VITAMIN D OVERDOSE SYMPTOMS

Are these Vitamin D pills making me sick?

“I want to be healthy, so I started taking Vitamin D supplements. Now I feel terrible.  I’m worried I have Vitamin D toxicity! What are the Vitamin D overdose symptoms? Am I in serious danger?”

You may have this fear when starting Vitamin D supplementation. So, “How much Vitamin D is right right amount me to take?”

But first, just in case you or your child has overdosed on Vitamin D, call 911, your physician, and/or poison control. If you have any doubt whether you need medical attention for any reason, please call 911 or your physician as well. Better safe than sorry.

Search for some short-term signs of Vitamin D overdose and here’s what you’ll find:

loss of appetite,
diarrhea, constipation,
nausea and vomiting,
bone pain,
drowsiness,
headache,
irregular heart beat,
muscle and joint pain,
high blood pressure,
kidney failure

And here’s what you’ll find if you search for longer-term signs of Vitamin D overdosing:

Increased risk of kidney stones
Nerve Issues – numbness, pain, burning, prickling, parasthesias, etc.
Muscle – pain, cramps, atrophy

A large part of what happens during overdose/toxicity of Vitamin D: hypercalcemia (hi blood level of Ca++, or too much calcium in the blood) which causes the host of other symptoms.

So, because I’m not a physician, remember: If you have any doubt whether you need medical attention for any reason, please call 911 or your physician as well. Better safe than sorry.

SUNLIGHT – CAN’T OVERDOSE?

You won’t find a single case of someone having Vitamin D overdose symptoms from sun exposure alone (and not taking Vitamin D supplements). There are very rare cases of people with Vitamin D and sun sensitivities, but there are no documented cases of overdosing on Vitamin D from sun exposure.

In fact, some researchers suggest that our “natural” limit for Vitamin D (from sunshine) is around 10,000 IU’s per day. This is the amount of Vitamin D thought to be gained from total-body sun exposure per day. [2]

OVERDOSE TREATMENT

What’s next if you suspect you have overdosed? First, get medical attention, I’m not a physician.

Next, your physician will likely run tests to confirm that you have hypercalcemia (the main symptom of Vitamin D overdose).

If your physician thinks you have indeed overdosed on Vitamin D, they immediately ensure that you are not taking any more Vitamin D. Then, they’ll begin lowering your calcium levels with IV hydration, corticosteroids, and bisphonates.

OVERDOSE DEATHS

Although the US Recommended Daily Allowance for Vitamin D is 400 IU’s per day, it will take tons more that to kill a person (except in the rare hypersensitive person).

In 2007 Poison Control [4] reported Vitamin D statistics of: 596 total exposures, 1 major outcome, and 0 deaths.

So, there are actually EXTREMELY few cases of death resulting from Vitamin D. But, then again most people don’t dabble in extremely high doses of Vitamin D supplements. So, it’s unlikely, but be smart about it.

OVERDOSE FEARS ARE UNWARRANTED

There are far more people suffering from Vitamin D malnutrition than there are people suffering from overdose. In the words of Vitamin D expert, Dr. John Jacob Cannell, MD, “…worrying about vitamin D toxicity is like dying of thirst in the desert while worrying about drowning.” [3]

MAXIMUM SAFE DOSES FOR CHILDREN and ADULTS

From the Office of Dietary Supplements at the National Institutes of Health, you’ll find that “tolerable upper intake levels” (maximum daily intake unlikely to cause adverse health effects) for children 0-12 months in age is 1000 IU’s per day. For children ages 1-14 it is 2000 IU’s per day.[5] According to the same article, adults also have a tolerable limit of 2000 IU’s per day.

These tolerable levels are being pushed by many scientists and researchers. Some suggest using 5000 IU’s of Vitamin D supplementation is safe for adults. To play it safe, stay within the published NIH ranges, however. If you decide to deviate as it may or not be safe, please be sure to get your Vitamin D blood levels tested regularly and consult with your physician.

