Vitamin C, a very important nutrient can be found in lots of fruits and vegetables.
The healthy immune system depends on getting the right amount of vitamins. It can help you recover sooner, keep your bones strong and even boost your brains’ functions.
We use to take it especially in the cold season to prevent the cold and its symptoms.
However, many supplements contain extremely high amounts of the vitamin, which can cause undesirable side effects in some cases.
Have you ever wonder if this vitamin can have side effects? How much it’s too much?
In this article, we would expose briefly the side effects of vitamin C and what can be done to avoid these side effects.
It may cause digestive distress
Usually, you can’t take too much vitamin C from fruits and vegetables, but rather from the supplements. So if you feel some digestive distress, stop taking the supplements and observe if there are any improvements.
You’re most likely to experience digestive symptoms if you consume more than 2,000 mg at once. Thus, a tolerable upper limit (TUL) of 2,000 mg per day has been established.
The most common digestive symptoms are diarrhea and nausea.
It may cause iron overload
It is known to help you absorb iron.
One study in adults found that iron absorption increased by 67% when they took 100 mg of vitamin C with a meal.
If you choose to take vitamin supplements, it is best to choose one that contains no more than 100% of your daily needs. That’s 90 mg per day for men and 75 mg per day for women.
However, if you suffer from hemochromatosis, you should be cautious with vitamin C supplements.
In this case, taking it in excess may lead to iron overload, which can cause serious damage to your heart, liver, pancreas, thyroid, and central nervous system.
If you have problems with your kidney, avoid taking too much vitamin C
Excess vitamin C is excreted from the body as oxalate, a bodily waste product.
Oxalate is a naturally occurring molecule found in abundance in plants and humans. It’s not a required nutrient for people, and too much can lead to kidney stones. In plants, oxalate helps to get rid of extra calcium by binding with it. That is why so many high-oxalate foods are from plants.
If you consume too much vitamin C, the amount of oxalate in your urine will grow and you will have kidney problems. A study has shown that kidney stones appeared only to those individuals who took more than 2000 mg a day.
Taking supplements is usually safe for us, but you should be careful and not increase the recommended dose in order to avoid kidney failure or iron overload.
Also, it is not recommended to take vitamin C supplements if you’re not having a deficiency (which is extremely rare).
As a bottom line, it is nearly impossible to take an overdose of vitamin C from supplements, so take your doctor’s advice seriously and don’t go overboard with supplements to avoid digestive distress or kidney failure.
