Vitamin A deficiency

Hello All.  I am vitamin A deficient.  The drug I need, Aquasol A, is on the FDA drug shortage list and has been there for nearly 3 years!!!  I am actually going blind from the deficiency!!!   Aquasol A is an intramuscular injection, since we do not absorb fat and vitamin a is one of those fat soluble vitamins.  Does anyone else out there have a vitamin A deficiency??   What are you doing about it????

Have you checked out VItalady's dry vitamin A (palmitate) it's the same as Bio-Tech? She would probably recommend 100,000 IUs a day spread out through the day.

link: http://www.vitalady.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?search=action&k eywords=vtmna&template=Templates/Vitamin_A.html

--gina

Hi,

I was taking 100 thousand iu's a day and at my 3 month check I was to low for Vitamin a so its been up to 150 thousand, I go again for blood work in about 3 weeks and they mention shots if it has not come up. I didnt realize there was a shortage for that drug also. If you have not taken Vitalady's A i would try it for sure.

Trish

I find it a little strange that someone we've never seen here whose personal page can't be accessed, who doesn't mention what surgery he or she had or when suddenly shows up with a terrible problem that is actually quite uncommon for DS patients who supplement properly.

Nevertheless, I will echo the excellent advice already provided - dry A, and lots of it! You can get it either from Vitalady or from the manufactuere (Bio-tech). There is no shortage of this that I know of. I'm over 7 years ppost-op from the DS and this product has certainly worked great for me. While there are always exceptions, and some people need a higher dose than others, chances are that it will work for you as well.

Larra

Laura whos bio says she is researching surgery.....if it makes you feel better I had my DS on September 10, 2004.  It was the best decision I ever made.  I realize that vitamin A deficiency is quite uncommon everywhere except most third world countries.  However, it can happen and it did.  My vision has gotten so bad that I can not see out of one eye now and must wear a patch to cover it.  The vision in my other eye continues to deteriorate.  Vitamin A affects not only your vision, but your hearing, skin, immunity and a host of other things.  I have tried everything including the dry a.  Nothing brings my levels up.  It is extremely rare that my body chooses not to absorb the vitamin a but it did happen. Please don't be so quick to judge others until you have walked in their shoes.  

I think you read Laras reply too quickly.  "uncommon for DS patients who supplement properly". 

We talk about supplementation and deficiencies ALL THE TIME here, and just about everyone here is familiar with the dry sources of the fat soluble vitamins and how much we need to take. 

Tell us what type of dry A you have tried, and the dosage, and I bet someone will have a suggestion that can help.

Exactly what Amy said -- HAVE you been supplementing with dry A all along, or did you fall for the oil-capsulated prescription crap that we malabsorb (and docs continue to prescribe again and again regardless)?  I was low on A my very first year.  I went on dry A at 50,000 iu per day for 3 mos and saw improvement that quickly.  I bumped down to 25000 iu daily and have held steady.

Eat more fat and take dry A....

I am not a veteran but this is what I make of it all.....

One of the things I have noticed here is that according to my surgeon, his NP and nutritionist who have been doing research on this surgery for years and years... many DSers do not eat enough fat in order for their bodies to absorb many of the vitamins. My surgeon stated  that the reason many DSers have issues with vitamins is because the vitamins require fat to absorb and since we only absorb 20% of fat we should be taking in about 120g plus of fat a day to help with vitamin absorption. After doing research on how vitamins are absorbed that makes sense. 

This is exactly what Dr. Stewart told me when we discussed how vitamins are absorbed, vitamin deficiencies and channel length. Below..

http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/food-nutrition/vita min-supplements/body-absorb-vitamins.htm
 

We shall see if this is true or not when I get my labs done. He has me on his vitamin regimen and he said if I will eat the way he says and take in enough fat  that I will not have to take as many vitamins as I think. Now will this mean that I will have oil slick ****s? I do not know. I will follow what he says until my labs. If I start having issues and need crazy adjustments then I will call him a NUT...(not sure what it stands for but I see the yall call docs that all the time, lol)

Huneypie-

What I learned in Nutrition 101

(Side Note:I'm back in school working on a different degree, that will make me a dietician specializing in bariatric nutrition for *all* surgeries - I will *never* do a "one plan fits all" type of counseling!)

Anyhoo - Most of the NUTs we deal with are Registered Dieticians, which is a clinical certification.  They *hate* being called nutritionists, because actually, anyone can call themselves a nutritionist, even we DSers who become nutritionists by default because of our surgery and how it works. 

In fact, with my surgeon,  if you demonstrate an inability to grasp the intricacies of the DS eating plan and the importance of vitamin supplementation for the DS, you will fail as a candidate for the DS.  

Case in point:  at our consult before I was switched, I asked her for a short common channel, as I had read that they yield the most dramatic weight loss.  I had also read about the complications of a short common channel, and was willing to accept that at the time.  My surgeon flat out said *no*.  She no longer does short CC's, because she's had to do too many revisions to longer ones after nutrition problems.  She now only uses the Hess Method to figure CC length, and what you get is what you measure out to.

Since so many weight loss surgery patients have the RNY gastric bypass,  many/most  RD's  hand out food plans that follow RNY rules to DSers ("one plan fits all" mentality), while DSers require a very different type of nutrition plan.

Hence...They're NUTS!