Am I getting too much Vitamin A, or anything else?

"Chad C." <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

I've been taking this mega multivitamin + mineral for the
past several months and haven't noticed any deleterious
effects, if anything I'm feeling improved. Who knows why
though, I've changed many things in my life in the past
few months. In any event here it is. Divide the amounts
you see by 2 (they show the figures for 4 tablets daily .
. . truly strange as Twinlab only suggests taking two on
the bottle itself, which is what I do, one in morning one
at night):

vitacost.comproductdescriptionOpen ↗
.cfm?SKUNumber=027434009089&bt=products

I notice the amount of Vitamin A retinyl palmitate is
quite large (2500 IU per pill), approaching figures
widely accepted as possibly reducing bone denisty. At
least, I believe this is the form of Vitamin A that has
that effect, I could be wrong. Need I be worried? I eat
plenty of calcium, and I am supplementing with 100% (400
IU) RDA Vitamin D, in addition to probably exceeding the
RDA on calcium from my multi+ my weekly diet, at least 6
days out of 7.

First of all, the so called RDA is a joke. It is
basicly the amount needed to stave off deficiency. It
is certainly NOWHERE near the amount needed for
optimal health. To worry about getting too much
vitamins or minerals is absurd so long as they are
from natural sources. However if you take synthetic
vitamin pills then you may have something to worry
about. Studies of many completely different
traditional preindustrial cultures separated by large
distances who all share superb health on a level
unknown in modern society have shown that their foods
contained from 5 to 10 TIMES more vitamins and
minerals on a daily basis than the modern western diet
if you can imagine that. That is around 3000mg of
calcium, 3000 to 4000 iu of vitamin D and around
40,000 iu of vitamin A. With some nutrients it was
significantly MORE than 10 times. Many peoples
consumed over 20 times the amount of magnesium and
iron than modern westerners. All these peoples also
consumed a large percentage (40% to 80% of calories in
most cases) of their diet from animal fats to fully
make use of all the vitamins and minerals in the diet.
This is how the human body achives optimal health from
birth to old age.

The DRI for vit A is 3000 IU for men so you could just take
one capsule if you are concerned. If that cuts down on the
level of other nutrients in the formula that you want to get
more of, you might consider switching brands. I've found the
Country Life formulas to be very good.....there one a day
had great levels of other nutrients and 2500 IU of vit a
with 2500 IU of beta carotene in each capsule.

As a side note, many supplement companies have gotten rid of
active vitamin A due to the published studies concerning
bone fracture. Most have gone to total beta-carotene (and in
high levels). But, there are definate metabolic forms of
preformed A, like retinal/retinol/retinoic acid, that beta
carotene doesn't fully compensate for. So, getting some of
each is a more balanced approach to supplementation.

Cheers, Lisa

"Chad C." <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

I've been taking this mega multivitamin + mineral for the
past several months and haven't noticed any deleterious
effects, if anything I'm feeling improved. Who knows why
though, I've changed many things in my life in the past
few months. In any event here it is. Divide the amounts
you see by 2 (they show the figures for 4 tablets daily .
. . truly strange as Twinlab only suggests taking two on
the bottle itself, which is what I do, one in morning one
at night):

vitacost.comproductdescriptionOpen ↗
.cfm?SKUNumber=027434009089&bt=products

I notice the amount of Vitamin A retinyl palmitate is
quite large (2500 IU per pill), approaching figures
widely accepted as possibly reducing bone denisty. At
least, I believe this is the form of Vitamin A that has
that effect, I could be wrong. Need I be worried? I eat
plenty of calcium, and I am supplementing with 100% (400
IU) RDA Vitamin D, in addition to probably exceeding the
RDA on calcium from my multi+ my weekly diet, at least 6
days out of 7.

Thank you for your thoughts,

-Chad

I agree. The human's ability to convert beta-carotene to
retinol is reduced with aging and some disease processes.

"Lisa" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

The DRI for vit A is 3000 IU for men so you could just
take one capsule if you are concerned. If that cuts down
on the level of other nutrients in the formula that you
want to get more of, you might consider switching brands.
I've found the Country Life formulas to be very
good.....there one a day had great levels of other
nutrients and 2500 IU of vit a with 2500 IU of beta
carotene in each capsule.

As a side note, many supplement companies have gotten rid
of active vitamin A due to the published studies
concerning bone fracture. Most have gone to total beta-
carotene (and in high levels). But, there are definate
metabolic forms of preformed A, like
retinal/retinol/retinoic acid, that beta carotene doesn't
fully compensate for. So, getting some of each is a more
balanced approach to supplementation.

Cheers, Lisa

<snip

The only Vit A pills I can buy have 8,000 units. I only take
one, every other day or so.

That is a very reasonable thing to do. Vitamin A and D can
be taken in quite large dose at one time and then the body
will store the vitamin and ration out the supply. It
possible to take several months supply all at once.

Just don't take several months supply at one time and then
do it again the next day!!!!

"MbumboTatum" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

The only Vit A pills I can buy have 8,000 units. I only
take one, every

other

Quoted message said:

day or so.