Page 23 - Spring2020

VITAMIN A AND METABOLISM VITAMIN A FOR PREGNANCY Vitamin A
An explosion of research during the past You definitely want to have plenty of vita-
few years has revealed some new roles for vita- min A during pregnancy! Unfortunately, most also shows
min A. For example, we have learned that as an health practitioners are afraid of vitamin A promise
electron-carrying compound, vitamin A plays during pregnancy. This fear is based on a 1995 in the
a key role in glycolysis, the creation of energy study by Rothman and others, which suggested
from glucose. A lot of us are trying to be fat that over 10,000 IU of vitamin A daily in the treatment
burners, and that’s great, but we should still be first eight weeks of pregnancy increases risk of of
able to do glycolysis well. In animal studies, neural crest defects. All seven cases involved pancreatic
when animals are deficient in vitamin A, they intakes of over 10,000 IU from supplements, not
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have reduced levels of ATP, the currency of en- from food, with an average intake of 21,000 IU.
ergy. In addition, vitamin A deficiency reduces Chris Masterjohn and Mary G. Enig have
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the storage of glycogen in the liver, which is written about the flaws in the Rothman study
going to make you more prone to hypoglycemia and noted other studies that indicate that ad-
and/or more frequent hunger, as your body isn’t equate levels of vitamin A during pregnancy
able to draw glucose from your glycogen when result in fewer birth defects. But the Rothman
you need it. study set the stage for the current fear of vitamin
Gestational vitamin A deficiency in animals A for pregnant women, and it has resulted in
reduces the beta cell mass of the offspring. The practitioners saying that pregnant women should
beta cells are where we make insulin. You don’t get no preformed vitamin A at all—and this in
want to be behind the eight ball, born with fewer the teeth of all we are learning about the need
insulin-producing cells. That’s just a recipe for for vitamin A for normal fetal development.
diabetes in the future and could partly explain For this unfounded reason, almost all prenatal
the recent increase in lean individuals who are vitamins contain only beta-carotene, not retinol.
developing type 2 diabetes. 19 Are pregnant women in danger of getting
You need vitamin A for making thyroid too much vitamin A or too little? A recent study
hormones and without vitamin A you can’t use showed that one-tenth of women at delivery in
those hormones as effectively. Nebraska were frankly deficient in vitamin A.
Your sex hormones need vitamin A. Males That to me is significant. In Brazil, the number
need vitamin A to make testosterone and fe- was one-fifth, so the U.S. is not that different
males need vitamin A to make progesterone. from a Third World country. If you look at the
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Your growth hormones need vitamin A. That numbers, vitamin A status of our mothers is not
is because hormones work in the nucleus of much better than in Nigeria. We have 73 percent
the cell, interacting with and being regulated of infants, born deficient. It isn’t abnormal to
by vitamin A. Vitamin A is basically like a have low vitamin A in infants but if you look at
hormone. Boys who are not growing well need the mothers, 10 percent of them were deficient
to be on vitamin A and iron, and sometimes in vitamin A at birth, and 41 percent were in-
zinc so they can make testosterone and growth sufficient, so 50 percent had less than sufficient
hormones; this nutrient combination has been amounts in their bodies at birth.
show to be as effective as the administration of Dr. Price knew that vitamin A was neces-
testosterone. sary for reproduction in animals and, without
Finally, vitamin A might actually have it, bad things happen in people, such as miscar-
something to do with preventing Alzheimer’s riage or even complete infertility. Low vitamin
and maintaining cognition. This discovery A also leads to all sorts of birth defects. This is
comes from preliminary research on animals, from the Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.
but the relevance to people is clear. In fact, One of the big concerns with vitamin A
problems can start as early as in the gestational deficiency during pregnancy is lung problems
period; vitamin-A deficient offspring may lack in the babies, which can persist for life. Both
good memory skills and the ability to learn, early and late gestational vitamin A deficiency
which persists into adulthood. have negative effects, such as defective alveoli

SPRING 2020 Wise Traditions 23