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There is a misleading and sensationalist article, about too much Vitamin D causing kidney failure, doing the rounds. Here is a link to it on NDTV: https://www.ndtv.com/health/excess-of-vitamin-d-may-up-kidney-failure-risk-2020081

Vitamin D toxicity, as reported in the article, is an extremely rare condition. The sufficiency level for Vitamin D is about 40. Vitamin D toxicity is unlikely until a level well over 125 is reached.

The man in this sensationalist article was dosing himself with 10,000 IU everyday for over TWO YEARS! This is almost unheard of. Poor behaviours because of wrong interpretations of unnecessarily sensationalised articles such as this one cause a food safety problem.

While it is unsafe to have too much of something, it is usually even more unsafe to have too little of an essential nutrient.

In the case of Vitamin D, the RDA (recommended daily allowance) for adults has been 400 units for a long time. However, as Vitamin D insufficiency has become almost universal in the last couple of decades, we are seeing recommendations and dosages for many people becoming long term supplementation of about 200 IU per day. This is safe for almost everybody, and much needed for most people. Vitamin D deficiency causes a lot of problems.

However, there is a case, especially in India, to ban the often used and prescribed 60,000 IU Vitamin D dose, which is available in tablet form, and also as a powder in a single use sachet.

The maximum dose available as an OTC product should be limited to 5000 IU. People who are severely deficient in Vitamin D can safely take such a dose daily for several months, or even years.

I have seen doctors advising severely deficient individuals to take the 60K dose once a week, for a few weeks. This is good advice. However, a lot of people tend to self-medicate on vitamins, and will end up taking such high doses either more frequently than they should, or for too long a period.

In my opinion, it would be a good idea to restrict OTC dosage of Vitamin D formulations to a maximum of 5000 IU, and to either ban all higher doses, or make them ‘prescription only’.

Given the widespread recommendation of Vitamin D by doctors, it may be a good idea for doctors to also prescribe Vitamin K2 along with Vitamin D. The fact that Vitamin D taken without K2 can actually cause damage in many individuals is something most doctors are unaware of.

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