today's PSA - vitamin A

I’m assuming we all know we need vitamin A.  Like other vitamins, we don’t absorb it real well after RNY, especially ‘cause it’s a fat soluble vitamin and we don’t absorb fats so well anymore.  We need vitamin A to make red blood cells, for our eyesight, and for a healthy immune system.  If you get pregnant, you also need it for the baby to grow and develop properly.

Vitamin A deficiency is a problem after RNY for a couple reasons.  One, we just don’t absorb it too well.  Two, many multivitamins contain something called beta carotene for their source of vitamin A.  Betacarotene isn’t exactly vitamin A, we have to convert it to vitamin A in our bodies.  Only adults don’t covert it well for some reason.  Kids convert it better.  Also, you need lots of stomach acid to absorb betacarotene but we don’t have much stomach acid.  We do much better with retinyl palmitate or retinyl acetate in a supplement. 

Many multis have a combo of beta carotene and one of the retinyls, so we might only absorb some of the vitamin A in our multi.  Flintstones is one multi that has beta carotene for vitamin A.  That’s just one of several reasons that Flintstones are not a good choice for us.

Symptoms of vitamin A deficiency include poor night vision, then other problems with eyesight, dry itchy eyes, dry cracked lips, very dry skin and getting sick easily.  Usually your level is pretty seriously low before you start having symptoms though.  That’s why we need to get our vitamin A level checked along with other labs on a regular basis.  Some docs don’t check vitamin A routinely for some reason, so you may need to ask yours to order that test when you get labs done.

 Good information to have, 

thanks

Thank you for that I'm getting my first post surgery labs done this week I might be low in vitamin A I will make sure they do that lab. I'm an avid couponer and I'm still learning about all my vitamins so I'm looking forward to seeing where I'm at and what I need to do. I recently got coupons for nature made D 3 for FREE I took it for the first time yesterday. What I noticed is most of the coupons I have are for vitamins that have too much sugar or that we don't absorb. I gave the Flinestone coupons away.
I don't have a lot of money to spend on my vitamins and I looked into some of the online websights and they are extremely expensive for only a month supply.
I know we need them to stay healthy but I think some vitamin places prey on uneducated new gastric patience like myself.
Thank you Kelly for all your help you seem to be able to break down vitamin needs for dummies...lol...

You don't necessarily need to spend a lot on vitamins.  I guess it depends on what vitamins you like and what you need.  But you don't have to buy special bariatric vitamins online that cost a fortune.  Generic brands are often just as good.  You may have already noticed, but stores often have buy one get one free sales on different vitamins - just the other day I spent $8.99 on a bottle of calcium citrate at Meijer and got a second bottle absolutely free.  I've gotten multis at Meijer that way, too.