Whenever someone mentions a vitamin or supplement, it always seems to come with a warning that you should talk to your doctor before taking anything.

And if we’re being honest, most healthy people don’t take that advice. But taking vitamins and supplements can be dangerous for a few reasons, and it has to do with more than what’s contained in the pills themselves. There seems to be a recent trend towards megadosing vitamins that can be quite dangerous.

If you need some convincing to get that consult before taking multipole supplements and vitamins, this post is for you.

In this post, we’re going to cover the reasons why it’s dangerous to megadose any one supplement and/or take multiple supplements and vitamins simultaneously.

Vitamins Have Upper Limits

Some vitamins are considered safer than others, but all vitamins have what’s called an upper tolerable limit. We all know that too much of a good thing isn’t good, and that’s also true with vitamins. If you have too much of any one vitamin, it could spell disaster.

To understand upper limits, we should first understand how the body processes vitamins and minerals. There are two types of vitamins: fat-soluble and water-soluble.

Vitamins that are water-soluble aren’t considered as dangerous because the body doesn’t store the excess. For example, vitamin B12 is a water-soluble vitamin. And if you consume too much, your body will excrete the excess through urine.

But when a vitamin is fat-soluble, excess gets stored in the body for a long period of time. So, if you take more than you need, it’s not necessarily leaving your body.

Both water-soluble and fat-soluble vitamins can be dangerous when you take too much at once. If you consume more than your body can handle at once, it will lead to negative and potentially dangerous side effects.

Supplements Interact with Medications

There are potentially negative side effects when you combine supplements with prescription medication. Even cough medicine can be dangerous with certain supplements.

If you’re taking any prescription medications, especially any commonly abused drugs, be sure to talk to your doctor before you take any vitamins and supplements. And that’s not just a cliché – following this advice can save your life.

Megadosing Can Be Dangerous

There are certain vitamins that can be extremely toxic when taken in megadosing. And although there seems to be a trend towards megadosing, it can be very dangerous. If you do ask your doctor about taking large doses of any one vitamin, he or she will likely tell you that’s a bad idea (unless it’s confirmed that you have a severe deficiency).

It’s probably not a good idea to take megadoses of any vitamin, but vitamins A, D, E and K are especially dangerous and have serious side effects.

With that said, you don’t have to worry much about overdosing on any one vitamin from food. This is because whole foods contain fiber that will make you feel full long before you get close to upper limits.

Supplements Don’t Always Mimic Natural Vitamins

Satiety is one reason why experts recommend getting your daily recommended values of vitamins and minerals from whole foods, but it’s also recommended because researchers are still not clear on how various vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals work together to improve your health.

By relying on supplements for vitamins, you’re cheating yourself out of a lot of potential benefits.

Supplements are often produced in the most bioavailable form, which isn’t always what you’ll get from food. And while this can be a good thing in theory, it can cause someone to unwittingly take too much of any vitamin or mineral. Vitamin A is a good example of this because most forms of vitamin A found in supplements are preformed and can cause many health issues when taken in excess, including dizziness, nausea, coma and even death.

Watch for Hidden Ingredients

You may be taking caution on how much vitamin A is in your multivitamin, but what if you’re taking another supplement or two that also contain preformed vitamin A? The same is true for other vitamins, including the more dangerous E, D and K.

You may take a multivitamin along with a supplement that’s marketed to help improve the health of your hair, skin and nails. Both are likely to contain vitamin E, and the combination of supplements could put your intake into dangerous territory.

So many studies have been done on the ways vitamins and supplements can improve your health, but there can be a dark side if you don’t take them as recommended or if you take the wrong combination. This is why you should be careful when taking multiple supplements and always be sure to ask a doctor or pharmacist if you have any questions. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.

Do you take multiple supplements and vitamins?

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