Vitamin D Toxicity

Vitamin D toxicity studies involve people taking hundreds of thousands of IU for months at a time, not typical supplementation doses. Wikipedia acknowledges that some symptoms attributed to vitamin D toxicity are actually due to vitamin K depletion. Adverse symptoms from high-dose vitamin D are caused by downstream deficiencies in co-factors, primarily magnesium and vitamin K2. True vitamin D toxicity, in the sense that vitamin D itself is the harmful agent, does not exist. Magnesium deficiency alone can produce virtually every symptom attributed to vitamin D overdose. The main side effect of vitamin D toxicity is hypercalcemia, which can raise kidney stone risk. In case studies of supposed vitamin D toxicity, patients are typically not taking magnesium or K2, and often use vitamin D2 rather than D3. Avoiding large-dose calcium supplements while taking high-dose vitamin D nearly eliminates toxicity risk. Calcium is sometimes administered to patients with suspected vitamin D toxicity, which is counterproductive because hypercalcemia is the defining symptom. Drinking at least 2.5 litres of fluid per day prevents kidney stone formation associated with high-dose vitamin D. Widespread…