Glossary: Vitamin A

vitamin A

What is it?

Absolutely essential for the proper growth of children, vitamin A or retinol is also needed by both children and adults for proper vision (it can prevent and sometimes cure night blindness) and for healthy skin and mucous membranes lining the body's inner cavities. In addition, vitamin A helps the body fight infection and, according to Harvard University's recent Nurses' Health Study, may reduce the risk of breast cancer. Its precursor present in many plants, BETA CAROTENE, may also reduce the risk of some cancers. The latest good news, according to a Johns Hopkins School of Medicine study conducted in Africa, is that vitamin A and beta-carotene (and possibly other CAROTENOID vitamin A precursors) may reduce the transmission of AIDS from mother to infant. Formerly measured in international units (IU), which some vitamin bottle labels still list, vitamin A is now measured in retinol equivilants (RE). The latest RDA (RDA) lists RE only, so that's what we use. To convert IU to RE: 1 RE = 3.3 IU if food source is an animal (retinol), 10 IU if food source is a plant (beta-carotene).

U.S. RDA FOR VITAMIN A
babies: birth to 1 year	375 RE per day
children: 1 to 3 years 4 to 6 years 7 to 10 years	400 RE per day 500 RE per day 700 RE per day
men and boys: 11 to 51 years	1000 RE per day
women and girls: 11 to 51 years	800 RE per day
pregnant women	800 RE per day
nursing mothers: first 6 months second 6 months	1,300 RE per day 1,200 RE per day

Deficiency Symptoms

Lowered resistance to infection; rough, dry and pimply skin; digestive problems; kidney stones; night blindness and eye disease, including xerophththalamia, which can cause permanent blindness. Results of an ongoing Nurses' Health Study (an eight-year program involving 89,000 women nurses) suggest that those who didn't get enough beta-carotene and retinol had about 25 percent more breast cancers than those whose diets met the RDAs.

Precautions

Vitamin A is fat soluble, meaning that it can be stored in the body and that it's possible to OD on high-dosage supplements. The worst case scenario: blurred vision, increased skull pressure, hair loss.

Good Sources

Liver, eggs, margarines and whole milk and low fat milks FORTIFIED with vitamin A. In addition, beta-carotene, which the body converts to Vitamin A, can be found in abundance in pumpkins, winter squash, carrots, sweet red peppers, apricots, mangoes, papayas and other bright yellow/orange/red fruits and vegetables, also in such dark leafy greens as chard, spinach, mustard, turnip and beet tops.

Standard Process™ Supplements

Cataplex A, Cataplex AC, Cataplex ACP, Chlorophyll Complex Perles Fat Soluble