Is it true Cod Liver Oil lowers bone density?
I read somewhere that studies enjoy shown that excessive Vitamin A in Cod Liver Oil lowers bone density. Can anyone confirm if this is true?
Answer: When children don't get ample vitamin D, the result is poor incorporation of calcium into the bones, which, later in vivacity, leads to poor bone density. This likely accounts for the great frequency of bone fractures observed surrounded by elderly Scandinavians. It seems obvious, consequently, that women who drank cod-liver oil in childhood would enjoy better bones than women who didn't. And yet these authors found that the opposite—the cod-liver group actually have less calcium in their bones than the other women.
Explanation:
How to bring in sense of this paradox? The most likely cause is an interesting one: too much of a right thing. In addition to vitamin D, a teaspoon of cod-liver grease contains too much vitamin A. (Or at least it did until a few years ago, when manufacturers reduced the vitamin-A height in cod-liver oil to a undamaging level.) Now, vitamin A is wonderful stuff, too: People who don't get plenty of it suffer poor vision and eye damage and are at great risk for serious consequences if they develop infectious diseases close to diarrhea and measles. But take in too much of this vitamin, and the effects band from liver damage to nervous-system symptoms that resemble the effects of a brain tumor. And excessive vitamin A is associated with bone mineral loss, governing to osteoporosis late in natural life and a high risk of hip fractures in the elderly.
Conclusion:
It seem most likely that the good the vitamin D contained by cod-liver oil did for bones was more than reversed by the fruitless done by too much vitamin A in the old product. We'll know soon ample if that theory is right: We just entail to see if elderly Scandinavians break fewer bones now that cod-liver grease gets the vitamin-A dose right.