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Survival Kit
Vitamin A can help reduce infant
mortality in poor countries, reports Biplab Das
Vitamin A, that good old cure for night-blindness, is back in a new avatar. Two American scientists have recently shown that it can not only stop the retina in the eye from going dry, but
check infant mortality in developing countries.
Vitamin A deficiency is a preliminary problem among newborns. A new study in the British medical journal
Lancet reveals that nearly 90 per cent of the six-month-old infants in developing countries have depleted liver stores of vitamin A. "Examination of corpses of 3-month-old American infants confirmed vitamin A deficient livers," write Jean H. Humphrey and Amy Rice of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, in the
Lancet report.
Normally, every infant is born with very limited vitamin A in store. After birth, they begin to boost their vitamin A reservoir. During the first six months of life, an infant's chief source of vitamin A is mother's milk. This is why a malnourished mother can lead to serious vitamin A deficiency in an infant.
Over the first six months, a well-nourished baby ingests about 302 units of vitamin A. But, its daily needs are met by 202 units and the rest are stored. Humphrey and Rice cited a study from Indonesia to bolster their case. According to it, a definite dose of vitamin A given on the first day of life reduced infant mortality by 64 per cent. What's more, infants developed strong immunity against pneumonia during the first four months of life.
"Sometimes large doses of vitamin A bring about bulging of fontanelle (gaps in a baby's skull)," said Humphrey. Excess intake of this vitamin might also increase intracranial volume. But according to Humphrey and Rice, the merits of vitamin A far outweigh its demerits.
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5 THINGS YOU MUST
KNOW ABOUT VITAMIN A
1) During the first six months of life, an infant's primary source of vitamin A is breast milk. To meet this demand, an adult female needs a daily vitamin supplement of 0.2 mg during pregnancy and 0.4 mg during lactation.
2) It is also found in liver, egg yolk and the fat component of dairy products. Its other major dietary sources are the carotenoids of plants, such as carrots, brown rice and leafy vegetables.
3) The carotenoids present in the diet, particularly beta-carotene as provitamin A, are transformed within the intestinal tract into vitamin A. Then it is absorbed and stored in the liver.
4) Vitamin A nourishes rod and cone cells of the retina, which helps us see. It is also active during formation of sperm and eggs, placental development and embryonic growth.
5) Its deficiency causes skin disorders and increased susceptibility to infection. Lack of it also manifests in the form of xerophthalmia (dryness and thickening of cornea, leading to night blindness), anorexia (loss of appetite) and sterility. |
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