Vitamin A
If you want to live a disease-free life, eat foods rich in vitamin A
every day. Vitamin A was discovered in 1913 by Elmer V. and Marguerite Davis. It is a fat-soluble vitamin. We get this vitamin through food. It is found in various forms in food, such as retinol, dehydroretinol, or carotenoids.
Vitamin A deficiency occurs when the body doesn’t receive adequate amounts of vitamin A. Vitamin A is an essential nutrient for vision, immunity, and the health of skin and mucous membranes. We need a variety of vitamins to maintain a healthy body. Vitamins are essential nutrients for proper nutrition. Since their discovery in the modern era, their popularity has been rapidly increasing. All the vitamins discovered by medical scientists are interdependent. Vitamins are found in abundance in our food, providing our body with new energy. Consuming them provides relief from many ailments. Their deficiency can lead to numerous illnesses. Today we’re providing you with information about vitamin A !
Diseases caused by deficiency of Vitamin A in the body .
Eye disorders: Night blindness (inability to see at night), blurred vision, blindness, and dryness of tears. Vitamin A deficiency can cause patients to be unable to tolerate bright light.
• Left untreated, it can lead to xerophthalmia (dryness and damage to the eyes), Bitot spots, and potentially irreversible blindness.
• Decrease in body’s immunity, loss of body weight, decrease in working capacity and feeling tired all the time.
• Loss of appetite, intestinal disorders, gas formation.
• Pneumonia, cold, cough, fever, flu, bronchitis, dry cough.
• Skin diseases, drying of skin, swelling on skin, thickening of skin, drying of skin and turning into scabs, wounds, boils, dangerous poisonous wounds like carbuncle, pimples, freckles, spots on face, cracked lips.
• Nervous weakness, weakness of blood vessel system, deafness, lack of milk in the breasts.
• All disorders occurring before menstruation in women, vaginal infections in old age, vaginal inflammation and shrinkage of the ovaries.
• Weakness in children, delayed teething, frothy diarrhea.
• Bladder stones, urinary infections, kidney disease.
• Heart weakness.
• cancer.
• Hair fall, baldness, dryness of hair.
• Vitamin A deficiency causes premature aging.
• The man’s testicles shrink.
• Due to deficiency of Vitamin A, teeth become weak and develop cavities.
• The tongue becomes yellow.
• Vitamin A deficiency has a bad effect on the eighth nerve of the brain.
• Due to deficiency of Vitamin A, nails start breaking easily.
Sources of Vitamin A
• Vegetables:- Spinach, coriander, cabbage, fresh mint, green fenugreek, radish leaves, carrot, cucumber, sweet potato, beetroot, tomato, mustard greens etc.
• Fruits:- Papaya, mango, cashew, banana, seasonal fruits, pear and fresh fruits etc.
• Vegetarian:- Milk, butter, ghee, cream, millet, soybean, hand-pounded rice etc.
• Non-vegetarian: Fish, goat liver, egg yolk etc.
• Fish oil, halibut liver oil, shark liver oil etc.
To avoid diseases, you should include foods rich in Vitamin A in required quantity in your daily diet.
Also read this post :- What is Vitamin C? | Benefits, Sources, Deficiency Symptoms & Dosage !!!!
Some important facts about Vitamin A
• The chemical name of Vitamin A is retinol.
• Lakhs of people in our country have lost their eyesight due to Vitamin A deficiency.
• When the body is surrounded by infectious diseases, Vitamin A is very much needed.
• Vitamin A provides immunity to the body.
• Small children need a lot of Vitamin A.
• Fish oil contains the highest amount of Vitamin A.
• Vitamin A is found in abundance in green vegetables.
• Vitamin A is not water soluble.
• Vitamin A dissolves in oils and fats.
• Vitamin A keeps the arteries and veins soft.
• Women need more Vitamin A during pregnancy .
Vulnerable groups
• Children under five years of age
• Pregnant and breastfeeding women
• People suffering from malabsorption disorders
• Populations in low-income countries, particularly in Africa and South-East Asia.
Public health impact
Vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of preventable childhood blindness worldwide, causing approximately 500,000 cases of blindness annually and a high mortality rate among affected children. It remains a significant public health problem in many developing regions.
Daily requirement – The daily requirement of Vitamin A is 3000-5000 IU.