Not all vitamin supplements list "nausea" among their potential side effects, but some do. For example, taking high doses of iron supplements can lead to nausea and vomiting, but sometimes these side effects can be avoided by taking smaller doses a few times a day. Vitamin C may cause nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps and headache, but these symptoms are less likely with low doses. Other nutrients that may cause nausea or an upset stomach include niacin , vitamin A and vitamin D. Additionally, some studies havelinked excessive folic acidto asthma, heart problems, cancer, and ectopic pregnancy. A 2014study published in theJournal of Epidemiology & Community Healthfound that women who took folic acid supplements were twice as likely to die of breast cancer.
Some women have a harder time absorbing the synthetic folate, or folic acid, found in prenatal vitamins, which may increase their risk of miscarriage. The article says that folic acid supplements increase a mother's mortality from breast cancer. The linked article is a study looking at records from 2200+ women that debunked the researchers' own earlier finding looking at records from a much smaller group of women.
There is no evidence of folic acid increasing breast cancer or any other cancer mortality. Folic acid is a critical nutrient for healthy neural tube development, and taking the supplement is of the key pieces of advice pregnant women are given. I'm so annoyed that the author would so casually throw around these safety claims. As noted by Healthline, too much vitamin D can cause diarrhea or constipation, as well as stomach pain, poor appetite, vomiting, nausea, elevated blood levels, and even kidney failure.
While your body needs vitamin D to absorb calcium, too much vitamin D can raise calcium blood levels, resulting in bone loss. How large the doses are is, of course, a factor, but smaller amounts can cause some serious side effects. And for a woman who is pregnant, taking vitamin A at this amount and frequency could cause birth defects. Surely you have heard the saying, "too much of a good thing can become a bad thing." The same applies to vitamin supplements, as taking an excess of vitamins can be harmful to your health. This may seem contradictory because vitamins are often encouraged to supplement nutrients that may be lacking in our diets. Physicians or nutritionists may suggest vitamins once it is confirmed that you have a nutrient deficiency and highly advise that the daily recommended doses are followed.
Getting enough folate, a B vitamin, is especially important for women who may become pregnant, since adequate folate can help lower the risk of having a baby with spina bifida or anencephaly. For the folate to be effective, it must be taken in the first few weeks of conception, often before a woman knows she is pregnant. That's why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that all women of childbearing age consume 600 micrograms a day of folic acid.
This amount and other important nutrients for pregnancy—iron, calcium, vitamin D, and DHA—are available in a prenatal multivitamin. Also chat with your doctor about whether you need a prenatal multivitamin at all. If you're using iodized salt, choosing vitamin D-fortified foods and eating a well-balanced diet, you may only need a folic acid supplement for now. Side effects from taking large amounts of vitamin E aren't common, but when they do occur, they include diarrhea, fatigue, muscle weakness and nausea, according to the Merck Manual. Vitamin E supplements can also thin your blood and increase the risk of excessive bleeding. The tolerable upper intake level of vitamin E is 1,000 milligrams per day for adults.
Why Do You Feel Sick After Taking Vitamins As Healthline noted, taking one dose of an iron supplement or iron-containing multivitamin with 10 to 20 mg/kg can be enough to trigger side effects, including stomach pain and vomiting. Medical help is needed if you take in anything higher than 40 mg/kg. Long-term use of supplements at high doses can also be unsafe because as the iron builds up in the body, it causes life-threatening damage to your brain and liver. In addition, excessive iron can encourage the growth of bacteria and viruses, taxing the immune system.
Some vitamins and minerals can harm an unborn baby if taken in large doses. You may need to use a prenatal vitamin specially formulated for pregnant women. Another reason your prenatal vitamin could make you feel more nauseated is if you're taking it on an empty stomach. With few exceptions, taking any kind of vitamin or pill on an empty stomach can make you feel sick.
Even something as small as a smoothie, yogurt or soup and crackers can make vitamins kinder on your stomach. This can be a little challenging if you're already dealing with nausea at baseline from your pregnancy. Nausea from pregnancy keeps you from eating, so you are forced to take your prenatal on an empty stomach, which makes you more nauseated and a vicious cycle is begun. Eventually, some women quit taking their prenatal vitamins altogether, which isn't a good idea. If you're going through this, and can't stomach any food at all, bring it up to your provider. They may be able to help find ways to get your nausea under controlled to allow you to eat better.
