The NHS says if you choose to take vitamin D supplements, 10 micrograms a day will be enough for most people. It adds: “Do not take more than 100 micrograms (4,000 IU) of vitamin D a day as it could be harmful.” Nonetheless, your doctor has recommended you take a different amount of vitamin D, you should follow their advice. You cannot overdose on vitamin D through exposure to sunlight
Healthline explains that vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium from the food you eat. In fact, this is one of its most important roles.
“However, if your vitamin D intake is excessive, your blood calcium may reach levels that can cause unpleasant and potentially dangerous symptoms,” the site adds.
It says the symptoms of vitamin D toxicity are primarily related to hypercalcemia, “which means excessively high blood calcium levels”.
Symptoms of hypercalcemia include digestive distress, such as vomiting, nausea, constipation, and stomach pain fatigue, dizziness, hallucinations, and confusion loss of appetite excessive urination kidney stones, kidney injury, and even kidney failure high blood pressure and heart abnormalities and dehydration.
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Though you can have too much vitamin D, with more people staying indoors during the pandemic, some may have been deprived of vitamin D.
If you or someone you care for is in a higher risk group they may need to take vitamin D supplements.
You can take vitamin D supplements as tablets, liquid or a spray, and they can be bought in a pharmacy.
Dietary vitamin D is available in foods such as oily fish, cod liver oil, red meat, fortified cereals, fortified spreads and egg yolks.
Vitamin D is often referred to as “the sunshine vitamin”, because your skin actually makes this essential nutrient naturally when the sun’s ultraviolet B (UVB) rays hit cholesterol in the skin cells, providing the energy for vitamin D synthesis to occur.
According to the NHS, it won’t be long before you can put your vitamin D supplements away in preparation for the warmer days.
The health service states: “From about late March/early April to the end of September, the majority of people should be able to make all the vitamin D they need from sunlight on their skin.”
If you are uncertain of whether or not you could be at risk of a vitamin D deficiency, it is always best to speak to your GP for advice.
