Posts Tagged ‘Vitamin A’

6 Tips For Your Dry Eyes

More than just an irritation, dry eyes can lead to serious medical conditions and vision loss if left untreated. Fortunately, there are various treatments and procedures available that will alleviate the symptoms if not cure your eyes. Try these tips to cure your dry eyes and protect your vision.

Artificial tears:

Eye drops and ointments are the simplest solution for your dry eyes. Drops are sold with and without preservatives. The preservative drops may cause irritation if used too frequently. Non-preservative drops may be used as often as needed. As you might suspect ointments coat your eyes and in turn keep them moisturized longer than drops. The downside to ointments is that they can lead to blurry vision, which is why they are best used before sleeping.

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Treatment And Prevention of Vitamin A Deficiency

Deficiency of vitamin A can lead to serious complications if not treated and prevented for long duration. Untreated prolonged vitamin A deficiency and serious vitamin A deficiency can lead to permanent blindness. For this the deficiency of vitamin A should be treated adequately and prevented, which is very cheap and affordable.

Treatment of Vitamin A Deficiency:

Vitamin A deficiency should be treated urgently as early as possible. Treatment should be very prompt and vigorous. Massive dose of vitamin A should be given, which usually reverses all the eye manifestations of vitamin A deficiency. The massive dose is about 200,000 international units (IU) or 110,000 micro grams (mcg) of retinol orally on two successive days. At this very high dose recovery occurs very fast and sequel of vitamin A deficiency can be avoided.

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Different Food Sources of Vitamin A

Vitamin A is widely distributed among animal and plant sources of our food. In animal foods vitamin A is present as preformed vitamin A (retinol) and in plant foods vitamin A is present as provitamin (carotenes, such as beta carotene).

The vitamin A value of food is expressed as retinol activity equivalent (RAE). One RAE is equivalent of 1 mcg (microgram) of retinol, 12 mcg of beta carotene, and 24 mcg of other provitamin-A carotenoids.

Animal Sources of Vitamin A:

Liver, egg and fish are excellent source of vitamin A (preformed vitamin A). Other rich sources of vitamin A of animal origin include butter, cheese, meat etc. The richest natural source of vitamin A is fish liver oil (cod liver oil, halibut liver oil etc.), but fish liver oil is generally used as dietary supplement for vitamin A deficiency, rather than as diet or food source of vitamin A. Presence of fat in the diet aid absorption of vitamin A as it is fat soluble vitamin.

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Prevent Cancer by Healthy Eating

Cancer, the dreaded disease can be prevented to a great extent by adopting a healthy food habit. A good diet can go a long way in reducing the chances of occurrence of cancer, what type of cancer it might be. And the prescribed diet for prevention is the same. Eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, pulses, whole grains and nuts. Maintain a healthy body weight (preferably ideal body weight). Avoid the excessive intake of dairy products, red meat and processed food. These above three rules help to reduce breast cancer, prostrate cancer, stomach cancer, and practically all forms of cancer.

Vitamin A helps to prevent lung cancer, but the best way to avoid it is not smoking and reducing air pollution. There are many myths at play. It is commonly believed that intake of Vitamin C helps prevent cancer, but no such one element can help.

Aflatoxin, is a chemical that is produced by a fungus that grows on peanuts and other nuts when stored improperly, is carcinogenic, but most farmers are now aware of that problem, so the risks have been reduced.

Regional food habits also go a long way in increasing or decreasing the risk of cancer. For example, in Japan, people eat a lot of pickled vegetables. We have seen that the number of people suffering from stomach cancer is very high there. Anything in moderation though, is not a problem. In India, too, people have pickle with their meals. But there, it is just a condiment and not a main dish. So the effect is not so grave.

There is, however, some bad news for Indians. Frequent helpings of kebabs can effectively increase chances of cancer. The blackened meat on the surface, when meat is cooked over an open flame, is carcinogenic (causes cancer). That doesn’t mean you have to stop eating kebabs altogether. You can have it once a week, as long as you are eating healthy the rest of the weak, and giving the DNA the opportunity to repair itself.

There is lack of awareness regarding the link between diet and diseases like cancer. Even in America where so much of research is taking place, the level of awareness among the common people is very low. A lot of information is available on the Internet, but it is not always reliable. International Association of Cancer Research as a possible reference point.

There is confusion regarding wine and cancer. Till now whatever evidence we have had, there is no negative effect of wine. It is good for the heart. But the problem with wine is that it has alcohol. It causes intoxication and addiction. And the good element of wine are available in grapes, cherries etc in non-alcoholic forms. For women, more than one glass of wine a day is not advisable, and for men the limit is two glasses a day. But the above prescribed limit is not easy to follow by maximum of people.

Carbonated drinks are best avoided. They are empty calories. And they decalcify the bones, causing osteoporosis. Even a diet drink, which is claimed to be low on calories, poses the same threat.

When it comes to food, too little is not too good. Surviving on a fruit or vegetable diet is not healthy, because the body is losing key body building nutrients like protein. So even if you are a model and need to be thin, have a helping of whole grains and nuts, to keep the diet balanced.