Routine zinc supplementation is not recommended without the advice of a healthcare professional. In some people, zinc might cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, metallic taste, kidney and stomach damage, and other side effects. Taking 450 mg or more of zinc daily can cause problems with blood iron. The maker of my multivitamin says it doesn't include folic acid because too much from supplements can be harmful. Learn more about the harmful effects from too much folic acid, including increased risk of prostate cancer and kidney damage. Some multivitamins, such as for pregnant women or iron supplements, can cause nausea on their own.
The effect can be especially expressive if you decide to take them on an empty stomach. The paradox is that iron is best absorbed from an empty stomach, but taking it the hardest. Therefore, doctors still recommend eating something before taking the medicine. Try taking yourprenatal vitamin at the time of day when you're least nauseated. However, people who combine multivitamins with other supplements or eat significant amounts of fortified foods may exceed the UL for certain nutrients.
To avoid nausea from vitamin toxicity, don't take vitamins in doses of more than the recommended daily allowance. Make sure you take into consideration vitamins you get from fortified foods as well as those from supplements. Likewise, high amounts of vitamin D can cause side effects, including diarrhea, vomiting, tiredness, itchy skin and bone pain.
Taking too much vitamin A may cause loss of appetite, nausea, headache and dry, itchy skin. Choosing a supplement that has most of the vitamin A in the form of beta carotene can limit the risk of vitamin A toxicity. Toxicities typically develop over time, but taking mega-doses that are higher than the tolerable upper intake level could cause more immediate symptoms.
For vitamin A, this would require a dose of more than 3,000 micrograms per day for adults. Do you usually pop an antacid when you have an upset stomach? If you said "yes," you're not alone, but keep in mind those antacids contain calcium carbonate, and they along with calcium supplements and many multivitamins can up your calcium levels . Couple of studies have found that women who were taking vitamins at the time of conception were less likely to need medical attention for nausea and vomiting. Unless advised by a doctor, you should never take more than the recommended daily dosage of multivitamins or vitamin supplements. While some diseases and conditions can be helped by elevated vitamin use, a healthcare professional should always be consulted before following high-dose vitamin regimens.
Another outdated recommendation is that all women should be supplementing with folic acid during pregnancy. This is an especially common reason when it's gummy vitamins making you sick as those never have iron. For those who eat a healthful diet, a multivitamin may have little or no benefit. A diet that includes plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, good protein sources, and healthful fats should provide most of the nutrients needed for good health. When it comes to specific vitamins and minerals, some Americans get less than adequate amounts, according to criteria set by the National Academy of Medicine.
For example, more than 90% of Americans get less than the Estimated Average Requirement for vitamin D and vitamin E from food sources alone. A daily intake of multivitamins or vitamin supplements should help you feel better, but most people, at least once taking a course of vitamins, know that sometimes they feel sick. Why this happens and what can be done, says Huffington Post. When you're constantly queasy, the last thing you can stomach is the thought of swallowing a horse-sized pill chock-full of nausea-inducing vitamins and minerals.
The reality is, prenatal vitamins offer extra insurance that you're getting all of the nutrients you and your baby need during pregnancy. Vitamin D. Toxicity from taking high doses of vitamin D supplements can lead to dangerous symptoms, including weight loss, appetite loss, and irregular heartbeat. It can also raise blood calcium levels, which can lead to organ damage . Smokers and former smokers may especially benefit from avoiding multivitamins containing high amounts of vitamin A or beta carotene, which the body can convert into vitamin A. Getting too much of these nutrients may increase the risk of lung cancer .
Sometimes, taking too much of a particular vitamin can make you sick. With water-soluble vitamins, your body excretes the excess easily. However, if the vitamin is a fat-soluble one, you won't lose that excess.
If you were to take a lot of one vitamin, you might begin to experience side effects. The ones that cause nausea in high doses include vitamins A, D, and E, so be sure to cut down on these if your vitamins contain a high amount. Many people take vitamin supplements to try to make up for a less-than-healthy diet, but supplements cannot take the place of real foods. Whole foods contain protein, carbohydrates, dietary fiber and healthy fats that are critical to health, but that your body can't get from a pill.
Multivitamins can sometimes cause nausea shortly after you take them, especially if they contain iron or if you take other vitamin supplements along with your multivitamin. Too much iron can cause nausea, diarrhea and stomach cramps in some people, and taking multiple supplements increases the risk of getting too much of a single vitamin. With non-fat soluble vitamins, if you get too much, you simply pee them out—no harm done. But fat-soluble vitamins leave deposits in your body, so you can end up overloading on them and doing some harm. If this is the case, the nausea won't go away after a few hours, even if you have some food.
