Vitamin A sources and supplements: What you need to know

Vitamin A sources and supplements: What you need to know

Vitamin A, or retinol, is one of the vitamins necessary to enhance the functions of the body’s organs, including maintaining eye health, strengthening the immune system, and maintaining the health and development of the fetus in the womb.

What is Vitamin A?

Vitamin A, or retinol, is a fat-soluble vitamin that is primarily stored in the liver. Helps support the function of the heart and lungs to prevent chronic heart and respiratory diseases, in addition to promoting vision and a healthy immune system.

There are two types of vitamin A, each type is classified according to its source, and these types include:

Retinol, which can be obtained from animal products, nutritional supplements, and fortified cereals.

Carotenoids are converted to vitamin A, and are commonly found in plant foods, such as fruits and vegetables.

The importance of vitamin A for general health

Its importance in maintaining a person's health is:

Enhancing the health of the immune system to protect against disease and infection.

Promote eye health to strengthen vision.

Maintaining healthy skin and body tissues.

Getting it contributes to:

Stimulating the production and activation of white blood cells.

Bone remodeling.

Maintaining the health of the cells that line the inner surfaces of the body.

Sources of vitamin A

In addition to vitamin A supplements and fortified breakfast cereals, vitamin A can be obtained from foods of animal origin by eating:

eggs.

Dairy products such as milk and yogurt.

Fish like salmon.

Foods rich in beta-carotene, which is converted in the body into vitamin A, include various plant foods, including:

Leafy vegetables, such as spinach.

Vegetables, such as potatoes, carrots, broccoli, and red peppers.

Fruits like mangoes and apricots.

Benefits of Vitamin A

Getting enough of it helps to enhance the functions of the body's organs and prevent many health conditions. These are its most important benefits:

1. The benefits of vitamin A for the eyes

Retinol promotes eye health by protecting the eyes from night blindness, as people have the ability to see during the day, while they find it difficult to see at night or in the dark, and obtaining it helps enhance the body's ability to convert light into an electrical signal sent to the brain.

Getting it can help slow the deterioration of vision that some people may suffer with age, which is usually caused by damage to the cells of the retina.

2. Support immune function

Getting it can enhance the health of the immune system in eliminating infections and pathogens, by promoting the health of mucous barriers in the eyes, lungs, intestines and genitals, which helps in trapping bacteria and infection causes. Not only that, getting it helps boost the production of white blood cells, which helps eliminate bacteria and remove them from the bloodstream.

3. Reduce the risk of cancer

Some research and studies indicate that getting enough of it can help reduce the risk of developing and reducing the risk of dying from certain types of cancer, including; Lung cancer, lymphoma, cervical and bladder cancer, due to its influential role in promoting healthy cell growth, development and division.

On the other hand, research and other studies have shown that smokers' access to high levels of beta-carotene supplements, which are converted into vitamin A, contributed to stimulating their risk of lung cancer and death after infection.

4. Promote bone health

Getting enough of it can promote bone health, growth and development, as it has been proven that people who have low levels of it or get high levels of it can be at risk of bone fractures. Therefore, there is an urgent need to conduct more studies and research to reveal the relationship between its levels and exposure to fractures.

5. Benefits of vitamin A for pregnant women

The role of Vitamin A in Fertility and fetal development

Obtaining it helps to enhance the health of the reproductive system for both women and men, and the results of a study have shown that not getting enough males can cause poor growth of sperm cells, which impedes the fertility process and may lead to infertility. The effect is