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[1] Jackson RD, LaCroix AZ, Gass M, Wallace RB, Robbins J, Lewis CE, et al. Calcium plus vitamin D supplementation and the risk of fractures. N Engl J Med 2006;354:669-83. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16481635?dopt=Abstract)

[2] Reinhold Vieth, Vitamin D supplementation, 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations, and safety, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 69, No. 5, 842-856, May 1999.
10,000 is our bio-natural limit for Vitamin D – http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/69/5/842

[3] John Jacob Cannell, MD, Executive Director of the Vitamin D Council – http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/vitaminDToxicity.shtml

[4] Bronstein AC, Spyker DA, Cantilena LR Jr, Green JL, Rumack BH, Heard SE. 2007 Annual Report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers’ National Poison Data System (NPDS): 25th Annual Report. Clin Toxicol (Phila). Dec 2008;46(10):927-1057.

[5] http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind.asp#h8, which refers to Institute of Medicine, Food and Nutrition Board. Dietary Reference Intakes: Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Vitamin D, and Fluoride. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1997.

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You asked, so I guess I should tell you. It started me chasing after this paleo diet thing. It started me thinking about the most natural diet we can possibly get to. What made me think that there could possibly be a philosophy behind eating and health?

Have you ever read a book that seemed unify all of your theories into one grande scheme that makes total sense? Aha, I see how it all fits together now!

I was trying to make sense of all of these studies about cancer and heart disease and auto-immune diseases and nutrition and obesity… One day Marshall told me that I was doing “The Paleo Diet.” I asked what he meant and he described that it was what paleo man ate. I thought about it.

Then, I bought a book. And the clouds parted as the sunshine beamed down on me!

Dr. Loren Cordain’s “The Paleo Diet – Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Food You Were Designed to Eat” was that book for me. Complete with 100 paleolithic recipes, “The Paleo Diet” brought together years of studying health and 5 years of biochemistry for me. It’s simple after reading the book, but it’s more than just eating lean meats, fruits, vegetables, and nuts.

For example, Dr. Cordain’s research indicates that eating more protein than other macronutrients is just one key to why people lose weight so easily on the paleo diet. He describes dietary-induced thermogenesis and how it impacts your weight. And he shows how the paleo diet combats insulin-resistance and reduces hunger.

But he also answers these questions: Did a paleolithic man eat salt? How did he exercise? Did he eat more of any particular types of foods? How should you start the three levels of the paleo diet? What lists of actual foods can I eat on the paleo diet? How much can I eat and when? How do you cook paleo food?

The Paleo Diet shows how:

• Prehistoric man adapted to or was designed to eat a hunter-gatherer diet for possibly millions of years.
• Our DNA has not changed much even over the last 50,000 years.
• We started eating tons of wheat just a few thousand years ago.
• We haven’t had time to adapt to eating wheat, which is a prime suspect in all sorts of health issues.
• We should almost exclusively be eating lean meats, vegetables, fruits, and nuts for optimal health.

Benefits you’ll get:

• You naturally lose weight, gain energy, and dramatically lower risk of diseases (without starvation).
• You can use his 100 “paleo diet recipes“, included in the book, to eat a variety of tasty home-prepared foods.
• If you eat his version of the paleo diet, you’ll pack in the most nutrients per calorie.
• You’ll energize yourself with paleo-like exercise.

To be honest I wasn’t out to lose weight when I started. What hooked me was that I had researched my way into finally lowering both my cholesterol and blood pressure to levels well below “acceptable” (you can see my “results” on another post). Then, I read his book and I think, “if only I’d known it could be so simple, I could have skipped the stress of a lot of other reading.”

You’re probably doing your own research right now. Good.  You’ll find a lot of junk on the internet. Are their claims backed up with clinical studies? If not, BEWARE. You need to, at the very least, read the abstracts of the underlying studies. “The Paleo Diet” has over 300 references to studies, etc.

Summary: If you want the benefits of the world’s best and most natural diet, you should start with reading “The Paleo Diet” from Loren Cordain.

For the sake of full disclosure, I think it is important that I tell you that if you click on my link and you happen to buy this for $10 or whatever it costs now, I will get a 4% commission, or around $0.40. I loved the book, I believe in the book, and I’m telling you about the book, so why not make a few cents here and there?

