An important question about Vitamin A.?

Question

I am going to start taking Vitamin A for my eye health. However, I've read that the doasge should be anywhere from 700-3,000. I went to CVS this afternoon and picked up some but the dosage is 8,000 IU USP. I have no idea what the means. Will I be safe taking it? I only ask this because I do not want to overdose. Thank you for your answers.

Only serious answers please!

Answer 1

From: http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic638....

"Acute toxic dose is 25,000 IU/kg, and chronic toxic dose is 4000 IU/kg every day for 6-15 months."

For a 70 kg / 150 pound person,  that would be 219 capsules at one time to be acutely toxic and  35 capsules per day to be chronically toxic.

This means that  8,000 units per day will be well over the recommended dose and well below toxicity. It also does not need to be taken everyday, because your body does store it in the fat.

Old Doc

P.S. By the way, most people in health food stores have no real idea what is in what they are selling and what is safe or not safe for any one person. I have seen some of the sellers of herbal supplements in the ER with cardiac symptoms from taking their own product.

Answer 2

To avoid toxicity, dietary intake of vitamin A should be estimated and considered when determining the dosage of the vitamin. Vitamin A activity is expressed in terms of the equivalent amount of retinol (i.e., as retinol equivalents [RE] or retinol activity equivalents [RAE]) and is expressed also in USP units or International Units (IU, units). One USP vitamin A unit is the specific biologic activity of 0.3 mcg of all-trans-retinol; one retinol equivalent (RE) is the specific biologic activity of 1 mcg of all-trans-retinol; one retinol activity equivalent (RAE) is equal to 1 mcg of all-trans-retinol, 12 mcg of all trans-β-carotene, or 24 mcg of other provitamin A carotenoids.126 The use of RAE is preferred when calculating and reporting the amount of total vitamin A in mixed foods or assessing the amount of dietary and supplemental vitamin A consumed.126

Answer 3

your body can take a good amount of vitamin A....take one dose a day and you will be fine, it is good for eye and skin. large does of vitamin a is found in accutane,

Answer 4

An average doses of vitamin A is 5 to 10,000 IUs

And you can use carrots or beta-carotene at a high doses

15 to 25,000 IUs It is almost impossible to overdose on Beta-carotene . Better yet go to a health food store and ask

them for help on a eye health supplement

Answer 5

IU stands for "International Unit". This unit is used to measure the amount of fat soluable vitamins in foods. Fat soluable vitamins are "A" and "D". They are called fat soluable because they don't dissolve in water like other vitamins do. Because of this, they accumulate in body fat and can become toxic in very high doses. Water soluable vitamins, like "C" and "B" can be eliminated from the body and aren't toxic. Milk is fortified with 2000 IU vitamin A and 400 IU vitamin D per quart. Therefore, taking a 8000 IU vitamin is equivalent to drinking a gallon of milk. People rarely suffer from fat soluable vitamin deficiencies because these vitamins are stored in the body. Vitamin A can be made in the body from carotine, an orange compound found in carrots. Therefore, besides milk, a source of vitamin A is  orange fruits and vegetables like carrots, squash and apricots. People suffer overdoses of fat soluable vitamins when they take too many vitamin supplements.

Answer 6

your body can take a good amount of vitamin A....take one dose a day and you will be fine, it is good for eye and skin. large does of vitamin a is found in accutane, it can cause sever birth defects