But how do you flush vitamin D out of your system – and can you even do that? Yes, by ensuring you consume plenty of water. This will encourage urination, allowing your body to shed the excess vitamin D and calcium more quickly. Prescription diuretics like furosemide can also be helpful.
There are a few reasons why people can have trouble absorbing vitamin D. Some factors that may reduce or block its absorption include: Conditions such as celiac disease, chronic pancreatitis, Crohn's disease, and cystic fibrosis.
Vitamin D is fat-soluble, not water-soluble, so your body will get rid of it in its own good time. There is no way to flush it.
Generally, more mild cases of vitamin D toxicity may resolve within a few weeks while more severe cases may take up to 6 months to fully resolve.
But how do you flush vitamin D out of your system – and can you even do that? Yes, by ensuring you consume plenty of water. This will encourage urination, allowing your body to shed the excess vitamin D and calcium more quickly. Prescription diuretics like furosemide can also be helpful.
Treatment for vitamin D toxicity includes stopping use of vitamin D supplements. You also may need fluids given through a vein for hydration. Your healthcare professional may prescribe medicines such as corticosteroids or bisphosphonates to lower calcium levels in your blood.
In addition, taking a supplement that contains too much vitamin D can be toxic in rare cases. It can lead to hypercalcemia, a condition in which too much calcium builds up in the blood, potentially forming deposits in the arteries or soft tissues. It may also predispose people to painful kidney stones.
That means that if you take too much of it, you won't just pee it out like you would a water soluble vitamin. Instead of being carried out in your body's wastewater, the vitamin will cling to your body fat for later use—which can compound the effects of daily overdosing.
“Given its slow turnover (half-life of approximately 2 months), during which vitamin D toxicity develops, symptoms can last for several weeks,” warn the authors. The symptoms of hypervitaminosis D are many and varied, they point out, and are mostly caused by excess calcium in the blood.
Furthermore, the traced half-life of serum 25(OH)D is about 15 to 25 days (7, 8), whereas the calculated half-life of serum 25(OH)D after intake of vitamin D is up to 82 days (9).
The signs and symptoms of excessive vitamin D levels are related to hypercalcemia. Hypercalcemia symptoms involve an altered mental status (eg, with confusion, lethargy, anxiety, and depression). Constipation, anorexia, nausea, and musculoskeletal pain may also arise, as can cardiac arrhythmias.
Fat-soluble vitamins, such as A, D, E, and K, can typically stay in the body for several weeks to months due to their storage in fatty tissues and the liver.
Iron and vitamin D – taking vitamin D can potentially decrease your iron levels. Take them at different times, morning and evening, for best efficacy. Vitamin E and vitamin K, fish oils/omega-3 – as these vitamins may impact blood vessel health in those on certain medications.
Symptoms of Vitamin D Excess
Early symptoms of vitamin D toxicity are loss of appetite, nausea, and vomiting, followed by weakness, nervousness, and high blood pressure. Because the calcium level is high, calcium may be deposited throughout the body, particularly in the kidneys, blood vessels, lungs, and heart.
There's no quick fix to flush vitamin D out of your system, but staying hydrated and staying away from more vitamin D and calcium can help lower your levels. Call your doctor right away if you experience confusion, vomiting, dizziness, or other symptoms of a vitamin D overdose.
Vitamin D 5000 IU is a high-dose supplement that can help treat vitamin D deficiency, which occurs when people don't get enough vitamin D through the sun or their diet.
Acute toxicity would be caused by doses of vitamin D probably in excess of 10,000 IU/day, which result in serum 25(OH)D concentrations >150 ng/ml (>375 nmol/l). That level is clearly more than the IOM-recommended UL of 4,000 IU/day.
The effect of equivalent oral doses of vitamin D3 600 IU/day, 4200 IU/week and 18,000 IU/month on vitamin D status was compared in a randomized clinical trial in nursing home residents. A daily dose was more effective than a weekly dose, and a monthly dose was the least effective.
Experimental studies have shown that excessive vitamin D activities can induce vascular calcification, and such vascular pathology can be reversed by reducing vitamin D activities. The human relevance of these experimental studies is not clear, as vitamin D toxicity is relatively rare in the general population.
Management and Treatment
Give you IV fluids to treat dehydration. Give you corticosteroids and bisphosphonates (medications) in cases of severe toxicity to block bone resorption.