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- 6-year-old hospitalized after gobbling Delta-9 THC candy sold to unwitting family: ‘He was in excruciating pain’ New York Post
- ‘He was in excruciating pain’: Boy, six, hospitalized after eating THC candy sold in North Carolina restaurant Daily Mail
- ‘Something wrong’: Mother buys candy for 6-year-old son, realizes later it was Delta-9 WSOC Charlotte
- ‘Excruciating Pain’: 6-Year-Old Hospitalized After Eating Drug-Laced Candy Daily Caller
Tag Archives: overdosing
Doctors Warn of Vitamin D Supplement “Overdosing” – Man Hospitalized After Losing 28 Pounds
Doctors warn that ‘Overdosing’ on vitamin D supplements is both possible and harmful.
‘Hypervitaminosis D’ is on the rise and linked to a wide range of potentially serious health issues.
Doctors are warning that ‘Overdosing’ on vitamin D supplements is both possible and harmful after they treated a man who needed hospital admission for his excessive vitamin D intake. They reported their concerns in the journal BMJ Case Reports.
They point out that ‘hypervitaminosis D,’ as the condition is formally known, is on the rise and has been linked to a wide variety of potentially serious health conditions.
This particular case concerns a middle-aged man who was referred to the hospital by his family doctor after complaining of recurrent vomiting, nausea, leg cramps, abdominal pain, increased thirst, dry mouth, tinnitus (ringing in the ear), diarrhea, and weight loss (28 lbs or 12.7 kg).
Symptoms of hypervitaminosis D include drowsiness, depression, confusion, anorexia, apathy, psychosis, abdominal pain, stupor, coma, vomiting, peptic ulcers, constipation, pancreatitis, abnormal heart rhythm, high blood pressure, and kidney abnormalities, including renal failure.
These symptoms had been present for almost 3 months and had started around 1 month after he started an intensive vitamin supplement regimen on the advice of a nutritional therapist.
The man had had various underlying health issues, including tuberculosis, bacterial meningitis, an inner ear tumor (left vestibular schwannoma), which had resulted in deafness in that ear, a build-up of fluid in the brain (hydrocephalus), and chronic sinusitis.
He had been taking high doses of more than 20 over-the-counter supplements every day containing: vitamin D 50,000 mg—the daily requirement is 600 mg or 400 IU; vitamin K2 100 mg (daily requirement 100–300 µg); vitamin C, vitamin B9 (folate) 1,000 mg (daily requirement 400 µg); vitamin B2 (riboflavin), vitamin B6, omega-3 2,000 mg twice daily (daily requirement 200–500 mg), plus several other vitamin, mineral, nutrient, and probiotic supplements.
Once his symptoms developed, he stopped taking his daily supplement cocktail, but his symptoms didn’t go away.
Blood tests ordered by his family doctor indicated that he had extremely high calcium levels and slightly elevated magnesium levels. And his vitamin D level was seven times higher than what was necessary for sufficiency.
The tests also revealed that his kidneys weren’t working properly (acute kidney injury). The results of various x-rays and scans to check for cancer were normal.
The man stayed in the hospital for 8 days, during which time he was given intravenous fluids to flush out his system and treated with bisphosphonates—drugs that are normally used to strengthen bones or lower excessive levels of calcium in the blood.
Two months after discharge from the hospital, his calcium level had returned to normal, but his vitamin D level was still abnormally high.
“Globally, there is a growing trend of hypervitaminosis D, a clinical condition characterized by elevated serum vitamin D3 levels,” with women, children, and surgical patients most likely to be affected, write the authors.
Vitman D sources include oily fish, sunlight exposure, and supplements.
Recommended vitamin D levels can be obtained from the diet (eating wild mushrooms and oily fish), skin exposure to sunlight, and supplements.
“Given its slow turnover (half-life of approximately 2 months), during which vitamin D toxicity develops, symptoms can last for several weeks,” warn the authors.
The symptoms of hypervitaminosis D are many and varied, they point out, and are mostly caused by excess calcium in the blood. They include confusion, drowsiness, apathy, psychosis, anorexia, depression, coma, vomiting, abdominal pain, constipation, peptic ulcers, stupor, pancreatitis, abnormal heart rhythm, high blood pressure, and kidney abnormalities, including renal failure.
Other associated features, such as keratopathy (inflammatory eye disease), joint stiffness (arthralgia), and hearing loss or deafness, have also been reported, they add.
This is just one case, and while hypervitaminosis D is on the rise, it is still relatively uncommon, caution the authors.
Nevertheless, complementary therapy, including the use of dietary supplements, is popular, and people may not realize that it’s possible to overdose on vitamin D, or the potential consequences of doing so, they say.
“This case report further highlights the potential toxicity of supplements that are largely considered safe until taken in unsafe amounts or in unsafe combinations,” they conclude.
Reference: “Vitamin D intoxication and severe hypercalcaemia complicating nutritional supplements misuse” 5 July 2022, BMJ Case Reports.
