanced diet is highly, highly unlikely to cause an overdose of vitamins. The dangers occur when people take over the recommended dosage of supplements or multivitamins. Vitamin toxicity, which is also called hypervitaminosis or vitamin poisoning, is becoming more common in developed countries these days because of the popularity of those vitamin supplements- oodles of people treat themselves for minor illnesses with large doses (megadoses) of vitamins. Some people may also have pre-existing conditions that prevent the body from metabolising certain vitamins accordingly.

If you take too many oils... you tend to get fat But gastrointestinal upset is common with the use of fish oil supplements. Dioarrhea can also occur, with potentially severe dioarrhea at very high doses. There's also reports of increased burping, acid reflux/heartburn/indigestion, abdominal bloating, and abdominal pain. A fishy aftertaste is a common effect (yum ). These gastrointestinal side effects can be minimized if fish oils are taken with meals and if doses are started low and gradually increased. And with the high levels of Vit A and D present in fish oils there's also the risk of toxicity induced by by high levels of these vitmains too.

As with everything, moderation is key. Stick to the recommended guidelines on the packet- if it says take 1-2 daily, then do just that. More is not automatically better.