What are Vitamin A rich foods? What are the benefits of Vitamin A? Vitamin A ke faayde. How much Vitamin A do you need in a day? Are there any misconceptions about Vitamin A and supplements? Vitamin A se kya hota hai? What are Vitamin A deficiency diseases? Dr Rajesh Bhardwaj, a senior ENT specialist, talks to us in detail about the benefits, deficiency, sources, types, overdose, daily needs, and misconceptions about Vitamin A.

Video Breakdown:

0:33 Understanding Vitamin A

1:05 Why do we need Vitamin A

1:26 Types of Vitamin A

1:38 Foods that are rich in Vitamin A

2:12 Misconceptions about Vitamin A and Supplements

2:36 Vitamin A overdose

3:02 Daily need of Vitamin A

3:37 Deficiency of Vitamin A

#vitaminAsources #vitaminAtypes #vitaminAfruits

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Video Transcript:
There is a lot of interest generated at the moment about immunity, immunity-boosting, vitamins and supplementation. And, we thought we will run a series of what vitamins are, and how they work for you. Vitamins are essential for the human body.

There are many types of vitamins- A, B, C, D, E, and K. There are water-soluble vitamins, which are B and C, and the rest are fat-soluble vitamins. We require vitamins in certain doses for us to carry out vital functions of our human body. Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin and it has an important role to perform for the human body. What is the role of Vitamin A? It plays a role in our immune function, in our eye-sights, in the cellular mechanism of our body. There are certain organs in our body, particularly the heart, lungs for which cellular maintenance is done by vitamin A. Vitamin A is also an antioxidant that prevents cells from destruction. Why do we need vitamin A?

We need vitamin A for building up a better immune system, for building a better cellular mechanism as well as for our eyesight. Vitamin A is essential for night vision and is a very
important ingredient of the cells in the retina which visualize the sight. Vitamin A comes to us in 2 main forms: pre-formed vitamin A, which comes from animal sources. Fruits, particularly vegetables are very rich in vitamin A.

Foods that are rich in vitamin A are of two different types- animal sources and plant sources. Animal sources include dairy, eggs, liver particularly mutton liver, lamb liver, fish, particularly fish
oil. These are all very rich sources of vitamin A. In Plant-based sources, any vegetable that is colorful has vitamin A. Capsicum, carrot, spinach, and all of these green leafy vegetables
plus colorful vegetables are rich sources of vitamin A from plants and they give us enough of vitamin A requirements for a day. Because we have some misconceptions about vitamin A, antioxidants, and supplementation, sometimes we take too much of it.

We can definitely take an overdose of vitamin A. And regarding supplements, I must tell you, first of all, it is clearly established that natural food gives a much better vitamin A than supplements give you. Secondly, overdosage of Vitamin A can happen, is known to happen, and causes various problems including some skin irritation, liver damage, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea and various other side
effects. It is recommended that you take your vitamin A source from natural sources and take supplementation only as and when advised by medical advice, and do not take it over the
counter because it does have side effects.

An excess of vitamin A in pregnant ladies is known to cause birth defects, so we have to be careful. So, particularly when you are expecting a baby, make sure that your vitamin A comes from natural sources and that you do not load
yourself up on vitamin A supplementation. Daily need - What is our daily need for Vitamin A. We need 700 -900 micrograms of vitamin A for a specific unit. 700 mg for females, 900mg for males and this is our requirement for maintaining a healthy body and for maintaining
proper vitamin A function in the human body. As far as we are concerned, whether you are a vegetarian or non-vegetarian just a healthy daily intake of fruits, vegetables, a little bit of
poultry, and maybe some milk, milk products is enough for us to maintain the daily requirement for vitamin A.

We do not need supplementation if we are eating healthy food. Deficiency of vitamin A- Deficiency of vitamin A can lead to a condition called Xeropthalmia. It also causes night blindness and this is something we have to keep in mind and particularly in low
income group, or in persons who may not be able to take adequate nutrition, there is a real danger that they may be vitamin A deficient.