Vitamin A Deficiency?

[Coolclimates]

I was just diagnosed with Vitamin A deficiency as well as a Zinc deficiency. All my other vitamins were apparently ok. I've read that Vitamin A deficiency is very rare and only happens in people with severe Celiac disease. Well, I was diagnosed with celiac disease back in May 2010 and just came positive for the HLA DQ2 gene as well. Also, my IgA levels are still quite high, despite being on the gluten free diet since May. It's very frustrating.

Does anyone else have Zinc dificiency besides me as well as Vitamin A??

[mushroom]

Yep, I have them both.

[ravenwoodglass]

Hopefully your doctor is going to monitor you progress with the supplements. Too much vitamin A is not a good thing so be sure to follow the supplement regime your doctor advises and don't overdo the supplements.

A more serious concern is that your antibody levels are not coming down. What are you typically eating? Are you going with whole unprocessed foods? It is a pain but you need to do so for a bit to get those levels down. You have another post, I think, in which you are looking at the possiblity of other intolerances. If you antibodies are not coming down it is likely, IMHO, gluten is contributing to your continued issues more than other intolerances.

[Coolclimates]

I've been VERY careful about what I'm eating, but probably not careful enough. I have been eating some processed foods (although they say they are gluten free) and eating out at restaurants sometimes. I just don't know what it could be. It's driving me crazy. Hope to have some answers this week...

[WheatChef]

Try eating beef or chicken liver once a week. There's all the vitamin A you need!

[Coolclimates]

I can't stand liver or other organ meats, unfortunately. I'm not even that wild about meat. But I'll eat more if necessary.

[WheatChef]

Meats and especially meat organs are your best sources for all fat soluble vitamins. If you simply can't stand it though, alternative sources include eggs or better yet some simple fish liver oil! One teaspoon of the Cod Liver Oil I have in my fridge contains 850 IUs of Vit A and over 400 IUs of Vit D (they work well together). Add to it the additional anti-inflammatory and cognitive boosting effects of fish oil supplementation and this may be something you'd want to try out.

[Coolclimates]

I started taking a Vitamin A pill today but the only ones I could find also had Vitamin D added. I wonder why I can't just find plain Vitamin A pills? I suppose extra Vitamin D wouldn't be too bad (I'm already ok on that vitamin), but I'm not sure if it could cause problems. Sometimes too much of any vitamin can be a problem.

[WheatChef]

Considering that the latest scientific recommendations for pregnant women are to supplement with 4,000 IUs/day for VitD I don't think you'll have much of an issue hitting the toxicity levels for it. Also considering that recommended level for supplementation, I'm betting the standard range given on your test results were out of date and ridiculously low. The "Adequate Intake" value given to us by our always dangerously inept at nutrition government is at 200, so they're only off by a factor of 20... Apparently the only recorded case of toxicity from VitD supplementation was the result of a manufacturing error whereby pills contained over 400x the labeled amount and resulted in a man taking between 150,000 and 2,000,000 IUs every day for almost 2 years. The man fully recovered. Vitamin D is necessary for the proper genetic expression of over 200 different proteins so you will probably only experience a side effect of better health/athleticism/respiration/etc.

[USF1970]

I too have just been diagnosed w/Vit. A deficiency. It's manifested in my eyes.......dry, itchy and red. My ophthalmologist had to 'go to the books' to determine the cause. He got suspicious when I told him that I wondered if my glaucoma eyedrops contained gluten. Don't know if he would have DXd w/o me mentioning that. At any rate, heading back to my GI next week for more tests. And so it goes. BTW, I'm my doc's 'most compliant celiac disease patient'.......wonder what his least compliant celiac disease patient looks like.