Felicia has been feeling tired recently. Her friend sells vitamin supplements through an online company, and she suggested Felicia start taking their energy formula to help her feel better. Felicia is interested, but she asks her friend to send her some information about the supplements before she buys them.
What should she look for to help her evaluate the supplements?
The Supplement Facts panel includes the following information for vitamins:

Serving Size: 2 caplets
Amount per Serving % Daily Value
Vitamin A 5000 IU 100%
Vitamin C 200 mg 333%
Vitamin D 600 IU 150%
Vitamin E 30 IU 100%
Vitamin K 80 mcg 100%
Thiamin 50 mg 333%
Riboflavin 50 mg 2941%
Niacin 50 mg 250%
Vitamin B6 150 mg 7500%
Folic acid 600 mcg 150%
Vitamin B12 12 mcg 200%
Biotin 300 mcg 100%
Pantothenic acid 20 mg 200%

If Felicia took 2 caplets per day, the recommended dose, is she likely to encounter any problems? If so, what problems might she encounter and which nutrients may cause them?

a. What should she look for to help her evaluate the supplements?

She should look out for the Recommended Dietary Allowance of each Vitamins or nutrients that is present in the supplements she wants to take.

b. If Felicia took 2 caplets per day, the recommended dose, is she likely to encounter any problems?

Yes she is likely to encounter problems.

c. If so, what problems might she encounter and which nutrients may cause them? The problems she is likely to encounter is taking more than the required amount of nutrients she is meant to take daily.

Those nutrients that would cause her problems are:

a. Vitamin C

b. Vitamin E

c. Niacin

d. Vitamin B6

Explanation:

RDA can be defined as the recommended dietary allowance of a particular nutrient of vitamin present in a food or supplement. It puts a limit to the consumption of a particular nutrient in other to prevent toxicity or harmful side effects of such nutrients.

For Felicia, there are some of the vitamins present in her supplement would cause her problems because the level of vitamins in her supplement have exceeded her Recommended Dietary Allowance.

Those vitamins and the problems that they cause are:

a. Vitamin C: The recommended dietary allowance for vitamins C for women is given as 75mg per day and Felicia's supplements contain 200mg. The problems that could arise from this includes Felicia feeling more tired, her gums would be swollen and they would start to bleed, if she has any injuries, they won't heal properly.

b. Vitamin E: The Recommended Dietary Intake for Vitamins E in Adults is 15mg (22.4 IU). Felicia's supplements contains 30IU and has exceeded the limits. The problems this could cause is fatigue, bleeding, headaches, nausea.

c. Niacin: The Recommended Dietary Allowance for Niacin is 14mg for adult females. Felicia's supplements consists of 50mg which as exceeded the limits. The problems this can cause for Felicia includes liver damages, the color of her skin would be flushed and presence of rashes on her skin.

d. Vitamin B6 : Felicia's supplements contains 150mg of Vitamin B6 and this has exceeded the limit for adults. The upper limit for adults is 100mg. This would result in serious damages to her nerves, she would also experience feelings of nausea as well.

Question 1:

What should she look for to help her evaluate the supplements?

Answer 1:

Felicia needs to study the Supplement Facts Panel and go over the following question with her doctor:

Question 2

If Felicia took 2 caplets per day, the recommended dose, is she likely to encounter any problems?

Answer 2:

Felicia May encounter problems after taking two caplets continuously.

Explanation:

The Supplement Facts Panel states that the Daily Value Per serving (1 Caplet) contains 5000 International Unites (IU) of Vitamin A.

Vitamin A is a fat-soluble nutrient that plays a vital role in your body. It exists naturally in the foods we eat and can also be consumed through supplements

The recommended daily intake for Vitamin A  (according to Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) is 900 mcg and 700 mcg per day for men and women, respectively. While the tolerable upper limit (UL) is 10,000 IU ( or3,000 mcg) for adults beyond which there is risk of toxicity.

By taking 2 caplets she most likely would have exceeded the Upper limit given that she most likely would have gotten some of it from her regular meals.

Question 3

What  problems might she encounter and which nutrients may cause them?

Answer :

As stated above Felicia is at the greatest risk of Vitamin A overdose which can lead to toxicity.

Taking too much vitamin A can lead to serious side effects and can even be fatal if ingested at extremely high doses.

Acute vitamin A toxicity occurs over a short time period when a single, excessively high dose of vitamin A is consumed, while chronic toxicity occurs when doses more than 10 times the RDA are ingested over a longer time span (30Trusted Source).

The most common side effects of chronic vitamin A toxicity — often referred to as hypervitaminosis A — include:

Cheers!