Vitamin A is an essential vitamin that the body needs to function properly. It can be found in many foods including fish, beef liver, oranges, eggs, and dark green leafy vegetables. Here are the top 9 benefits of vitamin A.
Table of Contents
- 1. Protect Your Eyes From Night Blindness
- 2. Prevent Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD)
- 3. Lower Certain Cancer Risk
- 4. Protect Your Heart and Blood Vessels
- 5. Help Maintain Healthy Skin
- 6. Reduce and Treat Acne
- 7. Help Build and Maintain Bone Tissue
- 8. Strengthen Immune System
- 9. Helpful to Reproduction & Growth
1. Protect Your Eyes From Night Blindness
Vitamin A is a powerful antioxidant that protects your eyes from night blindness. Night blindness can be caused by a lack of vitamin A, which affects the retina in the back of the eye and disturbs your ability to see in the dark.
A healthy retina is crucial for being able to see well at night time or in low light conditions. If you are unable to see well at night outside, then you are more likely to have accidents that could be avoided with normal vision.
If you do not get enough vitamin A from food, most probably your retina will have a hard time absorbing light. You can avoid night blindness by eating the right foods and taking a multivitamin with vitamin A.
Vitamin A deficiency is a major risk factor for age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Eating foods with vitamin A can reduce your risk for this eye disease. It works with the pigments in your eyes to help you see properly. If you don’t get enough of it, your eye pigment may not work as well. Over time, this can lead to age-related macular degeneration (AMD) – the leading cause of blindness in older adults.
3. Lower Certain Cancer Risk
Vitamin A has been shown to protect against cancer in numerous studies, as carotenoids and retinol may lower your risk of certain cancers.
According to Harvard, those who eat the highest amounts of food with vitamin A could have a lower risk of developing mouth cancer, lung cancer, and esophagus cancer. Meanwhile, Vitamin A also aids in the reduction of inflammation, which has been linked to the development of certain cancers.
4. Protect Your Heart and Blood Vessels
Vitamin A has many benefits for your heart and blood vessels. It protects against heart disease by reducing inflammation of the arteries.
Vitamin A also improves blood vessel health and function by keeping your endothelial cells healthy. Its levels are linked to a lower risk of cardiovascular events including heart attack, stroke, and death from coronary heart disease.
5. Help Maintain Healthy Skin
Vitamin A in the form of retinoids and carotenoids is important for maintaining healthy skin. Vitamin A has been shown to help maintain healthy cells and stop them from aging too fast, which can lead to wrinkles and other signs of premature aging.
This antioxidant also encourages new cell growth by replacing old cells with fresh ones when needed. Your skin needs vitamin A to stay young and healthy-looking.
6. Reduce and Treat Acne
Acne, or pimples, is a skin condition that can occur on the face, arm, back, and chest area. The sebaceous glands produce an oily substance known as sebum.
If you have acne, your pores will become clogged with excessive amounts of dead skin cells and sebum which then leads to blackheads or whiteheads, pimples, or cysts.
The skin also contains bacteria called Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes). If the dead cells and excess sebum get trapped together in your pores, and acne lesion can form.
Vitamin A plays a role in helping to reduce this clogging which then reduces the number of acne lesions. It also helps reduce the number of pimples by fighting P. acnes, thus reducing inflammation and redness that result from this type of bacteria.
7. Help Build and Maintain Bone Tissue
Vitamin A is important for building and maintaining bone tissue. It can help keep your bones strong and reduce your risk of osteoporosis in the future. Our human body needs vitamin A for growth and development, including the growth of bones.
Osteoporosis is a condition characterized by weak bones which result in more frequent fractures, especially in older people. People who have osteoporosis are at an increased risk of bone fractures throughout their lifetime due to weak bones which can break easily.
8. Strengthen Immune System
Vitamin A is important for healthy immune function. It can help your immune system fight off foreign invaders and debris in the body. It stimulates some of the white blood cells (leukocytes) that work to destroy harmful bacteria, viruses and other infectious agents.
Vitamin A is essential for healthy T-cell production, which you need to be able to fight infections more effectively. Your immune system needs vitamin A to stay healthy and fight off harmful invaders.
9. Helpful to Reproduction & Growth
Vitamin A can be helpful to reproduction and growth because it is necessary for the division of cells. The division of cells occurs both during the development of an organism as well as by the replacement of cells during normal regeneration. It plays an important role in reproductive function, including enabling the body to produce healthy eggs and sperm cells.
