Vitamin A Test

Why test for vitamin A?

As with many other nutrients, the right amount of vitamin A is important. Too little of the vitamin leads to a deficiency, too much can cause poisoning. If a vitamin A deficiency persists for a long time, it can even have serious consequences, such as muscle weakness, infertility and blindness.

A vitamin A deficiency can also be an indication of a disease or other health problems. In Europe, such a deficiency is relatively seldom the result of poor nutrition - more often it is caused by impaired fat digestion or an increased vitamin A requirement. The reasons for this can be diseases, injuries, but also stress, smoking or alcohol abuse.

If you recognise a deficiency or an overdose, you can actively counteract it. Sometimes it already helps to improve the vitamin A level through diet and food supplements. However, it often makes sense to visit a doctor to find out the possible causes behind a deficiency and to quickly recognise and treat possible diseases.

Who should take the test?

A vitamin A test can be worthwhile if you have complaints that indicate a deficiency. Typical, for example, is night blindness. Affected people often see poorly in dim light and cannot orientate themselves well at night. You can read more about the symptoms below under the question "How does a vitamin A deficiency manifest itself?

Even if you suffer from diseases that lead to a vitamin A deficiency, a test can be useful - this gives you the opportunity to optimise your supply.

How does the test work?

For the vitamin A test, take a small blood sample from your fingertip with a lancet. Only a few drops of blood are needed for this. Put the drops on two dry blood cards - this way you only have to take a very small amount of blood and the sample will keep for a long time.

The sample is sent free of charge by return envelope to a specialised medical laboratory. The laboratory analyses how high the concentration of vitamin A is and whether they are in the reference range or above. After the analysis, you will receive a notification and can access the results report via the online customer area or the my cerascreen® app.

How long does the analysis take in the laboratory?

Once your sample has arrived at the laboratory, it will be analyzed there by specialists. How long the analysis takes depends on the exact measuring method and the processes in the laboratory.

If the sample is sent on the correct days (Sunday to Tuesday), this makes it easier for the laboratory to adhere to the times.

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For the Vitamin A Test, the laboratory analysis is usually completed within 5 working days after the sample is received in the laboratory.  

What does the results report tell me?

The test result report tells you what vitamin A level was measured in your blood. The vitamin A level is given in the unit nanogram per millilitre (ng/ml). The exact form of the vitamin that is measured is trans-retinol.

You will also find out whether your test result - compared to the reference values - is in the normal range, or whether it is elevated or low.

What recommendations do I receive?

The result report will tell you the possible reasons why your vitamin A levels might be too high or too low.

We also give you tips that you can use to influence your vitamin A levels through diet or supplements.

What is vitamin A?

Vitamin A is a vital vitamin that we humans need to take in with our food. Among other things, it is important for vision, immune defence, blood formation and reproduction.

Actually, vitamin A summarises a number of substances. The most important of these is retinol, sometimes also called vitamin A1. Retinol is found in animal foods, can be converted into other forms of vitamin A and stored in the body as retinyl esters.

How does vitamin A deficiency occur?

A deficient or one-sided diet can lead to a vitamin A deficiency. However, this is relatively rare in developed industrialised countries.

In Europe, it is more common for people to have a greatly increased need for vitamin A or for fat digestion or absorption in the intestine to be disturbed.

Diseases such as diabetes, hyperthyroidism, inflammatory bowel diseases (for example Crohn's disease) or disorders of the liver or pancreas can be behind impaired vitamin A absorption.

Increased need can be due to, among other things, inflammation, alcohol abuse, many years of heavy smoking, stress, injuries and operations, or very serious diseases such as cancer or AIDS.

How does a vitamin A deficiency manifest itself?

Vitamin A deficiency manifests itself in different ways depending on how long the deficiency has been present.

The first symptoms of vitamin A deficiency can be:

• Dry hair, hair loss, brittle nails
• Night blindness and poorer vision
• chapped lips
• Headache
• frequent infections

If the deficiency becomes chronic, the following complaints can also occur, some of which are very serious, including:

• Going blind
• Dizziness and nausea
• Poorer sense of smell and taste
• Horny skin, skin ageing
• Muscle weakness and fatigue

In addition, chronic vitamin A deficiency increases the risk of certain diseases and health problems, for example arteriosclerosis, kidney stones and infertility.

How does a vitamin A overdose manifest itself?

An oversupply of vitamin A is almost always the result of too high a dosage of supplements.

Such vitamin A poisoning can have the following symptoms, among others:

• Nausea and vomiting
• Headache and muscle pain
• Blurred vision
• Hair loss and brittle nails
• Dry and reddened skin

Which foods contain vitamin A?

Vitamin A itself is only found in animal foods such as meat, fish, eggs and dairy products. Offal such as liver has a particularly high content.

You can still get vitamin A from plant-based foods. Carrots, sweet potatoes and apricots, for example, contain beta-carotene, a provitamin A that is converted into vitamin A in the body. By the way, you can recognise fruit and vegetables rich in provitamin A by their colour: the carotene also acts as a dye that turns food red or orange.

Who is the test not suitable for?

The vitamin A test is not suitable or only suitable to a limited extent for certain groups of people:

• People with infectious diseases such as hepatitis and HIV must not take the vitamin A test.
• People with haemophilia should not take the vitamin A test.
• Pregnant and breastfeeding women should only take the vitamin A test under medical supervision. The reference values and recommendations do not apply to them either, so they should obtain recommendations on the test result from a doctor or therapist.
• The vitamin A test is not suitable for children under 18 years of age.

The test is not intended to diagnose disease. For example, if you suffer from severe pain, seek medical advice.

Why are children under 18 not allowed to take the test?

Our tests are not suitable for underage children and adolescents under the age of 18. Under 18s cannot activate the tests online and therefore cannot receive a test result. We ask that you do not administer the tests to your children either.

Children and adolescents need much closer supervision and counselling regarding medical tests and their interpretation. Testing with lancets and chemicals is not without risk and would need to be closely supervised by guardians. In addition, the reference values we give are always based on adult data. In the case of children, the risk of misinterpreting the results would be very high.

We want to fulfil our responsibility as a provider of medical products and ensure that children and adolescents are not unsettled by measurement results that are difficult for them to interpret. Since we cannot control whether the minors' legal guardians actually consent to the test being carried out and supervise them, we exclude tests for under 18s altogether.

If you are under 18 and have purchased a test, please contact our customer support.

Why does it take up to a week for the sample to reach the lab?

Please bear in mind that your results will not be analyzed in the UK but in Germany. For that reason, it can take up to a week for the sample to arrive at the lab. This does not affect the stability of the samples, as the method we are using is optimized for long transports.

Initially, your sample is sent to our collection center in the UK. From there, it is shipped to our central sample sorting facility in Germany, which then distributes samples to our partner laboratories. Once your sample is analyzed there, you will receive a notification and can access your result online.

Please check your mailbox regularly. We will notify you as soon as your sample is sent, arrives, or is analyzed.