DOI: 10.1136/bcr-2022-250553
Supplements: Overdosing on selenium could increase risk of ‘high-grade’ cancer by 91%
Supplements rose to popularity at the turn of the century, promising an immediate health boost. But there is increasing evidence that caution is warranted when taking vitamins and minerals. One study found that selenium when overdosed, cold increase the odds of high-grade prostate cancer by up to 91 percent. The authors of the study warned against the use of supplementation with selenium and vitamin E for men.
There has long been a prevailing belief that supplements are innocuous, but this couldn’t be further away from the truth.
In fact, researchers believe some supplements offer no benefits whatsoever, just risks.
Selenium is one of them, with researchers pointing out that overdosing on the supplement could raise the chances of developing high-grade cancer by 91 percent.
The findings, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, highlight that information around the supposed benefits of dietary supplements can be misleading.
READ MORE: Cancer treatment has shown ‘amazing results’ – expert stresses ‘patients cured’ from it
But when consumed by individuals whose levels were already high, the risk for high-grade cancers went up by 91 percent.
Researchers also found that individuals with high selenium at the outset of the study who took vitamin E supplements, saw their prostate cancer risk increase by 69 percent and their risk of high-grade cancer raise by 111 percent.
The lead author of the study, Doctor Alan Kristal from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle, said: “These supplements are popular – especially vitamin E – also so far no large, well-destined and well-conducted study has shown any benefits for preventing any major chronic disease.
“Men using these supplements should stop, period. Neither selenium nor vitamin E supplementation confers any known benefits, only risks.”
Doctor Kristal went on to suggest that the public is often misled to believe that dietary supplements are solely beneficial.
“Many people think that dietary supplements are helpful or at the least innocuous,” he explained.
“This is not true. We know from several other studies that some high-dose dietary supplements – that is, supplements that provide far more than the daily recommended intakes of micronutrients – increase cancer risk.
“We knew this based on randomised controlled, double-blinded studies for folate and beta carotene, and now we know it or vitamin E and selenium.”
Oklahoma’s ERs are so backed up with people overdosing on ivermectin, gunshot victims are having to wait to be treated
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An ER doctor in Oklahoma says rural hospitals in the state are clogged up by people overdosing on ivermectin.
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Dr. Jason McElyea said the bed shortage is so severe that gunshot victims have to wait their turn.
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McElyea said he saw people reporting vision loss after overdosing on the horse deworming drug.
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A doctor in rural Oklahoma says the number of people overdosing on horse deworming medication ivermectin is so high that emergency rooms are filled to the brim.
The situation is so dire that even people with gunshot wounds have to wait their turn to get treatment, said Dr. Jason McElyea, an ER physician affiliated with multiple hospitals in Sallisaw, Oklahoma.
McElyea spoke to local news channel KFOR-TV on the dangers of overdosing on ivermectin, a medicine meant for use on livestock. He told the channel that the rural Oklahoma hospitals he worked at were overwhelmed after people started consuming ivermectin doses meant for fully-grown horses, believing unverified claims that the horse de-wormer is an effective COVID cure.
“The ERs are so backed up that gunshot victims were having hard times getting to facilities where they can get definitive care and be treated,” McElyea told KFOR-TV. “All of their ambulances are stuck at the hospital waiting for a bed to open so they can take the patient in, and they don’t have any, that’s it. If there’s no ambulance to take the call, there’s no ambulance to come to the call.”
McElyea added that many of his patients did not seem to have a problem consuming the horse de-wormer because they were familiar with the drug.
“Growing up in a small town, rural area, we’ve all accidentally been exposed to ivermectin at some time. So, it’s something people are familiar with. Because of those accidental sticks when trying to inoculate cattle, they’re less afraid of it,” he said.
McElyea said, however, that people are suffering real ramifications from taking a dosage meant for a full-sized horse, including “scary” instances of vision loss, nausea, and vomiting.
“Some people taking inappropriate doses have actually put themselves in worse conditions than if they’d caught COVID,” he added.
At press time, Oklahoma reported a total of 557,770 COVID cases and 8,001 deaths, per The New York Times’ COVID case tracker. The state reported a daily average of 2,671 cases on September 2, a 21% increase over the last 14 days.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a health advisory last week warning that people could become severely ill from self-medicating with ivermectin because an overdose can cause a coma, seizures, and death.
The milder side effects are also very unpleasant and include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, low blood pressure, dizziness, and other allergic reactions, per the US Food and Drug Administration.
The CDC’s numbers indicate, however, that people continue to consume ivermectin, disregarding warnings from the health authorities. From early July until the week of August 13, pharmacies filled more than 88,000 prescriptions of ivermectin.
The FDA has also urged people not to self-medicate with the drug because it is intended for livestock. It acknowledged that initial research is being carried out on the drug, but that the formula used for animals differs greatly from what humans are supposed to consume.
In the US, the National Institutes of Health is conducting a trial to see if ivermectin can help people with mild or moderate COVID-19 cases cope better. The University of Oxford’s PRINCIPLE trial is also studying ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment.
Read the original article on Insider