Symptoms of Deficiency

Tissue reserves of retinoids in the healthy adult are sufficiently large to require long-term dietary deprivation to induce deficiency. Vitamin A deficiency occurs more commonly in chronic diseases affecting fat absorption, such as biliary tract or pancreatic insufficiency, sprue, Crohn s disease involving the terminal ileum, and portal cirrhosis deficiency may also occur following partial gastrectomy or during extreme, chronic dietary inadequacy. 

Signs and symptoms of mild vitamin A deficiency are easily overlooked. Skin lesions, such as follicular hyperkeratosis and infections, are among the earliest signs of deficiency, but the most 

Keratomalacia, characterized by desiccation, ulceration, and xerosis of the cornea and conjunctiva, is occasionally seen as an acute symptom in the very young who are ingesting severely deficient diets. Usually, it is foreshadowed by night blindness, which appears as the earliest ocular sign of deficiency. Ultimately, severe visual impairment and even blindness result. 

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Symptoms of deficiency in animals include poor appetite, stunted growth, and weight loss increased incidence of irritabihty and convulsions (tetany) some growth abnormahties decreased egg production in poultry with reduced hatchabihty and thin eggsheU quahty and birth of weak, dead, or deformed offspring in other animals. 

Camitine deficiency can occur particularly in the newborn—and especially in preterm infants—owing to inadequate biosynthesis or renal leakage. Losses can also occur in hemodialysis. This suggests a vitamin-fike dietary requirement for carnitine in some individuals. Symptoms of deficiency include hypoglycemia, which is a consequence of impaired fatty acid oxidation and hpid accumulation with muscular weakness. Treatment is by oral supplementation with carnitine. 

The general recommendations on energy and fat intake are similar to those for the avoidance of heart disease. However, the recommendation to consume a variety of fruits and vegetables is based partly on the putative presence of diverse protective factors in plant foods. This concept does provide, at least in principle, a rationale for the functional health benefits of plant foods beyond the simple provision of nutrients at a level that prevents symptoms of deficiency. 

A further assumption is also often made, namely, that even a mild thiamine deficiency, if it is a real deficiency, will make itself known by outward signs. This, in the author s opinion, is probably far from true. In animal experiments, for example, deficiencies require weeks to develop, and long before an animal shows overt symptoms of deficiency, an analysis of its tissues would show that deficiencies are present and metabolism is being impaired. The importance of considering other evidence about the nutritional state besides overt symptoms is stressed in a recent review by Lowry. 19... 

In foods vitamin B2 occurs free or combined both as FAD and FMN and complexed with proteins. Riboflavin is widely distributed in foodstnffs, but there are very few rich sources. Only yeast and liver contain more than 2mg/100g. Other good sources are milk, the white of eggs, fish roe, kidney, and leafy vegetables. Since riboflavin is continuously excreted in the urine, deficiency is qnite common when dietary intake is insufficient. The symptoms of deficiency are cracked and red lips, inflammation of the lining of the month and tongue, mouth ulcers, cracks at the comer of the mouth, and sore throat. Overdose of oral intake present low toxicity, probably explained by the limited capacity of the intestinal absorption mechanism [417]. 

The nutritional need for accessory food factors was first stated explicitly in 1905-1906, although the influence of diet in preventing or curing some diseases such as scurvy had long been known. The name vitamine was proposed in 1912, but the terminal e was dropped when it was realized that not all these compounds are nitrogenous bases. The vitamins serve as coenzymes in various metabolic processes, and the necessary quantities are usually supplied by an adequate diet or by synthesis by the intestinal flora. Vitamin deficiency can arise from a failure to absorb the compound from the gut. The symptoms of deficiency vary in different animal species, and not all the substances found necessary in other species have been shown to be essential for human nutrition. Vitamins are used for the prevention or cure of deficiency diseases and for some other pathological conditions,... 

Symptoms of deficiency include night blindness, stunted growth in children, dry skin and eyes, increased susceptibility to infection. 

Symptoms of deficiency include excessive bleeding and easy bruising. 

Symptoms of deficiency include weak bones, leading to rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. 

Symptoms of deficiency include scaly skin, hair loss, depression, elevated blood cholesterol levels. 

Symptoms of deficiency include abnormal red blood cells and impaired cell division, anemia, weight loss and intestinal upsets deficiency may cause birth defects. 

Symptoms of deficiency include diarrhea and mouth sores, pellagra (in extreme cases). 

Symptoms of deficiency include loose teeth and bleeding gums, bruises, loss of appetite, dry skin, poor healing. In extreme cases, scurvy and internal hemorrhages. 

Vitamin 13]2 deficiency induces deficiency in folate, because vitamin Bn is required for the conversion of folate from a form that has limited use (5-melhyl H.tfolate) to a form (H folate) that can be readily assimilated and used in a variety of reactions. Vitamin is the cofactor of methionine synthase, the enzyme required for conversion of 5-methyl-H4folate to H4folate. The metabolism of folate and that of vitamin B12 are, in part, intimately related. Because of this relationship, the symptoms of deficiencies in both of these vitamins are shared. 

The population thought to be nxost at risk for Bf, deficiency comprises chronic alcoholics. The deficiency arises fixim a low intakt of the vitamin as well as from alcoho[-induced impairments in the metabolism of the vitamin. An alcoholic deriving of his or her energy requirement from whiskey might be expected to be consuming only 20% of the KDA for vitamin 8, as well as for other nutrients such as protein, folate, and thiamin. 1 he symptoms of deficiency are not specific for this nutrient- They include depression, confusion, and sometimes convulsions. 

The amount of vitamin C sufficient to alleviate and cure the clinical signs of scurvy is only lOmg/day, which is probably near the minimum requirement in man. This amount, however, is not adequate to maintain near saturation of tissue in the adult human male, who has a body pool of 1.5 to 2 g and shows chnical symptoms of deficiency when this total pool falls below about 300 mg. Acknowledgment of functions of vitamin C beyond the antiscorbutic, particularly the antioxidant function, has led to the development of the concept of the optimal nutrition state, and the intake... 

Other enzymes that catalyze decarboxylation and dehydration reactions require Mg2+. As will be seen, the a-adrenergic receptor, which includes the enzyme adenyl cyclase in association with ATP, utilizes Mg2+ to mediate the increased cardiac activity associated with epinephrine. It is therefore apparent that pharmaceutical products that provide these inorganic ions (i.e., mineral supplements), as well as vitamin preparations, should actually be considered drugs whether they are used therapeutically to treat clinical symptoms of deficiency, or as food supplements for the maintenance of good health. 

Nutritional Sources, Functions, and Symptoms of Deficiency of the Lipid-Soluble Vitamins... 

Fluoxymesterone promotes growth and development of male reproductive organs, maintains secondary sex characteristics, increases protein anabolism, and decreases protein catabolism. It is used for replacement therapy in conditions associated with symptoms of deficiency or absence of endogenous testosterone delayed puberty (men) palliation of androgen-responsive recurrent mammary cancer in women who are more than 1 year but less than 5 years postmenopausal (women). 

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