What Causes Elevated Vitamin D Levels? Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images
Vitamin D belongs to a group of five fat-soluble vitamins that are important for your health. Getting enough vitamin D is essential to prevent heath conditions such as rickets, osteomalacia, and muscle pain and weakness. However, having too much vitamin D in your body can be detrimental to your health as well.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D plays an essential role in maintaining normal calcium levels in your body. Keeping blood calcium within narrow range is essential for bone growth, maintaining bone density and proper nervous system functioning, according to the Linus Pauling Institute. The recommended dietary allowance for vitamin D is 600 international units per day for adults up to 70 years of age and 800 IU for adults 71 and older.
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Health Conditions
Certain medical conditions can increase your risk for developing elevated vitamin D levels. People who suffer from primary hyperparathyroidism, or an overactive parathyroid gland, sarcoidosis, tuberculosis and lymphoma can respond to even a slight increase in vitamin D in their diet and develop high blood levels of the vitamin as well as calcium, according to a study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 1999. People who suffer from these conditions should keep their vitamin D consumption below 1,000 IU per day and avoid any supplements that contain the vitamin.
Food Intake
Healthy people can also have elevated vitamin D levels if they consume too much vitamin D-rich foods or supplements. Foods that contain high amounts of vitamin D include fatty fish, such as salmon that has 530 IU in a 3-ounce serving, and sardines and mackerel that have more than 200 IU in a 3-ounce serving. Other sources of vitamin D are fortified cereals, milk and juice, as well as egg yolk. Your body can also make vitamin D in the epidermis of the skin in response to sunlight. However, sun exposure does not seem to cause elevated vitamin D levels, according to the Linus Pauling Institute.
Toxicity
Because vitamin D plays an essential role in maintaining calcium balance in your body, hypervitaminosis D, or vitamin D toxicity, causes high serum calcium levels. This condition, also called hypercalcemia, is serious if left untreated for a long period and can cause calcification of the kidneys and heart, formation of kidney stones and loss of bone density. Daily vitamin D doses higher than 50,000 IU can lead to hypercalcemia, according to the Linus Pauling Institute. To prevent elevated vitamin D levels, the upper tolerable intake level for Vitamin D is set at 4,000 IU per day for adults.
Read more:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/527588-what-causes-elevated-vitamin-d-levels/#ixzz2JfR5WiuC