vitamin A

[Honeybeeblue]

Hello everyone
I had surgery on April 8 of this year and my blood work come back pretty good apart from vitamin A that was very low. Mine was 0.5 and the normal range is 1.5 to 2.5. Is there any advice on how to increase these levels apart from the obvious of increasing vitamin A pills. I eat about 26 to 30 g of fat day. I was directed here by my NUT to ask some veteran DS' ers my doctor and NUT are really trying to help and do the research as they only have me as a DS surgery patient. Any advice would be great. I take 10000 IU a day. Thanks in advance.

 

[SHales]

What type of Vitamin A do you take? I take 50,000 ius of palmitate a day to stay mid-range.

 

[Honeybeeblue]

I take a dry form that's is a Jamison brand

 

[SHales]

But what type of A, not the brand, the form of A? It should say on the bottle.

 

[Honeybeeblue]

It's says vitamin A ( palmitate) 10000 U. I hope this is what I am suppose to be looking for. Sorry about that. Thanks

 

[SHales]

Yep, it's the right kind. You are going to have to take more though. You are no longer able to get enough A any other way except by supplementing. You also need to bump up your fat intake if it doesn't give you loose bowels. You only absorb about 20% of your fats so 30gms a day would mean you are actually only getting about 6 gms. That isn't enough to stay healthy.

 

[Elizabeth N.]

You're going to have to swallow more pills. My A would be close to zero at 10K IU daily. At that low I'd triple my daily dose and test again in 4-6 weeks.

 

[Elizabeth N.]

You also need to seriously increase your fat intake if you want to ever absorb any fat soluble vites, unless eating more fat gives you diarrhea. I eat something like 150 grams of fat per day.

 

[southernlady]

What they ^^^ said.

Welcome, @Honeybeeblue

 

[Honeybeeblue]

Thank you so much for the advice. My doctor set my fat at 26 a day 100 g protien and no more than 30 carbs.

 

[DianaCox]

That is WAAAAY too little fat, unless upping it at this point gives you the trots - start upping it slowly.

Just to give another perspective - I have never supplemented with A, and just got my labs back:
Component ............Standard Range ......Your Value
Vitamin A (Retinol) .. 38 - 98 ug/dL ............. 49

Past results:

Vitamin A (Retinol)
38 - 98 ug/dL
Standard Range
7/20/07 ... 7/9/08 ... 6/30/09 ... 10/9/09 ... 12/17/09 ... 7/6/10 .... 7/19/11 ... 7/6/12 .... 7/16/13 ... 7/18/14
......55 ........... 54 ........ 55 ............... 40 ............... 73 ......... 67 ............ 63 ......... 78 ............. 48 ......... 49