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Beta Carotene is not Vitamin A - Blood Tests
🕑 Added 2019-03-11 16:30:01 +0000 UTCA couple months back I went with my Mom to get some blood tests and thanks to various clinic staffs' clerical inefficiencies... we just recently got the results back. Mom said she didn't mind sharing, so here's her Beta Carotene and Vitamin A results:
It's very concerning that her Vitamin A is so low (actually below the reference interval). Vitamin A is important for immune function, vision, reproduction, cellular communication and cell growth and differentiation. That last point is very important if you're interested in maintaining healthy organs.[R]
What is interesting is that her beta carotene is very high.
Beta carotene is very often referred to as Vitamin A. Athletic Greens, a multivitamin powder endorsed by Tim Ferriss, provides 80% of your DV for Vitamin A, but it's in the form of beta carotene.
I cover this from 5:12 in my Supplements video, but to recap:
Beta carotene is not vitamin A, but a provitamin that can turn into vitamin A. However, it doesn't turn into vitamin A as readily as we'd think.
◆Beta carotene has about 1/12 the vitamin activity of proper vitamin A - retinol.[R] One study found the the bioefficacy of β-carotene from a mixed diet to be only 1:21.
◆Another study concluded that β-carotene conversion to Vitamin A, even when measured under controlled conditions, can be "surprisingly low and variable."
◆Why the variation? Probably genetic. My 23andMe says that due to a SNP on my BCMO1 (beta-carotene 15,15'-monooxygenase 1), I don’t convert beta-Carotene very well, by about 32% or so. My Dad didn't have this variation, we're still waiting for Mom's 23andMe results.
(23andMe doesn't actually provide this information, I ran it through Rhonda Patrick's genetics report thing on https://www.foundmyfitness.com/genetics)
◆Mom's blood work addresses something very interesting that I was thinking about when I was first researching this: If the conversion rate is bad, what's the big deal? Why not just eat more carrots and veggies? The reason piling on beta carotene still won't result in sufficient Vitamin A for some people is that the absorption efficiency of carotenoids decreases as the amount of dietary carotenoids increases [R, R2] i.e. you can't just cram down more and more carrots to get optimal Vitamin A levels.
◆This explains why she could have such high levels of beta carotene yet have such low levels of actual Vitamin A.
◆Real vitamin A (retinol) is found in animal products - in the fat as it's a fat soluble vitamin and it's stored in the liver so livers are particularly high in vitamin A.
◾️In conclusion, I'm hoping she'll eat more of things like egg yolks, cod liver oil, beef liver and canned cod liver. (Too bad those aren't the most "fun" foods)
FYI
・While expensive, this is supposed to be a great brand of cod liver oil with minimal oxidation.
・This is the canned cod liver I sent over.
My sister gets that brand too and my niece calls it "smashy fish." My sister mixes it with lime and eats it with pork rinds. This is the brand I get in Japan at my near Kinokuniya supermarket.
Here's a recipe her friend shared:
Comments
Thanks for this information. I just did Dr. Rhonda Patrick's report and it turns out I have the same BCMO1 SNP that is associated with a ~32% reduced conversion of beta-carotene into retinal that you have. Cod liver here I come!
Nice info. This is the type of nuances that I have been looking for. Does anyone know of a good 23andme alternative for health purposes? They couldn't extract my DNA twice now. And I think I am banned.
