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Archive for the ‘Vitamin A and Pregnant Women’ Category

So let’s get to the truth of the matter. One view is that pregnant women should avoid taking any vitamin A. The other view is that pregnant women should not be concerned at all with their consumption of vitamin A, because the risks are minimal.
In 1995, the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine published a study which showed strong evidence that about 1.7% of pregnant women in the U.S. consumer more than 10,000 International Units (IU) of vitamin A (retinol) in daily during the first 7 weeks of pregnancy gave birth to children with congenital anomaly. This has created a wave of fear among obstetricians and pregnant patients, which continues to this day.
The bad news about the effects of vitamin A NEJM study is that, far too many obstetricians and nurse midwives too cautious, even paranoid, about women taking vitamin A supplements containing beta-carotene anyform. It ‘obvious that no pregnant woman wants to put her child in the developing world at risk, so that when the midwife told them to avoid taking vitamin A they hear.
The other side of the truth is that children need development somevitamin A. Vitamin A deficiency may cause fetal growth retardation and infant mortality. And ‘know that scientists have tried to develop modified strains of rice to contain beta-carotene (orange) for third world countries. Why? To help prevent the large number of children born blind each year because of their mother’s body has enough vitamin A to provide sufficient development in their eyes!
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that between 250,000 and 500,000 children are born blind each year. The WHO estimates that 13.8 million children have some degree of vision loss related to vitamin A.
Carotenes and carotenoids are natural pigments that give fruits and vegetables their bright color. There are over 600 carotenoids / carotene and less than 50 appear to be converted into vitamin A. The conversion of carotene into vitamin A depends on a number of factors, including adequate zinc, vitamin C, the state of proteins, bile salts, pancreatic enzymes and thyroid optimal health. Thus, women with insufficient levels of these co-factors needed it more difficult to convert the pigment food high in vitamin A.
One International Unit (IU) of vitamin A (retinol) do not correspond to one IU of beta-carotene, as only between 40% -60% beta-carotene is absorbed and converted into vitamin A. In addition, the absorption of beta-carotene is self-limiting. Beta-carotene taken as a supplement to better absorb beta-carotene in foods. On average, a healthy dose of vitamin A for pregnant women is about. 4000 IU. This means that if you have been told by your obstetrician to avoid taking vitamin A, and you get less than 8000 IU of carotene, the prenatal vitamins and diet combined, there is an increased risk that the child may suffer a certain degree loss of vision or growth retardation. The risk of pregnant women who receive too little vitamin A is also unacceptable that the vitamin A too