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“How can you say the paleo diet is the BEST way to lose weight?”  One day my physician asked me, “just how did you get your weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol down so much?”

Top 10 reasons the Paleo Diet is the Best Way To Lose Weight

#1 – No hunger

You will not go hungry on the Paleolithic Diet.  This is the most important aspect to have in a weight loss plan that you decide try.

Most diets claim to be the best way to lose weight and simply don’t work for the majority of people.  Even when a diet does work for you and you are feeling great about losing all your extra weight, most ALL of them are followed by the “stealthy months” of gaining weight back and you end up heavier than when you started the diet.

On the paleo diet you eat foods that naturally balance your insulin/leptin biochemistry to prevent you from starving and you can easily eat enough food to feel “full”.  So, do this thing right, and you will not go hungry!

Gaining weight in the post-diet “stealthy months” is caused by the starvation state that you have caused in your body.  We know, now, that body weight is regulated by complex biochemistry based on our genes and what we do to affect those genes’ expression.  Essentially, when you starve your body for weeks or months on a diet, your body “perceives” this as a famine and slows its metabolism and increases your long term desire for foods.

#2 – It was created for you

The paleo diet was created for you and your unique human physiological needs.  Actually, I guess this depends on your beliefs.  Die hard evolutionists would say that the diet existed first and that over millions of years (up until 10,000 years ago) we evolved and adapted to optimally consume the paleo diet that was available to us.  This is a great argument, but you could also view it as a diet that was provided during creation for hunter-gather humans or prehistoric man.

Either way, the paleo diet is what we as humans would naturally eat over time, if we were dropped off in a jungle (or any other uncivilized place in the world) by ourselves with no way to escape.  We would hunt for animals and gather berries and watermelons.  We wouldn’t be eating wheat in the massive amounts like we eat today and we, surely, wouldn’t be eating McDonalds and cheesecake.

Eating our originally intended diet normalizes your weight.  In time you gravitate to your natural weight.

#3 – 100% natural

Only a fool doesn’t realize today that you should eat natural foods versus anything man-made or processed.  But not everyone follows this wisdom.  A huge reason that the paleo diet is the best way to lose weight is that you won’t find any artificial sweeteners and artificial colors in it.  You wont find any chemical preservatives either.  It is a natural foods diet.

Artificial sweeteners, like sucralose and aspartame, have research that is mounting against it saying that they are linked with cancers, autoimmune diseases, etc.  Entire books have been written by physicians showing how bad these things can be.

#4 – Most nutrients per calorie

Most diets focus on getting the most taste per calories eaten.  The paleo diet focuses more on getting the most nutrients per calorie of food eaten.  When you supply your body with proper and natural nutrition you won’t constantly crave more and more food.  Instead you eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and nuts which will give you all the nutrition and satisfaction you need.

Compare this to a typical American diet of sandwiches, pizza, hamburgers, soda pop, blah, blah.  These foods have tons of calories and very little natural nutritional value.  You get the infamous “empty calories” and nothing to show for it.  There is nothing better than great nutrients from natural foods.

#5 – Makes Food Taste Better

I was amazed at about the three month mark of being on the paleo diet.  I started thinking things like bananas tasted great.  Not that they tasted good, but that they tasted great.  My wife had to force me to eat fruits and vegetables before I started the paleo diet.  But, now…grapes, blueberries, chicken breast, turkey burger, spicy vegetables, I love them all.  As I write, I can honestly say that my mouth is watering.

#6 – Exercise is easier

Yet another reason, why the paleo diet is the best way to lose weight is that paleo-oriented exercise is easier than any other exercise I’ve done in the past.  I didn’t say that you don’t exercise on the paleo diet, but it is easier than traditional marathon running and lifting weights for an hour.

On the paleo diet you walk, run, and do resistance training, but in a much more fun (for me) way.  Instead of jogging or doing aerobics for 60 minutes you walk.  A caveman would think we were nuts for jogging forever and getting worn out.  Instead he would occasionally sprint, at full speed (to chase a rabbit or escape a bear), and rest.  Then, for most of the day he would walk at a sustainable pace.  Every once in a while he’d need to move a log or lift a rock.

