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The Dangers Of Vitamin Supplements

A bottle full of various vitamins

Do you take your vitamins everyday? Be careful. Just as vitamin deficiency can make you sick, so can vitamin toxicity. Indeed, vitamins can be very dangerous if you take them in high quantities.

What "A" And "D" Have In Common



Though vitamins A and D are the most likely to make you sick if you take too much of them, they aren't the only vitamins that can be dangerous. All vitamins have the potential to be toxic if you ingest too much of them.

Part of the reason why A and D put you at higher risk than Vitamin C and others has to do with the way vitamins are dissolved. Vitamin C dissolves in water. Thus, if you take excess Vitamin C, your body can flush it out through urine. Vitamins A and D, however, dissolve in oils and melted fat.

The Consequences



So, when you take too much of one of these vitamins, rather than flushing the excess out, the body stores the surplus in fat or in fatty tissues such as the liver and the brain.

Accumulation of water in the brain, severe headaches, and birth defects are just three of the problems toxic levels of Vitamin A can cause. If you keep a relatively well-balanced diet, you'll most likely get the vitamins your body needs without the use of supplements.

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