Vitamins For Health Kidneys – Vitamin A is an essential nutrient for all living things. It provides vision, supports the immune system and helps create protective barriers. However, some people with kidney disease are limited in their vitamin A intake to prevent further kidney damage. This blog post will explain what vitamin A does in your body, why you should limit your intake if you have kidney disease, dietary sources of vitamin A, and how much you can eat on a kidney diet.
As a fat-soluble vitamin, vitamin A needs fat in our diet to be absorbed by our digestive system and into the blood. Our liver stores vitamin A for us.
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Although it can be stored in the body, it is also considered an essential micronutrient. That means we can’t make it, so we have to get it from our food.
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The active form of vitamin A is also known as retinol. This type is found in animal foods and supplements.
The precursor to vitamin A is beta-carotene, which is converted to vitamin A in the body. This type of vitamin A is found in plants.
Vitamin A does an incredible number of things to keep us healthy. Some you already know and some you may not.
Did your parents tell you to eat carrots when you were little so you could see in the dark?
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Vitamin A is important for vision because it helps us see from light to dark. This is why vitamin A is commonly known as the “eye vitamin.”
Apart from the species, vitamin A is also known for its role in the function of the immune system. Vitamin A is an antioxidant and can help protect cells from free radicals.
Free radicals are materials that can be obtained from radiation, smoke, even during the normal production and decomposition of food.
These free radicals are also linked to diseases such as cancer, which makes vitamin A very important.
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This is where we start to see the kidney connection with vitamin A because we already know how closely related bone health and kidney health are.
Another function of vitamin A is to give us healthy skin and hair. Healthy skin is very important, because it acts as a protective barrier for us from things that should not enter the body.
Vitamin A not only keeps the skin healthy, it also keeps other protective barriers in the body healthy. Examples include the lining of our intestines, the lining of our respiratory tract, and even our inner ear.
As mentioned above, there are two types of vitamin A in food. The first is known as preformed (or “active”) vitamin A, otherwise known as retinol.
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This can be found in foods of animal origin such as meat, poultry, fish and dairy products. The aforementioned vitamin A is also found in supplements and fortified foods.
The second type is provitamin A, also known as beta-carotene. This is not technically vitamin A, but it is converted to retinal vitamin A, and then to retinol, in our body.
Although animal flesh contains vitamin A, so do plants! There are many plants and vegan foods that contain provitamin A that the body can use.
Here is a list of foods that are low in potassium and high in vitamin A. These can be great options for most people with kidney problems.
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As discussed in other potassium articles, many people with kidney disease can and should have foods high in potassium.
Again, our liver stores vitamin A very well. The United States is not at high risk for vitamin A deficiency.
As mentioned above, the active form of vitamin A can be found in foods of animal origin. Below are examples of animal foods that are considered good sources of vitamin A.
Considering that the liver is where our vitamin A is stored, it makes sense that liver foods contain high levels of vitamin A!
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Eating a bear’s liver will kill a man! I learned that in elementary school…sure “about” I’ll never forget!
In general, the recommended amount of vitamin A is 900 mcg for adult men and 700 mcg for adult women per day.
As you can see from the table of foods rich in vitamin A, one can easily get enough, even on a low-potassium renal diet.
There are two types of tests to determine how much vitamin A you have. There is a retinol binding protein (RBP) test that comes to absorb and transport vitamin A.
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It is important to note here that those in the United States and other developed countries get most of their vitamin A from their diet. A diet low in vitamin A is common here in the United States.
Vitamin A deficiency is found in children and women in underdeveloped countries and is a leading cause of preventable childhood blindness.
The most common symptom of vitamin A deficiency is night blindness. This can be tested with your eye doctor (optometrist). They can determine how your eyes look at night and when you transition from light to dark areas.
Since vitamin A is stored in the liver, a deficiency will only occur after the stores have been depleted by a prolonged diet with inadequate vitamin A intake.
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Bleeding from vitamin A deficiency is different compared to bleeding from chronic kidney disease. Read more about blood and iron in kidney nutrition here.
Because vitamin A is stored in the liver, there is a risk of getting too much of it. This is where we begin to link kidney disease to vitamin A.
Too much vitamin A can be caused by a diet very rich in vitamin A or supplements that contain megadoses.
Taking too much vitamin A (more than 10,000 mcg per day) can cause advanced health complications such as;
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There is a possible association between foods high in vitamin A and more calcium oxalate stones.
This may be related to how vitamin A is involved in bone formation and fracture, but the connection has not been sufficiently studied.
The study found that those with calcium stones appeared to have a diet rich in vitamin A, while those with uric acid stones did not have the same correlation.
However, another study conducted on rats showed that after a lithogenic diet, in a group with vitamin A supplements, kidney filtration was improved. It is important to note that this study was on mice, not humans.
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There are several thoughts when it comes to the relationship between the kidneys and vitamin A. Below are some studies surrounding vitamin A and kidney disease.
Although high amounts of vitamin A do not seem to have a direct effect on your kidneys, one study found that patients with end-stage renal failure on hemodialysis had high calcium levels as a result of taking a multivitamin that included vitamin A.
If you have hypercalcemia, otherwise known as high blood calcium levels, check your nutritional supplements and talk to your doctor about possible causes.
Too much vitamin A may be part of it, but there are other more common causes of high calcium levels, including too much vitamin D.
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Another study in children with chronic kidney disease not on dialysis found that for every 10% drop in eGFR, there was a 13% increase in vitamin A levels.
It is important to note that those who have high levels of vitamin A in their system have had success from supplementation.
Another study looked at vitamin A levels for people at different stages of kidney disease. They found that those with a lower GFR had higher levels of retinol circulating in the body.
As discussed above, those with kidney disease have high levels of vitamin A, even if this includes supplements or fortified nutritional products.
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A vitamin A supplement should only be taken if directed by a doctor or nutritionist. Dosage and timing instructions should also be given, and regular monitoring of vitamin A levels should be arranged.
In general, vitamin A supplementation is contraindicated if you have chronic kidney disease. So what about kidney vitamins?
Check your multivitamin to see how much vitamin A it contains. Ideally, it should be little to nothing.
Kidney vitamins are specifically designed to support certain vitamins that those with chronic kidney disease may not get enough of in their diet or lose through diabetes.
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This is a good article comparing different kidney vitamins and the nutrients they contain. None of the kidney vitamins include vitamin A.
This is one reason why it can be important to assess your vitamin and supplement needs. Those with kidney disease may not be advised to take standard or over-the-counter multivitamins.
It is important to remember that vitamin A can be found in plant and animal foods. The best thing about this micronutrient is that it is stored in the liver, which means that deficiency is rare.
However, if you have kidney disease or are undergoing chemotherapy, avoid taking supplements with too much vitamin A because your body will not be able to process them properly.
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If you’re looking for a good way to get some vitamin A into your diet, try adding carrots or squash.
Congratulations on learning so much about vitamin A! We look forward to it