• Question: Can you die of too much vitamins?

    Asked by kamilo12 to David, Mus, Tess, Yue, Jemma on 15 May 2012. This question was also asked by lizzietheboss.
    • Photo: Tess Newman

      Tess Newman answered on 15 May 2012:

      You can make yourself seriously ill. When you take too many vitamins, it is more than the body can process, and side effects can occur, such as sickness, hair loss and nerve damage. But this is only by severe overdosing – i.e. by taking lots of vitamins pills everyday. The food you eat will be fine – unless you have a very unbalanced diet and only eat brazil nuts!

      You are probably unlikely to die as the large quantities would probably have build up over time, and I hope you would go to a doctor before then

    • Photo: Jemma Ransom

      Jemma Ransom answered on 28 May 2012:

      Hi @Kamilo12,

      there have been reports of people dying from vitamin A overdose. They were polar explorers who ran out of food rations and so had to eat their faithful huskies (Ew right?). Huskies are at the top of the food chain in these regions, and so they concentrate large amounts of vitamin A in their livers, enough to kill a human.

      However your body is very very good at making sure you don’t have too much of any one nutrient in your body. It is more likely that people on a Western diet will suffer from too little vitamins than too much.

      Jemma

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