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what do you think the first sign of a

vitamin A deficiency would manifest as

in your body now if you guessed Nick

delopia you are correct now what is this

Nick telopia I mean it’s kind of funny

sometimes when people give you these

words that you might not understand

um then you tell them like what does

that mean they might slow it down like

nicktolopia I’m like that doesn’t help

me I need to know what the heck it means

so you have to get a dictionary out and

look up the word but nicktolopia

basically is night blindness okay you

can’t see in the dark too well so

whether you’re driving home

um in the dark and you’re having a hard

time seeing the road or it’s raining out

and it’s dark and you really can’t see

the road or even if you’re in your house

your office reading a book

and there’s not good lighting okay you

may think you need glasses when in fact

you might need Vitamin A now I will say

that if you spend any amount of time

reading your phone looking at your

computer screen like I do many many

hours a day what’s going to happen is

the muscles on the eye go into a spasm

okay and they stay in this little

spasm which then will affect your

ability to see then you go to the eye

doctor and you’ll be fitted for

something like this

which is interesting because I when I

went there I asked the ophthalmologist I

said

um why do we need glasses

um is it a genetic problem and he goes

yeah it’s a genetic problem I said that

doesn’t make sense to me and then I

asked him I said looking at a computer

screen or reading a book for long

periods of time doesn’t that affect the

vision he says well I can’t disagree

with you yeah that probably does but

honestly these eye doctors probably are

not taught a lot of preventative type

things to prevent

um you from developing this spasm in

your eye what I would highly recommend

and I put this in a video is to get

outside every single day to try to

counter this spasm going on in the eye

by looking in the distance looking at

trees looking at things and focusing in

on purpose various things in your

environment

for at least an hour a day that would be

very therapeutic and the chances of you

needing glasses would be greatly

lessened in fact if you have glasses

you’ll probably improve your eyes over

time if you did that but if you have

difficulty seeing in dim lighting or at

night while you’re driving suspect a

vitamin A deficiency now there’s some

interesting things about vitamin A okay

the active form of vitamin A is called

retinol okay so why did they come up

this name Retinol for vitamin A could it

be that it has something to do with the

retina which is the back part of the eye

it’s an extension of your brain that

allows you to see so vitamin A retinol

the active form not beta-carotene which

is the precursor that has to convert

into retinol retinol is needed to help

you create this little protein in your

eye that converts light

two electrical signals and that’s called

visual purple or rhodopsin so vitamin A

is needed to form this pigment for these

little things in your eyes that are

called rods okay and these little rods

help you see in the peripheral area of

your vision as well as low illuminated

areas right now I want to touch on this

precursor beta-carotene

um that converts into retinol it amazes

me that they actually I think they

change the definition I don’t know how

long ago that beta-carotene the

precursor is vitamin A well it’s not the

active form of vitamin A it’s the

precursor and it has to be converted

into retinol let’s just kind of compare

um the amount of retinol that’s in three

ounces of beef liver because beef liver

is very very high in retinol okay three

ounces how much beta-carotene in carrots

would you need

to have the same retinol okay as in

three ounces of beef liver you would

need 40 pounds of raw carrots

that would be very difficult to consume

I mean I can see like 20 pounds but 40

pounds of carrots it’s not going to

happen all right how much kale would you

need to equal the amount of retinol and

just three ounces of beef liver well you

need

454 cups of raw kale to equal the

retinol and only three ounces of beef

liver incredible it’s probably not going

to happen so if you’re doing

three or four or five cups of kale in

your salad whatever and you think you’re

getting enough true vitamin A chances

are you’re not what type of foods are

high in vitamin A of course grass-fed

beef liver okay egg yolks

cod liver oil now fish oil has the

omega-3 fatty acids but not the vitamin

A like cod liver cod liver oil has

omega-3 fatty acids as well as vitamin d

and vitamin A raw cheese

has a good amount of vitamin A raw cream

and raw butter has a good amount of

retinol but pasteurization destroys

