Twenty-one experts have warned that while Vitamin D is “essential for good health”, it can also be dangerous in mega doses.
The experts from the UK, Ireland and the U.S. gave the warning in a paper published in the British Medical Journal earlier this month.
Vitamin D is especially good for bones and muscles and may bolster the immune system as coronavirus goes on the rampage.
But the experts warned that too much of VITAMIN D is also dangerous.
Vitamin D, they warned, can cause toxicity in the body.
“There are evidenced health risks with excessive vitamin D intakes especially for those with other health issues such as a reduced kidney function,”they said.
They also emphasise that there is no proof that taking too much of it shields one from the coronavirus.
“Many people have low blood levels of vitamin D, especially in winter or if confined indoors, because summer sunshine is the main source of vitamin D for most people,” the authors wrote.
“Taking a daily supplement … and eating foods that provide vitamin D is particularly important for those self-isolating with limited exposure to sunlight.”
Foods high in vitamin D include fatty fish (such as salmon and tuna), portobello mushrooms, fortified milk and yogurt and eggs.
The paper comes on the heels of a study suggesting that vitamin D deficiency may be linked to higher rates of mortality with COVID-19.
“The continued spread of the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus, and the disease COVID-19 that is caused by SARS-CoV-2, has led to calls for widespread high-dose vitamin D supplementation,” the authors write.
“These calls are without support from pertinent studies in humans at this time, but rather based on speculations about presumed mechanisms.”
Amesh D. Adalja, an infectious disease expert and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, agreed that taking large doses of it blindly can be dangerous.
“Vitamin D is a medication, it’s a drug, so it can have side effects,” Adalja tells Yahoo Life. “When you have acute intoxication you can get a lot of different problems including confusion, vomiting — all kinds of things can happen.”
