Vitamin poisoning
| Vitamin overdose | |
|---|---|
| Classification and external resources | |
| ICD-10 | E67.0-E67.3 |
| ICD-9 | 278.2, 278.4 |
Hypervitaminosis refers to a condition of high storage levels of vitamins, which can lead to toxic symptoms. The medical names of the different conditions are derived from the vitamin involved: an excess of vitamin A, for example, is called hypervitaminosis A.
Generally, toxic levels of vitamins are achieved through high supplement intake and not from dietary sources. Toxicities of fat-soluble vitamins can also be caused by a large intake of highly fortified foods, but foods rarely deliver dangerous levels of fat-soluble vitamins.[1]
The Dietary Reference Intake recommendations from the United States Department of Agriculture define a "tolerable upper intake level" for most vitamins.
High dosage vitamin A; high dosage, slow release vitamin B3; and very high dosage vitamin B6 alone (i.e. without vitamin B complex) are sometimes associated with vitamin side effects that usually rapidly cease with supplement reduction or cessation.
Contents |
Fat soluble [edit]
With few exceptions, like some vitamins from B complex, hypervitaminosis usually occurs more with fat-soluble vitamins, which are stored in the liver and fatty tissues of the body. These vitamins build up and remain for a longer time in the body than water soluble vitamins.[1]
Conditions include:
Minerals [edit]
High doses of mineral supplements can also lead to side effects and toxicity. Mineral-supplement poisoning does occur occasionally, most often due to excessive intake of iron-containing supplements.
Comparative safety statistics [edit]
In the United States, overdose exposure to all formulations of "vitamins" was reported by 62,562 individuals in 2004 (nearly 80%(~78%, n=48,989) of these exposures were in children under the age of 6), leading to 53 "major" life-threatening outcomes and 3 deaths(2 from Vitamins - D and E; 1 from polyvitaminic type formula, with iron and no fluoride).[2] This may be compared to the 19,250 people who died of unintentional poisoning of all kinds in the U.S. in the same year (2004).[3] In 2010, 71,000 exposures to various vitamins and multivitamin-mineral formulations were reported to poison control centers, which resulted in 15 major reactions but no deaths.[4]
Before 1998, several deaths per year were associated with pharmaceutical iron-containing supplements, especially brightly colored, sugar-coated, high-potency iron supplements, and most deaths were children.[5] Unit packaging restrictions on supplements with more than 30 mg of iron have since reduced deaths to 0 or 1 per year.[5] These statistics compare with 59 confirmed deaths due to aspirin poisoning in 2003 [6] and 147 deaths known to be associated with acetaminophen-containing products in 2003.[6]
See also [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ a b Sizer, Frances Sienkiewicz; Ellie Whitney (2008). Nutrition: Concepts and Controversies (11 ed.). United States of America: Thomson Wadsworth. pp. 221, 235. ISBN 0-495-39065-8.
- ^ Toxic Exposure Surveillance System (2004). "Annual Report" (pdf). American Association of Poison Control Centers.
- ^ "National Center for Health Statistics".
- ^ Bronstein, A. C.; Spyker, D. A.; Cantilena, L. R.; Green, J. L.; Rumack, B. H.; Dart, R. C. (2011). "2010 Annual Report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers' National Poison Data System (NPDS): 28th Annual Report". Clinical Toxicology 49 (10): 910–941. doi:10.3109/15563650.2011.635149. PMID 22165864.
- ^ a b Tenenbein M (2005). "Unit-dose packaging of iron supplements and reduction of iron poisoning in young children". Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 159 (6): 557–60. doi:10.1001/archpedi.159.6.557. PMID 15939855.
- ^ a b Watson WA, Litovitz TL, Klein-Schwartz W, et al. (2004). "2003 annual report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers Toxic Exposure Surveillance System". Am J Emerg Med 22 (5): 335–404. doi:10.1016/j.ajem.2004.06.001. PMID 15490384.
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