Vitamin A is one of the most essential vitamins that bring numerous benefits for people to have a healthy well being. This vitamin is necessary to have good vision, great immune function, skin health and a lot more. Deficiency in this vitamin can result to risk of viral infection and even blindness. Over consumption of this vitamin may also give some adverse effect like nausea, jaundice or loss of appetite. Thus, this should be taken at a recommended value of 5000IU.
One of the most important benefits of vitamin A is its ability to serve as anti-infection. Our body is like a group of army soldiers. The front liner is the skin, then the various tissues and the crucial organs as the backline. Vitamin A helps in making the front liner or the skin to be stronger. It aids in its growth as well as repair. The skin or known as epithelial tissue are made mostly of fats. The vitamin A is so structured to be fat soluble where these fatty tissues can benefit. This vitamin also makes stronger mucous membranes, which are another defense mechanism of the body. This serves as the first line of defense of the body from any infection, disease and free radicals.
Vitamin A benefits also the immune system by boosting its efficiency. This vitamin is crucial to the build lymphocytes that are known immune system cells that can ward off diseases and bacteria. Many researches focus on its help in reducing the risk of viral infection, respiratory infection and measles.
The most important vitamin A benefit known to many is its help in maintaining good eyesight. This vitamin works in three ways- preserve eyesight, prevent cataract and avoid night blindness. The retina of the eye has a part known as rod which is use as a night vision. The rod functions properly by combining vitamin A and opsin protein. Without the necessary Vitamin A, we will not be able to see well in dim lightings. Cataracts, on the other hand, happen when the eye lens become cloudy. To avoid this, there should be enough supply of vitamin A, which is rich in carotenes. Carotenes help in wiping out the free radicals before they can cause damage to the lens. As a person grows old, he will suffer from the natural age related macular degeneration causing vision loss. But many studies proved that vitamin A intake daily reduce AMD chance by half.
Also, another good thing about Vitamin A containing carotene is that the latter is a good anti-oxidant. Carotene is the known precursor of vitamins usually found in many plant sources. The body works on the carotene in two ways: turn it into antioxidant or into vitamin A. the body will only convert it to vitamin A when it is needed while the rest will serve as antioxidant that will circulate in the blood. Carotenes fight those free radicals that are singlet-oxygen.
To get this vitamin A benefits, it is very important that you know a list of vitamin A foods. These include liver, sweet potatoes, carrots, dark leafy vegetables and many more.