Lastly, hunter-gatherers were solo travelers all the time.  They would have walked and worked with their families.  So, I’ve found it wonderful to get my workouts at the playground where my kids are playing and to get my walks in by pulling them in a wagon to the playground.

So, the exercise is more fun, easier, and less hard on your body.  Rather than over-training, you are sustainable and have time to rest and rebuild.

#7 – Increases energy

I’m not sure how much of the energy increase I’ve had is from:

1. losing 30 pounds and keeping it off for 2+ years?
2. or how much is from exercising like a paleolithic man?
3. or how much of it is from higher nutrients I get for the calories I consume?
4. or how much of it is from better glucose/insulin biochemistry?

But, one thing I know for sure is this:  There are days now that I am crackling with energy!  And I just don’t get those days of tremendous exhaustion.

#8 – Better Brain Focus

For brain health, the paleo diet was the best way to lose weight for me too.  Not only do most other diets make you hungry at some point which makes you less able to focus, but they don’t provide the proper nutrients that your brain needs.

For example, there are tons of studies showing the benefits of fish oils and omega 3 fatty acids on brain health.  Guess what?  Our caveman friend ate tons more omega 3 fatty acids than we do today in America. [show study]

My experience has been that I feel much more focused at work and much less “brain fog.”

#9 – Decreases risk of some auto-immune diseases

Because we’ve seen such an increase in auto-immune disorders in the last 40 years this benefit is pretty huge.  What have we done wrong in the last 40 years?  What has changed?  There are many theories, but one everyone agrees on is our diet.

Thanks to researchers like, Loren Cordain, we are learning more every year about how the Paleo Diet can decrease or prevent certain autoimmune diseases.  Diabetes, Lupus, and Multiple Sclerosis (MS) are just a start of a long list of autoimmune diseases that may be helped or prevented by the Paleo Diet.

This was a major reason I ended up on the paleo diet in the first place.  I eliminated things from my diet, based on scientific research, until I was left with nothing else but the Paleo Diet.

#10 – Decreases leptin and insulin resistance for long term weight loss

Leptin is a recently discovered hormone that tells your brain that you have eaten enough.  It comes from fat cells in your body, the more fat you have the more leptin is released.  Chronically high levels of leptin result your body requiring higher amounts of leptin to signal to your that you are full over time.  So, your point of fullness is higher and you eat more to retain your weight.

This is very similar to insulin resistance, where chronically high-carbohydrate meals cause chronically high levels of insulin, which causes insulin resistance over time.  Insulin helps take glucose from your blood so it can be used by muscle cells among others.  Among other foods on the paleo diet, recent studies are showing that coconut oil protects against insulin resistance.

A wonderful reason that the paleo diet is the best diet for losing weight is that it is beneficial in both leptin and insulin resistance.  With this biochemistry normalized it is much easier to naturally lose weight.

#11 – Decreases inflammation

Eating a variety of foods in a way that balances your macro-nutrient intake reduces inflammation (a good balance of protein, carbohydrates, and fats).  The foods you’ll eat on the paleo diet will reduce the acidity your pH if you are like most Americans.  Low alkalinity (high acidity) has been associated with increased inflammation.

Natural fruits and vegetables reduce your blood sugar spikes which are strongly associated with overall inflammation.

Fish (and walnuts, etc.) and its omega 3 fatty acids are strong reducers of inflammation.

#12 – Decreases risk of heart disease

Who can argue with eating more fruits and vegetables?  On the paleo diet you’ll do that, but you’ll eat just the right fruits and vegetables.  You’ll also eat more lean meats.  This, of course, cuts way down on your simple sugar intake.  I can tell you that my cholesterol and blood pressure went down DRAMATICALLY after a few months of being on the paleo diet.

#13 – Decreases risk of cancers

On the paleo diet you’ll get more antioxidants than most other diets let alone more than the typical American diet.  These antioxidants will be naturally occurring in food and won’t come with preservatives or clogging agents found in many vitamins and supplements.  The antioxidants and other “anticancer” agents in foods in the paleo diet will be optimally absorbed as well.

