Vitamin A high should I worry?

melharperoy

Hi all,
Over the course of 2 yrs I slowly gained 40lbs. Now I’ve dropped 23lbs and have 17lbs left to go. I’m pre diabetic and trying to reverse it. I eat much healthier than I used to. My vitamin A is really high. Now I mostly eat chicken, salad, fruit and veggies, peanut butter, sometimes salmon and other seafood, occasionally cashews. I’ve already cut down on cheese (I put 1-2 tbsp on my salad) but going to try to reduce it even further. I’m lactose sensitive so I don’t drink regular milk. I do have almond milk in my tea occasionally. Should I be cutting down on spinach, broccoli to reduce my vitamin A? My last test results showed my
vitamin A at 69.5 and normal range 20.1-62. My primary care provider told me not to worry about it but she is an LPN not an MD. When I’m logging on this app I do see almost daily my vitamin A is high. I don’t take supplements. I’m wondering if anyone else has this issue or if it is a concern?

AnnPT77

The best bet would be to ask the PCP why it isn't a concern. Can you message your PCP through a portal or something like that to ask?

I can't speak high blood levels, but when considering the amounts in foods, it may matter whether the vitamin A is natural in the food, vs. a supplement. I know you didn't mention a supplement, but some foods are "fortified" with vitamin A in the US, including dairy and cereals, and that would be the supplement form of vitamin A.

You can learn more about vitamin A intake risks here:

https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminA-HealthProfessional/

I do know that health professionals may not be concerned about slightly elevated or slightly low levels of certain blood test values, but I don't know about vitamin A. In some cases where I've had a value outside the normal range (for test results other than vitamin A), my doctor was considering that in context of other markers to decide whether it was a concern. Since too much vitamin A can affect the liver, perhaps your PCP was looking at liver test results for context? I don't know. Also, with results outside normal range but close to normal range, my PCP sometimes monitors over time to see whether there's a pattern of atypical results, or just one rare one.

neanderthin

None of the foods you mentioned have very much vit A actually, and only 2, the chicken and salmon for example are the foods that actually contain Vit A in small amounts, very small amounts.

All the plant based foods are actually beta-carotene which is not actually vit A but is precursor to Vit A and needs to be converted and the conversion involves a series of enzymatic reactions in the body and for every 16g's of beta carotene the conversion equates to about 1g of Vit A, so basically all of the plant foods you mention the Vit A is pretty much non existent in the context of toxicity.

Where from the app from MFP is showing you your levels of Vit A and telling you they're high?

The chances that someone is consuming toxic levels of Vit A in what you've provided as information is not possible imo and toxic levels of Vit A are more apt to be associated with supplementation. A person eating crazy amounts of say, beef liver daily might fall into that category but consuming chicken and salmon daily, is not really a concern and on the contrary is providing some pretty good amino acid and omega 3's.....maybe you got an incorrect reading and i would revisit for another blood test and who knows maybe there's something else happening that is causing this... just keep in mind this is only my opinion based on my personal knowledge. It's a little concerning in my opinion that I could spot this situation pretty easily and that your PCP or your LPN didn't.