Is this too many capsules to take daily and, if so , why?
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Aster (
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September 11th, 2014
My liver enzymes were elevated and I don’t drink. Could this have been the result of my taking five caps called Green Superfoods, one turmeric extract, and one D3 gelcap per day? I mean, does doing this overwork my liver or do any other harm?
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13 Answers
This is why all these weird pills specify on the bottles “Not approved by the FDA.”
if nothing else, you can verify the amount of the D3. Normal daily dose is c. 800–1000 IU. Just sprinkle turmeric on foods…salads, stews, grains (quinoa, barley, brown rice) pasta.
Not a clue about Green Superfood.
“Eat food. Not too much. Plants mainly.”
Was it the garden of life green superfood? I used to use that mix but there was not really anything in it to raise enzymes. Herbal supplements sometimes have things that can be hard in your liver. Tumeric I sometimes take also and it never had any affect on bloodwork. The term“extract” is something to be wary of. Just because it’s natural and safe does not mean concentrated amounts are safe. I take D3 also but make sure I don’t get too much with regular checks by my doc. It’s possible to get too much D but not likely unless you are taking a substantial amount. Personally I’d stop the supplements, eat healthy and exercise. If it was diet related they should go back down. I’m guessing that’s what your doc said to do. I’d listen. If you overeat regularly you can raise your enzymes. Just being over weight can do it. Fatty liver is not uncommon in people like this.
You certainly can lay off the pills and get retested and see if your numbers improve. I think there is some concern about the large dose D3 pills and liver, but if you are taking D3, I assume it is OTC, and so then I also assume it is likely a lowish dose. Although, you can buy 10,000 IU pills in the drug store, I used to take them. I completely disagree with the dosage suggested by @gailcalled, for a significant percentage of the population that isn’t anywhere near enough, almost all doctors recommend at least 2,000 IU daily if a patient is low in D, and I am going to assume you actually know you are low in D and not just popping the pills. For some indivuals it is possible that one pill too many of anything can be just too much for their liver, so you need to figure out what might be harming yours. Hopefully, it just resolves on its own.
Once you stop the possible culprits, and if your liver enzymes improve, then you can reintroduce one at a time and get tested again and narrow down possibilities. That is if your doctor thinks that is a reasonable idea. You have to partner with him, because you have to get the blood tests, you can’t guess.
Some of the most obvious commonplace things that cause liver damage in many people are Tylenol and drinking alcohol. The drug Diflucan also is a culprit, and that is taken by many women at one time or another. I assume your doctor asked you what medications you have taken recently and if you drink.
I have no idea about the green superfood you mentioned. What’s in it? What are the nutritional values on the package? Keep in kind the stated nutritional values can be way off on vitamins and minerals, they aren’t really regulated like pharmaceuticals.
Too late to edit. Another vitamin and mineral that comes to mind is vitamin A and calcium can be damaging to the liver in excessive amounts. Calcium without sufficient D and K2 can settle in organs and arteries rather than the bone and damages the soft tissues. Calcium supplemts have fairly recently come under fire, and the thought is doctors were recommending too much previously. Vitamin A we have known forever can be toxic in large doses.
I have seen reports of body building supplements damaging the liver. I don’t know if that green superfood you mention is similar to those?
@snowberry I highly doubt there is anything but quackery in those pages. This is right up there with colon cleansing.
@ARE_you_kidding_me I’ve found it very helpful. So just because YOU say it’s quackery, doesn’t mean it is. And I’ve had more doctors than I can count tell me stuff that simply isn’t true, but THEY were never called quacks. In fact (because I’m feeling generous today), even I wouldn’t even bother to call them quacks. They just didn’t know what they were talking about and simply thought they did.
My problem is that I still had to pay them. Just like you’d have to pay any quack and get nothing for your trouble, or as often happens in either case, you get all sorts of problems.
It’s always, always buyer beware. So to each his own. Truce?
@JLeslie “Some of the most obvious commonplace things that cause liver damage in many people are Tylenol and drinking alcohol. The drug Diflucan also is a culprit, and that is taken by many women at one time or another. I assume your doctor asked you what medications you have taken recently and if you drink.”
Never touch Tylenol , do take Advil, almost never drink. Never took Diflucan and no; he didn’t ask me, “do you ever drink?” He just had his “nurse” call and tell me, “the doctor told me to tell you don’t drink or eat sugar.” And he is obese.
@Aster Don’t drink or eat sugar. I wonder why he focused on the sugar?
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