When does our body actually use and remove Vitamin A from the body?

Question

I've heard that doing cardio exercise is one method of taking it out... Lately i've been reading things about how you may not need A after an extended period of time, and I want to get rid of it...

Answer 1

Vitamin A:
The Forgotten Bodybuilding Nutrient

You will search in vain through mainstream men's health magazines to find so much as a mention of the importance of vitamin A to bodybuilding. Yet this nutrient is essential to muscle-building and may be the bodybuilder's most potent weapon. Vitamin A is necessary for the utilization of protein and the production of testosterone and other growth factors. In fact, one experimental study, found the administration of vitamin A and iron to have results equivalent to the administration of testosterone itself.


Rather than advocating the consumption of vitamin-A rich foods such as liver and natural food-based supplements such as cod liver oil, mainstream men's health writers are advocating diets very high in protein, which deplete vitamin A reserves, leaving one to wonder whether the athletes who resort to over-the-counter steroid supplements might be able to achieve similar results by consuming a traditional diet, rich in vitamin A.



Vitamin A and Testosterone

Abundant animal research indicates the importance of vitamin A to the production of testosterone. Vitamin A crosses the blood-testis barrier in its alcohol form as retinol, where it is stored in the Sertoli cells and converted as needed to its more biologically active form, retinoic acid.

Experiments with rats show that greater concentrations of vitamin A in the testes increase basal testosterone secretion, as well as transferrin, which is responsible for the transport of iron; and a variety of growth factors including IGF-binding protein 4 (which transports IGF), androgen-binding protein (which transports androgens), transforming growth factor-beta (which causes cell growth but suppresses cancer) and steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (which is responsible for the transport of cholesterol into the mitochondria for its conversion to steroids).

Vitamin A also decreases estrogen production in the male testes. Rats that are deficient in vitamin A experience decreased testosterone until the accessory sex organs atrophy, indicating that vitamin A not only aids in, but is essential to, testosterone production.

Vitamin A and Protein Utilization

Cultured skeletal muscle cells increase the amount of protein per cell when exposed to vitamin A and D, but not when exposed to vitamin D alone.

Eat Your Liver

Bodybuilders and other athletes interested in gaining muscle have an interest in boosting their levels of testosterone and other growth factors and maximizing their utilization of protein and its incorporation into muscle cells. Typical recommendations usually include very high amounts of protein, but exclude foods like liver that are high in vitamin A, and low-fat recommendations all but banish vitamin A entirely from the diet by excluding foods such as full-fat milk.

The combination of a high-protein diet that depletes vitamin A and a low-fat diet that fails to provide vitamin A is a clear recipe for deficiency of this vital nutrient. Exercises that elicit a high demand for testosterone, such as squats and deadlifts, are often recommended for muscle growth, but without vitamin A the body cannot meet that demand for testosterone.


It's high time for athletes to forget the modern mantras and remember the dietary wisdom of the past, achieving a lean, muscular physique through traditional foods such as liver, egg yolks, full-fat milk, butter from grass-fed cows and cod liver oil.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

I think this will help...