AARP – Vitamin use is commonplace among older Americans. Research has found that 78 percent of adults 50 and older take vitamins or supplements, according to a 2021 AARP survey.
For adults 65 and older, that rises to 83 percent. Although vitamins can be valuable for those who have a deficiency, older Americans need to be cautious about how many they take and aware of potential interactions with medications.
Overconsumption can lead to serious health problems and can even be fatal.
An 89-year-old British man died of an overdose of Vitamin D supplements in February 2023 in England.
Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium, but going over the daily recommended intake can cause hypercalcemia, a condition in which the calcium level in the blood becomes too high.
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Supplements are heavily marketed, sometimes with unsubstantiated claims. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t regulate the supplement market in the same way it does medications.
“While there’s some regulation on how they’re produced, the FDA isn’t really reviewing them to make sure that they’re safe or effective before they go to market,” says Lauren Haggerty, clinical pharmacist at Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Haggerty says companies say a supplement will prevent heart disease when there isn’t evidence to support that claim.
There are two types of vitamins: water-soluble and fat-soluble. Water-soluble vitamins typically flush out of the user’s system when there’s too much but not an extremely high dose, Haggerty says.
Fat-soluble vitamins, A, D, E and K, are best absorbed with meals with healthy fats and are stored in the body.
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“We definitely want people to be cautious with [fat-soluble vitamins] because they will just build up in the system, and those are the ones that can cause more toxicity in excess,” says Wendolyn Gozansky, M.D., a geriatrician and chief quality officer with Kaiser Permanente.
Many people take supplements before consulting with their doctor.
“A lot of patients will consume vitamins because they were sold them by some marketing strategy or someone’s recommendation,” says Matthew Farrell, M.D. …