You can help make sure you take in enough vitamin A if your diet contains various brightly colored fruits and vegetables as well as eggs and fortified skim milk. Vitamin A is a significant nutrient because it helps you maintain healthy skin, teeth, mucus membranes, skeletal tissue and soft tissue, according to MedlinePlus, an online resource of the National Institutes of Health. Getting enough vitamin A in your diet also promotes healthy vision. As a result, being deficient in vitamin A can increase your risk of long-term health problems.
Recommended Intake
Look at your recommended dietary allowance, or RDA, to determine how much vitamin A you should get on a daily basis. Kids between 1 and 3 years of age should get about 300 mcg of vitamin A per day, whereas kids from 4 to 8 need about 400 mcg and kids between 9 and 13 need about 600 mcg, according to MedlinePlus. You need about 900 mcg of vitamin A per day if you're a male aged 14 or over and about 700 mcg per day if you're a female aged 14 or over.
Vision Problems
An early and major sign of vitamin A deficiency is night blindness or impaired dark adaptation. Being deficient in vitamin A contributes to night blindness by drying out the cornea, causing ulcers in the cornea and damaging the retina. Vitamin A deficiency in children living in developing nations is the top preventable cause of blindness, according to the Oregon State University Linus Pauling Institute.
Decreased Immunity
Vitamin A deficiency can diminish your body's ability to fight off various infections. In developing countries, children who are deficient in vitamin A are more likely to die due to complications associated with infectious diseases such as measles, according to the Office of Dietary Supplements at the National Institutes of Health. Vitamin A deficiency can also decrease the lungs' ability to get rid of disease-causing microorganisms. This is likely a reason why a vitamin A deficiency can increase your risk of pneumonia.
Risk Factors
Vitamin A deficiencies are rare in developed nations such as the United States. If you live in a developed nation and have vitamin A deficiency problems, it is likely related to other deficiencies. For example, if you have a strict diet and develop a zinc deficiency, your body may have trouble moving stores of vitamin A from your liver into the rest of your body. Another reason you may develop a vitamin A deficiency is if you have another disease that causes malabsorption. Celiac disease, which can cause small intestine damage when you eat gluten, may cause you to absorb less vitamin A. Inflammatory bowel diseases and pancreatic disorders can also cause you to have trouble absorbing appropriate levels of nutrients. You're also at risk of developing a vitamin A deficiency if you consume large quantities of alcohol, as alcohol can deplete your stores of vitamin A. Talk to your doctor if you believe you're not taking enough vitamin A. She may recommend that you take a supplement.
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