Vitamin A: Sources and Functions

Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin. This means it has the ability to travel through fat, and it can be stored in fat longer. Fat-soluble vitamins can go right through a cell.

Water-soluble vitamins can’t do this. Fat-soluble vitamins can affect the deep parts of the cell and DNA. 

There’s some real interesting things about vitamin a .

Vitamin A deficiencies can affect what your skin turns into at the genetic level.

Symptoms of a vitamin A deficiency can include:

• • Flaky skin
• • White dots on the skin
• • Dandruff
• • Vision problems (night blindness)
• • Infections
• • Lack of lubrication of the eye or mouth 

Great vitamin A sources:

• • Cod liver oil 
• • Liver 
• • Butter
• • Eggs (especially the yolk)
• • Cheese 

There are also foods that have previtamin A. This means it has to be converted into the active form a vitamin A.

This conversion only takes place in certain parts of the body at certain percentages. 

Sources of previtamin A:

• • Kale
• • Spinach 
• • Carrots
• • Sweet potatoes 
• • Greens

It’s a fat soluble vitamin .

What does that mean ?

What is vitamin A?

You have water soluble vitamins and you have fat soluble vitamins .

fat soluble vitamins have the ability to travel through fat , to be stored in fat longer .

It has the ability to go through cell walls because the layer around cells are fat lipid layers or fat layers .

These vitamin a , fat soluble vitamins can go right through the cell where water soluble vitamins cannot .

Vitamin A deficiencies 

So they can affect the deep parts of the cell , the DNA , the alteration of the DNA and that’s why vitamin a deficiencies can really affect what your skin turns into , okay , at the genetic level .

So you can have a lot of little flaking things on your skin , little , white little dots on the skin , on the hair follicles .

You can have little skin , flakes on the the scalp .

You can have acne , different types of acne , cystic acne , acne on your back .

It can create a lot of problems with your vision as well because vitamin a is necessary for your eye .

So if you can’t see at night when you’re driving at night and it’s hard to see , that’s a vitamin a deficiency .

Also , lubrication of the eye and the mouth and anything , any granular secretion if like if you don’t have enough of that lubrication , that’s a vitamin a deficiency .

Also , infections , sinus infections , ear infections , lung infections all can be triggered by a low vitamin a level , so it has a lot to do with your immune system .

So vitamin a , gives support to the eye , to the skin , to the immune system , to the inner skin too around your inside your nasal passages .

So if you have let’s say sleep apnea or anything that’s going on with the inner skin of your throat , that could be Vitamin A deficiency .

Foods high in vitamin A

Now , here’s what people don’t realize .

Vitamin A is in cod liver oil , It’s in liver .

It’s in butter .

It’s in eggs , especially the yolk .

It’s in cheese .

That’s the active form of vitamin a called retinol .

Now , it’s true that , kale , spinach , carrots , sweet potato , and greens also have vitamin a and they have a lot of vitamin a , but here’s what people don’t realize .

This is a pre vitamin a , so anything vegetable has a pre vitamin a .

It’s not an active form .

It’s not retinol .

It to be converted into an active form .

That conversion only takes place , at certain parts of your body and in only certain percentages .

So if you’re lucky , you might get between 4 to 6 percent conversions

So if you’re consuming a 100 milligrams , let’s say , of vitamin a from kale , you’re only getting 4 to 6 percent of that .

Okay , so just because you’re eating kale doesn’t mean you’re gonna get enough vitamin a .

Especially if you’re not consuming these products .

So that’s just some interesting information .

What causes a vitamin A deficiency?

What causes a vitamin a deficiency ?

• • Not consuming foods rich in the active form of vitamin A
• • Not converting previtamin A to the active form (this has to do with a digestive issue)
• • A lack of bile 
• • A congested liver 

Now it could be you’re not consuming enough of these or maybe say you’re not converting these right here , but more likely you probably are consuming enough vitamin a , but the deficiency comes from the ability to convert and that has to do with your gut .

If your digestive system is damaged or you have a history of taking antibiotics or you have leaky gut or some type of digestive issue , chances are you can’t convert this .

So everything’s gonna dry out .

Your hair’s gonna dry out .

Your skin’s gonna dry .

Eyes dry .

So you’ll start manifesting vitamin a deficiencies .

The other cause of vitamin a deficiency is a lack of bile , b I l e , from the gallbladder .

Why ?

Because the gallbladder helps you break down fats and breaks down the fat soluble vitamins so your body can start utilizing them .

So if you don’t have a gallbladder that means you probably don’t have enough bile to absorb vitamin a .

You might have to take some bile as an as a supplement .

So , let’s say you get , have another you just have a congested liver , and the symptoms of that would be bloating , burping , belching , right shoulder pain , constipation .

Those are indications that you don’t have enough bile .

It could be because your stomach is not acid enough .

So you have heartburn .

Well that means that that means you don’t have enough acid because in order for you to release your own bile you need a very strong stomach .

So it could be that the stomach is not releasing the bile to help you absorb vitamin a .

So again , I just want to give you that background in case you’re taking vitamin it’s not working because you probably can’t absorb it .

So I hope that gave you some data about vitamin a .