Vitamin A: Benefits, Sources & Side Effects

What is Vitamin A?

Vitamin A is a fat soluble vitamin that is also a powerful antioxidant. Vitamin A plays a critical role in maintaining healthy vision, neurological function, healthy skin, and more. Vitamin A- like all antioxidants- is involved in reducing inflammation through fighting free radical damage. Consuming a diet high in antioxidants is a way to naturally slow aging.

Antioxidants like Vitamin A are also responsible for building strong bones, regulating gene regulation, maintaining healthy clear skin, facilitating cell differentiation, and supporting immune function. Some of the best sources of Vitamin A include eggs, milk, liver, carrots, yellow or orange vegetables such as squash, spinach, and other leafy green vegetables.
Vitamin A Sources

Vitamin A is found in two primary forms: active Vitamin A and beta carotene. Active Vitamin A comes from animal-derived foods and is called retinol. This “pre-formed” Vitamin A can be used directly by the body; it does not need to first convert the Vitamin.

The other type of Vitamin A, which is obtained from colorful fruits and vegetables, is in the form of “pro Vitamin A” carotenoids, which are converted to retinol by the body after the food is ingested. Beta carotene, a type of carotenoid which is found primarily in plants, needs to first be converted to active Vitamin A in order to be utilized by the body.

Studies have repeatedly shown that antioxidants like Vitamin A are vital to good health and longevity; they benefit eye health, boost immunity, and foster cell growth. Nutrition experts and physicians recommend obtaining antioxidants like Vitamin A primarily by eating a well-balanced diet high in fruits, vegetables, and whole foods whenever possible, rather than from supplements.

Symptoms of Vitamin A Deficiency

Vitamin A is essential for normal vision, as well as proper bone growth, healthy skin, and protection of the mucous membranes of the digestive, respiratory, and urinary tracts against infection. People with long-term malabsorption of fats are very susceptible to developing a Vitamin A deficiency.

The most common health concerns that will cause malabsorption of vitamin A include gluten sensitivity issues, a leaky gut syndrome and auto immune responses, inflammatory bowel disease, and pancreatic disorders. Alcoholics, whose excess toxicity creates low vitamin A levels, are also at a much higher risk fr deficiency.

Vitamin A deficiency has become a public health problem in more than half of all countries, especially in Africa and South-East Asia, especially affecting young children and pregnant women in low-income countries.

This can be a serious problem for children because the lack of vitamin A causes severe visual impairment and blindness; it also increases the risk of severe illness, and even death, significantly. Children may be in harm’s way from such common childhood infections as diarrhoeal disease and measles.