Vitamins
Vitamin A: Would You Change...
Vitamin A becomes retinoic acid in your body—a true hormone crucial for immune function and skin health. Discover why adequate vitamin A intake is so important.
Vitamins
Vitamin A becomes retinoic acid in your body—a true hormone crucial for immune function and skin health. Discover why adequate vitamin A intake is so important.
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We all agree on one thing: hormones are probably the most powerful instrument of all higher-order living beings. Hormones have always guided the fundamental behavior of all species.
This is beautifully illustrated by a song from musician Funny van Dannen. The song «Thyroid Deficiency» ... is funny! Well, funny anyway, if you're not the one in the middle of it, unaware of your «good fortune.»
In this moment, I'm thinking about which verse of the lyrics I should quote so I don't offend anyone personally! Let me try this:
I often sat in school and felt completely lethargic. And because I couldn't think for myself, I just copied. I was always lacking drive, even as a little boy. Today I finally know the reason: thyroid deficiency.
The brilliance of the song is that it more or less directly shows what hormones can do—not just with someone's daily life or their psychology, but even influence entire life philosophies and concepts. As I said, I don't want to offend anyone, so just listen to it yourself.
Long story short: don't joke around with hormones!
We could continue with other hormones at this point. What about testosterone? That's a sensitive topic too. Everyone—man and woman alike—should experience it at some point ... from «low» to «high.»
A better topic: growth hormone at night. When too little is released or it doesn't work properly (insulin resistance ;-), we don't wake up refreshed. Even more than that: it makes us depressed! Of course: where is the energy supposed to come from? If the body can't reset itself at night.
Hormones, then. For years, we've been discussing the importance of vitamin D, which isn't actually a vitamin but a hormone. At any rate, it becomes a hormone in the body. It's a boring topic by now, almost every home medicine cabinet has some (hopefully).
A similar topic is vitamin A. It also becomes a hormone in the body – retinoic acid. At this point, I want to connect back to my opening words: would you change, if you knew? I mean people, our fellow humans.
Because of course I think a lot about other people's diets and ask myself, for example, whether they manage to cover their daily vitamin A requirement. Everyone can do the math themselves.
*And so on. Would people change anything if they knew that vitamin A actually becomes a hormone? And ... that you shouldn't joke around with hormones? Neither in the sense of too much – but especially in the sense of too little.
That's why we talk about the liver from time to time. Among other things, packed full of vitamin A. I'm sure the liver will experience a small boom. If there are any objections, you could also try carrot juice. But you should definitely secure at least one valuable source of vitamin A. Anything else is negligent!
Oh yes, about vitamin A and especially about many other hormones and ways to modulate hormone levels, we naturally discuss in our new book [source no longer available]. It's worth it, really!*
