Obesity Causes 'Silent' Vitamin A Deficiency

Many health risks come with obesity. Yet did you know it could also rob the body's ability of properly absorbing vitamin A, which is essential for maintaining healthy skin and teeth?

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine found that being obese can result in vitamin A deficiencies in major organs. As the body needs vitamin A for healing and immune responses, many face a greater risk of certain health conditions when they become ill. For instance, they are at a greater risk of infertility, respiratory infections and diabetes.

During this recent study, researchers fed healthy-weight and obese mice a diet with a normal amount of vitamin A. Then, they checked the mice's vitamin A levels. Findings showed that in obese mice, they were vitamin A deficient in the liver, kidneys and pancreas, researchers say.

Yet vitamin A levels increased as the obese misce lost weight. Furthermore, when they went to measure vitamin A levels from the blood samples, the results came back normal in the obese mice. Because the levels were low in specific organs, the researchers referred to the condition as "silent vitamin A deficiency." 

"Our research shows that, even if an obese animal consumes normal amounts of vitamin A, they have deficiencies of the vitamin A in major organs," said first author Dr. Steven Trasino, a postdoctoral fellow in pharmacology at Cornell. "Obesity is categorized as a state of malnutrition, typically associated with consumption of too many calories and poor intake of essential nutrients. Our data expand on that definition by showing that obesity plays a role in the body's ability to use this essential nutrient properly."

The study is published in Scientific Reports.

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