How Does Vitamin A Benefit Your Skin? – SkinKraft

Functions in your body

Vitamin A is essential for your health. It supports cell growth, immune function, fetal development, and vision.

Perhaps one of the best-known functions of vitamin A is its role in vision and eye health.

Retinal, the active form of vitamin A, combines with the protein opsin to form rhodopsin, a molecule necessary for color vision and low light vision .

It also helps protect and maintain the cornea, which is the outermost layer of your eye, and the conjunctiva, a thin membrane that covers the surface of your eye and the inside of your eyelids.Trusted Sou

May protect against certain cancers

Due to their antioxidant properties, carotenoid-rich fruits and vegetables may protect against certain types of cancer.

For example, a study in more than 10,000 adults found that smokers with the highest blood levels of alpha carotene and beta cryptoxanthin had a 46% and 61% lower risk of dying from lung cancer, respectively, than nonsmokers with the lowest intake of these nutrients (16Trusted Source).

What’s more, test-tube studies demonstrate that retinoids may inhibit the growth of certain cancer cells, such as bladder, breast, and ovarian cancer cells (17Trusted Source).

Vital for fertility and fetal development

Vitamin A is essential for both male and female reproduction because it plays a role in sperm and egg development.

It’s also critical for placental health, fetal tissue development and maintenance, and fetal growth (9Trusted Source).

Therefore, vitamin A is integral to the health of pregnant people and their developing babies, as well as people who are trying to become pregnant.

Boosts your immune system

Vitamin A impacts immune health by stimulating responses that protect your body from illnesses and infections.

Vitamin A is involved in the creation of certain cells, including B cells and T cells, which play central roles in immune responses that guard against disease.

Deficiency

Though vitamin A deficiency is rare in developed countries such as the United States, it’s common in developing countries, where populations may have limited access to food sources of preformed vitamin A and provitamin A carotenoids.

Vitamin A deficiency can lead to severe health complications.

According to the World Health Organization, vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of preventable blindness in children worldwide (19Trusted Source).

Vitamin A deficiency also increases the severity and risk of dying from infections like measles and diarrhea (20, 21Trusted Source).

Additionally, research has found that vitamin A deficiency raises the risk of anemia and death in pregnant women and negatively impacts the fetus by slowing growth and development (22Trusted Source).Less severe symptoms of vitamin A deficiency include skin issues such as hyperkeratosis and acne (23, 24Trusted Source).

Certain groups — such as premature infants, people with cystic fibrosis, and pregnant or breastfeeding people in developing countries — are more at risk of vitamin A deficiency (25).

Foods highest in preformed vitamin A include:

egg yolks

beef liver

liverwurst

butter

cod liver oil

chicken liver

salmon

cheddar cheese

liver sausage

king mackerel

trout

Foods high in provitamin A carotenoids like beta carotene include :

sweet potatoes

pumpkin

carrots

kale

spinach

dandelion greens

collard greens

winter squash

cantaloupe

papaya

red peppers