The Benefits of Vitamin A

The Benefits of Vitamin A. There’s more to the benefits of Vitamin A than it being a very beneficial antioxidant for you. The Vitamin A benefits help in numerous bodily functions... from keeping your skin healthy to fighting off infection & disease (including cancer). And you should take at least 10,000 to 15,000IU a day.

Let’s go over some of the benefits of Vitamin A.

Vitamin A as an Antioxidant

Yes, one of the Vitamin A benefits is that it acts as an antioxidant. But it’s not exactly Vitamin A that’s acting as the antioxidant... it’s the carotenes. Let me explain.

Carotenes (i.e. beta carotene, alpha carotene) are the precursor of Vitamin A and are found in plant sources (i.e. carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin).

And the human body has 2 functions for carotenes... turn it into Vitamin A or turn it into an antioxidant.

About 40% of carotenes are converted to Vitamin A while 60% functions as powerful antioxidants.

This is good for you because your body will turn carotenes to Vitamin A only if your body needs it. The rest will circulate through your blood as antioxidants. This is helpful because there are some issues with Vitamin A overdose and toxicity. No need to really worry about that with carotenes.

And there are many types of carotenes that act as great antioxidants (i.e. alpha & beta carotene, lycopene). Carotenes specifically fight off the singlet oxygen free radical.

Another important thing to consider is only carotenes, like beta carotene, have antioxidant powers. The Vitamin A that comes from animal sources do not possess the same antioxidant powers as beta carotene.

The “carotene-version” of Vitamin A acts as a powerful antioxidant and you get carotenes mostly from plant sources.

Anti-Infection

One of the other main benefits of Vitamin A is their anti-infection powers. Picture this... think of an army of soldiers. There’s the frontline, the backline and everything else in between.

Now think of your body.

The frontline is your skin & the outer parts of your various tissues and organs. The backline are the more sensitive and crucial organs (i.e. brain, heart). Vitamin A helps to make that frontline stronger with growth and repair.

How does it do this?

Without getting too scientific... the frontline I mentioned that’s your skin & outer barrier is technically called “epithelial tissue.” And this frontline/epithelial tissue is mostly made of fat. And the structure of Vitamin A causes it to be a fat-soluble vitamin that benefits these fatty tissues.

And to go a little further, the frontline/epithelial tissues include your skin, the outer layer of your eyes, mouth, nose, throat, digestive tract and urinary tract. This frontline is your body’s first line of defense against disease, infection and free radicals.

Also, Vitamin A helps to strengthen the mucous membranes of your body. And the mucous membranes are another frontline defense for your body against infection.

Vitamin A is very important for keeping your frontline barriers such as the skin, eyes, nose, throat, lungs, digestive tract & urinary tract strong. This will help you fight off and protect you against infection.

Immunity Booster

We spoke on the anti-infective benefits of Vitamin A & the antioxidant properties. Another benefits of Vitamin A may also help to boost your immune system. Vitamin A plays a role in the development of lymphocytes. These are the cells of your immune system that fight off bacteria and disease. More research is being done to support this claim but a few examples to consider:• Treating measles and respiratory infections – especially helpful for children.

• Viral infections

• May help AIDS patients or anyone whose immune system is depressed by boosting their immune cells.

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