Is ‘Too Much of a Good Thing’ Possible with Vitamins?
Short answer, yes. Please learn from what I did to myself.
Alright, first thing's first, let me get out that I am not a medical professional nor am I giving medial advice, but I am giving you a warning on what happened to me and hopefully you will not make the same mistake.
I consider myself pretty healthy and active. With that, I also want to make sure that I am always in top physical shape because I play roller derby which is a very physical sport.I take a multi-vitamin that is geared towards Vegans because I want to make sure that I get the most Iron I can get because my body tends to not absorb Iron as much as I want it to. I am currently trying to build more muscle, so Iron is the way to go in order to do that. Also, with this multi-vitamin, it has Zinc in order to help with absorption and anemia. Since Vegans don't chow down on steaks, they are more susceptible to that sort of thing.
With the winter months upon us, I also get that cold that everyone gets around this time of year. I don't want to get a cold because when I get it, it takes me out for a couple of days. So, in order to beat that cold before it comes near me, I added a Zinc supplement on top of my multi-vitamin.
After about a week, taking both my multi-vitamin and a zinc supplement, my body started to go into an allergic reaction. I am allergic to sulfa, so I figured, maybe I unknowingly took sulfa. But I didn't have the same symptoms that I'm used to when that happens, no hives, just the crazy shakes. I was puzzled. I couldn't figure it out. Until I took a peak at my multi-vitamin contents, then it all became clear.
I had unknowingly been giving myself 4-5 times the recommended daily dose of Zinc for over a week now and my body had just had it. Not only did I have the shakes, fever, cramping, headaches, I also had my throat reacting to this over abundance of Zinc that was now reeking havoc in my body. Great job, Amie, you almost took yourself out with Zinc. Not the way I wanted to spend a few days recovering from a Zinc overdose that is for sure.
I am good now, but I did end up with that cold I was trying to avoid. Because when you overdose yourself with Zinc, it actually takes down your immune system for a bit. So yeah, not the results that I wanted for sure. I did learn that you should always understand what is in your vitamins and be aware that you can mess yourself up with something you think is totally healthy. I hope that you take my experience into consideration when you are thinking of doing something for your health. Sometimes too much of a 'good' thing can be hazardous to your health.