"If you notice you're having chronic nausea see your doctor and back off those vitamins immediately because that can be dangerous," says Dr. Sonpal. In terms of supplements, WebMD explained that selenium toxicity can occur if you take more than 400 micrograms daily. Possible symptoms can include vomiting, irritability, and nausea. Taking a lower dose of it but over a long period of time could increase your chances of developing diabetes. Long-term use can lead to fatigue, hair loss, bad breath , a metallic taste in the mouth, and nail issues, like inflammation or horizontal streaks acrossyour fingernails. Since there aren't that many foods with large amounts of vitamin D , it's more common to experience vitamin D deficiency than toxicity .
The flip side to this is vitamin D supplements are more common, and these supplements when taken in excess over a long period of time can build up in your body, causing a wide range of symptoms. It is important to remember that a multivitamin cannot in any way replace a healthful well-balanced diet. The main purpose of a multivitamin is to fill in nutritional gaps, and provides only a hint of the vast array of healthful nutrients and chemicals naturally found in food. It cannot offer fiber or the flavor and enjoyment of foods so key to an optimal diet. However, multivitamins can play an important role when nutritional requirements are not met through diet alone. When this is the case, an expensive brand name is not necessary, as even standard store brands will deliver results.
Look for one that contains the Recommended Daily Allowance amounts and that bears the United States Pharmacopeia seal of approval on the label. While it's hard to overdose just eating these vitamins naturally with a well-balanced diet, vitamin supplements can have negative ramifications. It's not hard to get more than 1,000 micrograms of folic acid a day from fortified foods and supplements on a regular basis. Doing so might hide the signs of a vitamin B12 deficiency in older adults. Vitamin B12 deficiency can sometimes lead to permanent nerve damage if left untreated.
Children and newborns are also more at risk of having adverse reactions to manganese. To play it safe, let your doctor know about every supplement you're taking, even if you think it's harmless. Many vitamins and minerals, as well as herbal supplements, have side effects ranging from a rash to stomach upset.
They can also interact with medications and other vitamins. High onetime doses of vitamin B3 are not known to be toxic. However, B3should not be taken if you have gout as it can increase uric acid levels. Due to the way vitamins are absorbed and used by the body, some vitamins pose a lower risk of a onetime toxic dose. They only cause health problems when taken in high doses continuously for many days or in very extreme doses, usually from misuse of supplements.
Fat-soluble vitamins are taken up by the body quickly and can pose immediate health risks when taken in moderate-to-extreme doses. Some medications can also increase the risk of vitamin toxicity, either by increasing the body's absorption of a vitamin or by containing vitamin-based compounds. You're pregnant and you're suffering from nausea, constipation, low appetite, diarrhea, fatigue, or cramps. But, you notice that it's not every day – it's only most days. Specifically, it's the days you remember to take your prenatal vitamins first thing in the morning. Vitamin overdose occurs when a person ingests far more than the daily recommendation, for an extended period of time.
Although the body can excrete excessive amounts of water-soluble vitamins such as vitamin C, it can retain fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamin A, which can be toxic. It showed that women over the age of 55 who took multivitamins were at higher risk for dying than those who did not. As a result, it is unknown whether the women were already taking vitamins when they became ill, or if they became ill and then started taking vitamins. In women who were already sick, taking vitamins was unlikely to lower their risk of dying. If medical treatment is quickly received, people who have iron and calcium overdoses usually recover. Overdoses of iron that cause coma or low blood pressure can sometimes be fatal.
Iron overdoses can have long-term consequences to the intestines and liver, including intestinal scarring and liver failure. Vitamin K is a fat-soluble nutrient that's important for blood clotting, healthy bones and other bodily functions. It's rare that you'll overdose on vitamin K by eating things like broccoli.
But in supplement form, it can induce blood clots, which can lead to heart attacks and strokes, if you take too much. Vitamin D toxicity is usually caused by large doses of vitamin D supplements — not by diet or sun exposure. That's because your body regulates the amount of vitamin D produced by sun exposure, and even fortified foods don't contain large amounts of vitamin D.
Zinc is a required element for the development and function of multiple immune system cells including neutrophils, lymphocytes and antibodies. Easily obtained from diet, zinc is abundant in meat, eggs and oysters. Scientific studies consistently showed that taking zinc acetate lozenges reduces the duration of colds by 2-4 days if started within 24 hours of symptoms onset.
