Consumer Reports Investigates Vitamins and Supplements: Ten Dangers That May Surprise You

Clip You can overdose on vitamins and minerals.

Unless your health-care provider tells you that you need more than 100 percent of the recommended daily intake of a particular nutrient, you probably don’t.

Megadoses of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K can cause problems, and even some standard doses may interfere with certain prescription medicines.

Surprisingly, some people may experience adverse effects from even normal doses of a vitamin or mineral supplement, especially patients with digestive issues or those who take blood thinners, says Dr. Mosquera.

Vitamin D In the US

RDA = 600 IU
Upper Limit = 4,000 IU, which is 6X larger than the RDA

A summary of many recommendations

Factoids

There has not been a death due to vitamin D in over 5 years
Over 500 people a year die in the US due to aspirin
Medical studies have only documented problems with 20,000 IU of vitamin D (33X larger than the RDA)

See also Vitamin D Life

• Vitamin D Recommendations
• Annual cost of 1000 IU of Vitamin D daily - Consumer Reports May 2013
• Overview Toxicity of vitamin D which has the following chart