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New Choices in Natural Healing: Watch What Youre Taking

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Watch What Youre Taking

Watch What You're Taking

Of course, too much of a good thing can be bad--and very dangerous. Some vitamins shouldn't be taken in supplement form unless you are under a doctor's care for a specific problem. Vitamins A and D, niacin and iron can all have adverse effects, resulting in problems such as liver damage, heart disease, loss of nerve function and increased risk of cancer.

But even the supplements you're encouraged to take in large doses can have some side effects, albeit less serious ones. "If you take enough magnesium, you can get diarrhea," says Michael Janson, M.D., director of the Center for Preventive Medicine in Barnstable, Massachusetts, and an officer of the American College for Advancement in Medicine. "And overloading on B₆ can cause restless sleep, because it promotes heavy dreaming."

Overdoing other B vitamins or a B-complex mixture can leave your urine a bright yellow color that's neither serious nor dangerous. And too much vitamin C can cause loose bowels or diarrhea in some people. "But usually," says Dr. Janson, "these side effects occur in extremely large doses--sometimes 100 times above the Recommended Dietary Allowance and well beyond what most people would ever take."

Another problem: Some nutrients may "block out" each other. "You should never take extra zinc without taking additional copper, because zinc will overwhelm the copper and induce a marginal deficiency," says Richard Anderson, Ph.D., lead scientist for the nutrient requirements and functions laboratory at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland. "So if you're going to take a zinc supplement separate from a multivitamin/mineral supplement, be sure to take about three milligrams of copper as well."

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