Anti Aging and Vitamin A.

Vitamin A has many positive anti aging effects on the body, particularly in the processes of immunity, bone growth and reproduction. There are orange pigments in some plant foods called provitamin A carotenoids that the liver converts to retinol. Beta-carotene is another provitamin A found in many foods. These substances have been associated with anti-aging.

All carotenoids have potent antioxidant effects. Antioxidants protect cells from free damaging by-products of the body’s metabolism that could lead to the development of chronic diseases. Antioxidants are perhaps best knows for their anti aging properties associated with protecting the skin’s collagen and elastic from free radicals that attack it; free radicals being unstable oxygen molecules. The result is firmer, younger looking skin. Beta-carotene in particular has an extremely potent level of anti oxidant. A single molecule of beta-carotene can neutralize up to 1000 free radicals.

As with just about everything else, though, vitamin A needs to be used in appropriate amounts. A mild reaction to too much vitamin A is the turning orange of the skin, seen with the ingestion of a large amount of carrots. Some more serious affects of vitamin A overdose include diarrhea, fracture, brittle nails, insomnia, headache, blurred vision, and abdomen pain, to name just a common few.

Vitamin A is helpful and beneficial to our bodies but it must be used properly.