Vitamin A

Vitamin A has many roles in our body with the most important one for our eyesight, specifically at night. Imagine driving with no night vision or trick-or-treating or any other nighttime activities you may enjoy. If not for Vitamin A, eye vision would be a real concern to all of us. We also need Vitamin A for body growth and healthy skin.

Beta Carotene, considered a pro-vitamin, is converted into Vitamin A within the body. As the amount of Carotene increases the percentage of beta carotene that is converted to Vitamin A decreases to avoid Vitamin A toxicity. Beta Carotene is found in vegetables and fruits and foods high in Vitamin A are carrots, pumpkins, spinach, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, oranges, apricots and peaches. These are all great Vitamin A food sources and should be used as part of your daily diet.

Since Beta Carotene is a form of Vitamin A, the benefits of Beta Carotene are almost the same as the Vitamin A functions:

• Promotes strong bones and teeth, healthy skin hair and teeth and healthy growth
• Helps fight eye disorders like night blindness among other eye problems
• Helps build resistance against respiratory infections
• Removes age spots

For an acne treatment, Vitamin A comes highly recommended. Many skin creams designed for acne have components that come from Vitamin A that control the oil in your skin. This is just one of many facts about Vitamin A that the public is not aware of. There are no plant sources of Vitamin A as only animal fats contain Vitamin A. There are many foods rich in Vitamin A such as liver, cod liver oil, egg yolks, butter and whole milk. People on a high fat diet are assured of getting the adequate daily dose of Vitamin A. Rarely do we hear about Vitamin A overdose. If there is an overdose, it is usually caused by an overdose of Vitamin A supplements, and possibly contributed by another underlying medical condition.

Vitamin A deficiency is very rare in the United States, but there are still cases where it does exist. It does exist in countries where immunizations are not required and children develop measles. They are also more susceptible to infections. People on a vegan diet are also somewhat at risk of deficiency. Some of the symptoms of Vitamin A deficiency are night blindness, dry skin and decreased resistance to infection. In ancient Egypt, they found that night blindness could be cured by eating liver, a food with Vitamin A.