A Guide to Vitamin A deficiency symptoms
Vitamin A is very important for human body as it plays a big role in strengthening of bones, having healthy vision, supple skin as well as normal regeneration of cells. But above all, Vitamin A helps the immune system of the human body to ward off infections. Hence, it is important for your body to have sufficient Vitamin A.
Vitamin A deficiency symptoms
Since Vitamin A plays an active role in almost all crucial processes of the human body, a deficiency can result in several problems. In children particularly, vitamin A deficiency symptoms include lack of growth, poor quality of bones as well as respiratory disorders.
In adults, vitamin A deficiency symptoms mostly appear as skin disorders. If your skin starts drying up, your nails and hair become weak and dry and if you notice that wounds are taking too long to heal up, you are actually dealing with Vitamin A deficiency symptoms.
Another very critical Vitamin A deficiency symptom is night blindness, when you have problems seeing in dim light or at night. Other vitamin A deficiency symptoms related to the eye include small white spots in the eyelids and also dry eyes. These severe conditions, if not treated on time can even lead to absolute blindness.
Vitamin A deficiency and blindness
Vitamin A deficiency or VAD is the primary cause of night blindness and its extreme stage is called xerophthalmia. People suffering from night blindness will find it difficult to differentiate between images in low lights. This happens when VAD stalls rhodopsin production, which is responsible for visibility in lesser illumination. Rhodopsin is contained in the retina and is made of retinal, which is a very active type of vitamin A and opsin. It is when the body cannot create sufficient retinals due to low vitamin A intake; the production of rhodopsin is decreased. Hence, the result leads to night blindness.
In night blindness, due to VAD, there is a loss of goblet cells present in the conjunctiva and that result in xerophthalmia. Xerophthalmia is a condition in which the eye stops producing tears. There might be accumulation of microbial and epithelial cells in the conjunctiva, forming debris and resulting in infection leading to blindness.
Combating vitamin A deficiency symptoms
Researches have shown that supplements rich in vitamin A can bring an effective intervention in the vitamin deficiency. Supplements for treating night blindness involve the intake of vitamin A in retinyl palmitate form. Besides, vitamin A is found particularly in animal products like eggs and milk products that should be taken in good quantity to combat the dangers of vitamin A deficiency symptoms. Read more about vitamin A foods
