How Vitamin A affects your thyroid function.
Vitamin A is known for its essential role for vision, but biological action of Vitamin A is far beyond that. It is responsible for cell differentiation, growth, development, including bone cell functions, immune function and reproductive health. And most important: adequate vitamin A metabolism is necessary for biological actions of thyroid hormones and for TSH production.
Vitamin A is obtained from the diet either as vitamin A (retinol) or as provitamin A carotenoids.
Retinol is only found in animal-sourced foods such as eggs, liver, butter and milk. Provitamin A carotenoids (eg, а-carotene, b-carotene, and b-cryptoxanthin) are found in vegetables such as carrots, spinach, collards, pumpkins, and squash.
In recent studies it was found that conversion of b-carotene into Vitamin A in people with under active thyroid is decreased. Study demonstrated that supplementation with Vitamin A reduced serum TSH concluding that vitamin A supplementation might reduce the risk of subclinical hypothyroidism in premenopausal women.
Simply saying eating carrots will not provide body with necessary Vitamin A in that case. Also the conversion of b-carotene decreases with age and with the increasing dosage of b-carotene ( the more carrots we eat, the less conversion of b-carotene into Vitamin A). Low-fat diets also can result in Vitamin A deficiency, as it is fat soluble vitamin and for its transportation and digestion fatty acids are needed. So which foods are rich with Vitamin A? 1.Lamb liver
2.Cod liver oil
-
Tuna fish
-
Salmon
6.Goat cheese
7.Butter (grass-fed)
8.Eggs