#14 – You can ease into it (not a crash diet)

Finally, if you can’t stick with a diet, it will do you no good.  When you lose weight and gain it back months later, you do nothing but more harm to your weight, fat composition, and healthy biochemistry.

So, it is extremely important that people can stick with a change in the eating habits.  Some people do well with drastic changes and sticking to them if they have a big enough motivation.  Most people, however, will need either some lifelong help or be able to take baby steps.

With the paleo diet you can start slowly.  As long as you commit to a long term plan, you could for example, eat just one MORE orange per day for a week.  Then, eat one MORE chicken breast with a meal every day for the next week.  The next week, you could eliminate all dairy…  This way you can “ease” into the diet and if you stop progressing, well, at least you’ve made some sustainable changes that you can benefit from for life.

Ok, so this is a work in progress and I’m not done yet.  I’d like to add more studies to it, but don’t want to make it too boring.  What do you think?  And I’d like to make it the “top 10 reasons” the paleo diet is the best way to lose weight, but I have too many reasons.  Which reasons should I keep?

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What is the Paleolithic Diet?

Simple answer: Think of a caveman…what did he eat? You got it.

Bigger answer: The Paleolithic Age or “Old Stone Age” was from 2.5 million* years ago to about 10,000 B.C. Human’s genetic makeup has not changed much in the last 100,000 years. So, in theory what we as humans were eating 50,000 years ago is probably the best diet for our bodies today. At that time, and today, we were wired to desire the highest calorie foods in order to survive times of hunger. It wasn’t until 10,000 B.C., around the Neolithic Age, that we started moving together into cities and started farming to more efficiently get our calories. So we went from hunter-gatherers to being farmers. Hunter-gatherers would spend their days on their feet roaming the earth (considered exercise by some) hunting and gathering foods. Farmers learned to grow the highest calorie foods in small areas (what we needed to do at the time to feed our families more effectively). Fast forward to today and we find super-sized meal deals at McDonalds and artificial chemical sweeteners. See the changes and our problem?

I’m excited to share the Neo-Paleolithic Diet with you and how it is going to make you feel great, lose weight, get lean, and regain your youthful cholesterol, and insulin levels. We combine the lessons learned from the Paleolithic Diet with current day research on diet, exercise, diseases, and wellness, and we get what we’re calling within our team, the “Neo-Paleolithic Diet”.

What foods make up the Paleolithic Diet?

The Paleolithic Diet simply consists of lean meats, fish, vegetables, fruits and nuts. It is thought that Paleolithic Man ate these foods in variety as they moved about the earth as hunter-gatherers.

Lean Meats

Lean meats made a large portion of the caveman’s diet. How much protein versus carbohydrates and fats it tough to determine exactly. But, we think that protein was probably eaten in higher proportions than it is in today’s American diet. There are many researchers who believe that protein usually accounted for the MAJORITY of calories for paleolithic man.

Grilled Chicken Breast

Wild game would be the most like what paleolithic man ate. Because larger animals would have been worth more calories for a given effort of hunting them, you can bet that cavemen preferred larger animals over smaller. You can also bet that wild game was more lean that the hamburger we buy at the grocery store or McDonalds. So, choose leaner meats over the more fatty ones, especially if you are wanting to lose weight.

Another key to remember about the paleo diet is that it varied from day to day. So, the more variety you can get in your diet the better. There is a whole debate over whether saturated fats are good for you or not, and whether they should be considered “paleo.” But, if you eat a variety of wild-like meats you’d be better off.

Fish

Salmon Fish, Very Paleo

Fish was eaten by Paleolithic cavemen 5x more that it is by us today. You know there are tons of dietary benefits to eating more fish, starting with reducing your overall saturated fat and increasing your Omega 3 to Omega 6 fat ratios.

Omega 3 fish oils have been show to be anti-inflammatory, so if you are battling any disease associated with inflammation, eating more fish will be beneficial.

Omega 3 fish oils have been shown to be fantastic for brain growth and maintenance as well as overll cardio health.

Wild Vegetables

Nutrient-rich vegetables that could be gathered.

