Hello.
what Brand and where do you buy your Vitamin A from? Can you DM if you cant mention on here please. I have not had my Vitamin A mesaured and have been taking 10 000 i.u a day for most of the year. I read that recommended dosage is 2310 i.u a day?
Any advice please would be really apprecaited!! Thank you in advance. x
Why are you taking Vit A? Why did you not measure your level before supplementing?
It is one of the fat soluble vitamins and gets stored in the body and can reach toxicity level.
You have been taking a large dose considering the RDA is 700mcg (iu) daily for females and 900mcg (iu) for males.
Most of us get enough from our diets - milk, eggs, yogurt, cheese, oily fish, liver, liver pate, and some fruit and vegetables.
If we supplement, we should ensure our daily intake, including Vit A from food, doesn't exceed 1.5mg.
If you eat liver once a week you shouldn't take Vit A as a supplement as liver contains a high amount of Vit A and we should limit liver to 200g per week.
Thank you. When I started this journey I did not know alot and did not do enough research - so I found a page that recommended the below :
Magnesium
Vit A
Vit D - this is always tested and I seem to always seem to have levels on the cusp of low. Originally it was severly deficient. And will up if need be.
Ferratin - This was in a deficient teh first time I was tested and I was given supplements and now seem to always have levels on the cusp of low. I am retesting next week. And will up if need be.
Vit B12 - I have always taken Vitamin B12 as long as I can remember. with supplementing I have been for the last year an average reading off 121 pmol/L
Selenium
Vitamin K - I started taking this two months ago as I read that it was better to take with Vitamin D as it helps move it to the right place in the body.
I want to actually get these all tested now as one test. Not sure where I can get that done.
I am learning as I go. xxxx
Thank you for letting me know. I will stop the Vitamin A and have liver once a week. x
Vit B12 - I have always taken Vitamin B12 as long as I can remember. with supplementing I have been for the last year an average reading off 121 pmol/L
Is that a standard serum B12 test? Or a so-called Active B12 test? Ideally, please post the range(s).
I doubt if you'll get them all done in one test bundle. I certainly haven't seen one test covering everything.
Vit D, B12, Folate and Ferritin is a common combination when doing a thyroid/vitamin bundle.
Magnesium is an unreliable test as most of our magnesium is stored in bones and other places, not blood, so not worth bothering with unless you do Red Cell Magnesium which is said to be more sensitive as it measures the amount of magnesium in red blood cells. If serum magnesium lowers then magnesium is removed from red blood cells so serum magnesium can measure normal but magnesium in the tissues will be low. So Red Cell Magnesium test is a better indicator.
Vit A, Vit K and selenium can be done as separate tests with Medichecks.
You cannot simply look at IU numbers for vitamin A.
A lot of claimed vitamin A sources actually contain beta-carotene. That is not vitamin A until it is split in our bodies by an enzyme. In hypothyroidism, that splitting (conversion) is impaired. One of the reasons that those who eat significant amounts of food containing beta-carotene can end up with hypercarotenemia (carotenosis) and yellow skin (xanthoderma).
Have a look here - take your time, read and re-read. It isn't easy to take it all in.
ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/V...
I ‘dyed’ my baby son orange by feeding him too much puréed carrot. Health visitor said he was doing well but she ‘was worried about his jaundice’. I said he was perfectly healthy and that I just thought he had my olive coloured skin. Then I mentioned ‘could it be carrots?’ - don’t know why I even thought if it - and she asked if he ate carrots. End result was that I laid off the puréed carrots and he went back to normal.
I would be very wary of supplementing vitamin A as it is very easy to overdose and it is toxic (probably at lower levels than stated on supplement bottles) and builds up in the tissues. The symptoms of overdose are pretty much the same as deficiency. Unless you are vegan and have not been able to convert beta carotene for many years, it's very unlikely that you need vit A as retinol is in almost every personal care product and is implicated in Crohns disease (teens who took vit A based meds for acne have a greatly increased risk of developing Crohns)
Hi,
I have been taking that amount for years and it has been helping me with chest infections and asthma. However I also take Vitamin C at the same time. 10 000iu with 1 gm C. I wouldn't recommend taking more as each person has there own needs and I once read that while one person can take 20 000iu a day and be fine another will overdose. I've always felt that the Vitamin C was important to take with it.
It can build up as it is fat soluble - "Because vitamin A is fat soluble, it's stored in body tissue for later use. Most of the vitamin A in your body is kept in your liver in the form of retinyl esters" .
It is important to get a blood test to check your levels.
During a particularly bad episode of flu and asthma, I was taking more but my blood levels showed that I was still on the low end of normal. For me and my health, I wouldn't be without it.
Whatever you take - medicine or vitamins or herbs - it is always important to check out the side effects or the signs of an overdose. That way you can be on the lookout for those symptoms in your body. One sign of an overdose of Vitamin A is a bad headache but there are others. Check them out.
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