Vitamin A

[carolyn_lsc]

Hi Everyone,

My doctor had me start on Vitamin A using the NOW brand containing 25,000 IU of Vitamin A, 1,000 IU of Vitamin D, and 50 mg of Fish Liver Oil 3-4 times a week.

Are there any specific side effects that I need to watch for when taking Vitamin A?

Carolyn

[mrsD]

Hi Everyone,

My doctor had me start on Vitamin A using the NOW brand containing 25,000 IU of Vitamin A, 1,000 IU of Vitamin D, and 50 mg of Fish Liver Oil 3-4 times a week.

Are there any specific side effects that I need to watch for when taking Vitamin A?

Carolyn

I don't understand this....

Why would your doctor give you TWO VitA sources? Did you make a mistake and type fish liver oil, meaning typical fish oil which is fish body oils? Fish (body) oils do not have Vit A or D in them.

Fish liver oil is high in Vit A. You should not need both. The NOW brand, I am familiar with, as I use it myself. (although not every day) It is very concentrated.

Here is a medical article on Vit A:
http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic2382.htm
With a list of side effects. Personally I think headache is an easy to spot, first
presenting symptom of too much.

Even with the NOW product used only for Vit A, I would be careful with it.
Since you see a doctor, I'd have some liver tests done in about 3 months, just to be sure, you are not getting toxicities.

[carolyn_lsc]

MrsD

Those are the ingredients this NOW product contains. Here's the one my doctor had me start: http://www.iherb.com/store/ProductDetails.aspx?c=Herbs&pid=NOW-00362

Thanks for the site containing a list of symptoms. What do you mean by liver tests? Are they the CBC & CMP? I do receive those two blood tests every three months to make sure chelation isn't damaging anything.

Carolyn

[mrsD]

I know about the NOW product. It is the OTHER I am concerned about.

With the NOW product you should NOT need any other cod liver oil product.

[carolyn_lsc]

MrsD,

I'm really confused.

I'm not taking any other cod liver oil.

I'm only taking the Now product which contains these three ingredients:

Vitamin A-25,000 IU
Vitamin D-1,000 IU
Fish Liver Oil-50 mg


The fish liver oil is contained in the Now product. Am I missing something here?

Carolyn

[mrsD]

I am sorry about that...

I thought you were taking the Now product with another one.
The NOW product is a very concentrated cod liver oil product.

On my bottle, the fish liver oil is separated by a heavy blue/black bar,
from the other two ingredients, indicating it is an ingredient "not established
for daily value". (it has a cross in the dose column.)

I have used this product for about two years, but I don't use it every day
of the year. Only during the coldest winter months. One bottle lasts me a LONG time.

A typical cod liver oil product would have 1000 IU of A and 400 IU of D, in comparison.

With time you may reach a "ceiling" for A and not require it so heavily. So just be watchful for that, check out the list of symptoms I gave you, and get
liver tests every so often. High dose Vitamin A retinol can raise intracranial pressure in some people, and headache would be the first signs of that.

It does however, lead to very nice skin.