The biggest failure of our modern diets is the deficiency of fresh vegetables. Most of us consume most of our calories in the some form of wheat, which is not what a caveman would have done. You are missing vital nutrients and minerals when you skip the extra servings of vegetables everyday. Over time, missing out on these nutrients and anti-oxidants is going to wreak havoc on your health.

Although we may have slightly different vegetables available to us today, we know that our caveman counterparts out-ate us in vegetables by a large margin. Some vegetables we eat today that are surprisingly harmful were not even available to paleolithic man. Think of a caveman wandering around in a forest, he has to eat vegetables to survive. We all know that there are tons more nutrients and fiber in vegetables than in a Big Mac.

Wild Fruits

Luscious berries to be found in the wild.

Mmmmm, the best tasting part of the paleo diet, fruits! Wow, packed with natural sugar you can get lots of quick energy and extremely important nutrients and anti-oxidants as well.

Just like vegetables, a caveman wandering around in a forest would be eating a lot of fruits and berries. Because of their great taste and color they were very appealing. Fruits and berries are power-packed with vitamins, antioxidants, and other great nutrients.

Nuts

One of the healthiest nuts: Almonds

Finally, the main sources of fat for paleolithic man were nuts and the fat found in wild game. Nuts are overwhelmingly more nutritious than our modern sources of fat…butter, cream, french fry grease, etc. There have been numerous studies showing nuts to be helpful in preventing cancer and other ailments.

Each type of nut has it’s special benefits. Be sure to get a mixture of walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds (not really a nut), cashews, etc. For those of you with auto-immune or allergy concerns you may want to avoid peanuts, like paleo man most likely did.

Paleolithic Diet is an Exclusion Diet

The most difficult thing about the Paleolithic Diet is avoiding all other foods that aren’t on the diet. No pizza, dairy, cheeseburgers, bread, colas, etc. It can be very difficult to live the fast-food-lifestyle and eat only the Paleolithic Diet. Some of us are just too brainwashed into thinking that we must eat these other foods to quit. But, the rewards are lavish…lean body, good muscle mass, sharper thinking, less disease…see the other articles on this site for proof.

Paleolithic Diet Summary

So, in a nutshell (sorry for the pun), this is the traditional paleolithic diet. We are learning more all the time about what the Paleolithic Man must have eaten (and some of it is surprising us!). The Paleolithic Diet should serve as a basis for your dietary guidelines. Combining it with clinical studies to prove out additional theories, we are well on our way to the optimum diet. Shall we call it the “neo-paleolithic-diet”?
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* Depending on your beliefs and the origins of the universe this number may be way off. I personally believe that humans have existed more on the order of thousands of years rather than millions of years.

Red Berries Picture Above: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dlbezaire/ / CC BY-SA 2.0
Salmon Photo Above: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jlastras/ / CC BY 2.0
Chicken Breast Photo Above: http://www.flickr.com/photos/startcooking/ / CC BY 2.0
Vegetables Photo Above: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mckaysavage/ / CC BY 2.0
Berries Photo Above: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wandering_angel/ / CC BY 2.0
Almonds Photo Above:http://www.flickr.com/photos/melintur/ / CC BY 2.0

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Limiting your calories will make you live longer.  “Both caloric (energy) restriction (CR) and reduced meal frequency/intermittent fasting can suppress the development of various diseases and can increase life span in rodents….” [1]  The mechanism by which this occurs is also mimicked by a compound called Resveratrol, which is found in red wine and red grapes. Until resveratrol is approved for prescribing, in 5 years possibly, maybe only reducing calories should be used to increase longevity by this mechanism. Here is the great video showing how calorie restriction and resveratrol increase longevity.

How much wine will it take to live longer?

Well, before you go buy a bunch of red wine, the researcher says it’ll take 1000 bottles per day to do any good with resveratrol.  Notice also, that one cup of red grapes has the same amount of resveratrol as a glass of red wine.

So, you’ve got a reason to get drunk everyday…or start the Paleolithic Diet to easily and naturally reduce your caloric intake.

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[1] Mattson MP (2005). “Energy intake, meal frequency, and health: a neurobiological perspective”. Annual Review of Nutrition. 25: 237–60.

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