All that said, the exact time when water-soluble vitamins circulate in your body will depend on factors such as age, nutrient status, diet, and the like. However, most sell out in 1 or 2 days, which means replenishing them daily to ensure sufficient levels if it's critical for optimal health and performance. The liver acts as a storage place for some vitamins, minerals, and glucose. These provide a vital source of energy for the body, which the liver transforms into glycogen for more efficient storage (see “metabolism”).
The liver stores vitamins and minerals for times when they may be lacking in the diet. You can store enough vitamin A and vitamin B12 for four years and enough vitamin D for four months. Vitamin D supplements can be metabolized to a compound called 25-hydroxyvitamin D, also called calcidiol. Blood levels of this chemical can be used to measure vitamin D levels in the body and to monitor the effects of vitamin D supplements.
One way to determine how long a compound stays in the body is to look at its half-life, which is the time it takes for half of a compound to be eliminated from the body. The half-life of calcidiol is 15 days. This means that after 15 days, half of the vitamin D from an oral supplement has left the body and that 30 days after a dose of vitamin D, only 25 percent of the vitamin remains. Three months should be enough to assess whether you feel any benefit.
But, I repeat, it all depends on the reason you take vitamin supplements, explains Dr. Pratsides, that is, if you have been diagnosed with a deficiency of a specific vitamin or are simply taking them as a precaution. According to Lenherr, taking several different supplements separately in pill form can lead to nausea and other adverse side effects. Capsules and tablets contain limited doses, “which means they may not be able to hold as much of the supplement”, while liquid and powder formats may be less effective because of the way they are made.
Second, excess vitamin D is stored in fat, which means that some of the vitamin D in a supplement could remain in the body for an extended period if stored rather than used. But, I repeat, it depends on why you take vitamin supplements in the first place, explains Dr. Pratsides: i. Excessive vitamin D supplementation can lead to weight loss, abnormal heart rhythms, and increased urination.
Studying the effects of a single large oral dose of vitamin D on calcidiol levels over time allows us to correctly calculate how long a dose of vitamin D remains in the body. Because the metabolism of vitamin D is complex and excessive amounts can be stored in fat and other tissues, it is difficult to determine how long a daily dose of vitamin D would remain in the body, but it seems that high doses will last approximately two months. There are two aspects of vitamin D that make it difficult to determine how long vitamin D supplements stay in the body. If you take a vitamin D supplement every day, it can take up to a month for vitamin D levels in your blood to reach a stable level.
This suggests that vitamin D may remain in the blood for more than 84 days, although the exact maximum time is not known. While you may not necessarily need all of the vitamins it contains, “it shouldn't cause any major problems, since most excess supplements are excreted,” Dr. Pratsides says. It is more useful to detect signs of deficiency, which vary depending on the supplement in which you have a deficiency.