vitamin A so if you’re getting

pasteurized milk or pasteurized cheese

which is the majority of cheese or

pasteurized butter or even if you’re

eating a lot of overly cooked carrots or

cooked vegetables that has the precursor

you’re not going to get a lot of vitamin

A now if you’re doing cheese try to get

raw milk cheese if you can get sheep

cheese you’ll get a lot more vitamin A

in fact there’s another animal milk that

you can get to get a good amount of

vitamin A and that is actually rat milk

so if you run out of sheep cheese milk

you always have a plan B so vitamin A is

needed to prevent night blindness okay

to be able to see in the dark somewhat

it’s also needed to prevent dry eyes

it’s also needed to help the eye

compensate so this is probably why if

someone’s very very deficient about M A

they’re going to have a hard time

focusing in on different things because

another symptom of vitamin A deficiency

is dry eyes but also dry skin vitamin A

is also necessary for any type of skin

differentiation so if you don’t have

enough vitamin A your skin might not

turn into a nice soft skin it might be

rough

scaly dry skin it’s also needed to help

the eye compensate for distances as well

so some of the accommodation reflex is

dependent on a certain amount of vitamin

A vitamin A is desperately needed to

prevent infections because it’s very

important for your immune system and I’m

not just talking about the external scan

I’m talking about also problems with the

internal skin like the mucous membranes

of your sinuses like the internal skin

of the esophagus of the stomach of the

intestines can all be affected by a

vitamin A deficiency and as a child is

developing early on that child needs a

good amount of vitamin A so this relates

to why certain people are deficient

right a woman who’s pregnant right is

more susceptible to having a vitamin A

deficiency because of the demand for

vitamin A it goes up also if she’s

breastfeeding she needs more vitamin A

this is probably why uh your grandmother

or your parents recommended a spoonful

of cod liver oil on a regular basis that

delicious cod liver oil so other reasons

why people are deficient is having this

false idea that beta-carotene is retinol

it’s not beta-carotene has to be

converted into retinol to be active

and that leads to another reason why a

person might be deficient in vitamin A

well there’s something called

polymorphism that is the genetic

mutation that can affect certain things

in your body but apparently the gene

that converts beta-carotene into retinol

could be a polymorphic Gene it could be

mutated in fact there’s a study I read

that shows that it’s it’s pretty common

to have a problem with that Gene that

converts beta-carotene into retinol so

that could be another reason why someone

is deficient in retinol because they

might be consuming a lot of

beta-carotene it’s not converting or

they might be consuming in the active

form of vitamin A yet they have this

genetic weakness

and by the way if that’s the problem I

would recommend not just increasing the

amount of retinol Foods okay I would

also add bile salts and maybe another

type of bile salt called tatka to

increase more absorption and of course

that’s a perfect segue to another reason

why people are deficient vitamin A they

don’t have enough bile they have bile

problems let’s say they have gallstones

or they had gallstones or they have

their gallbladder removed or they have a

sludge in the gallbladder or they have a

fatty liver or some other problem with

the liver that makes bile there’s a lot

of reasons why you might not have enough

bile it also could be you took an

antibiotic the microbes in your gut

actually make a certain type of bile as

well so that could be another reason

let’s say for example you are in a

low-fat diet

of course if you’re on a low-fat diet

you’re not going to be eating the foods

high in retinol let’s say you’re in a

medication called Statin that blocks

your ability to turn cholesterol into

bile you end up with the bile deficiency

so taking statins can actually give you

a vitamin A deficiency as well and the

last point on why you might be deficient

is just some knowledge on vitamin A gets

destroyed with heat so if milk is

pasteurized if someone consumes milk and

it’s not raw just pasteurized they’re

not going to get a vitamin A or let’s

say they’re consuming a lot of carrots

or kale that’s overly cooked okay well

that just destroys the precursor so it’s

not going to turn into retinol or again

you’re not consuming raw cheese you’re

just doing the regular pasteurized

cheese another problem all right so now

you definitely know more about vitamin A

okay I think the next best video for you

to watch would be the one on cod liver

oil so check that out I put it up right

here