How Vitamin A is Bad for Your Bones, Teeth and Gums

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How Vitamin A is Bad for Your Bones, Teeth and Gums debunks a commonly held belief that vitamin A is good for the body. Instead, we look at how it damages bones throughout the body, and the copious medical studies that support this truth.

We also look at how to restore bone health and oral health.

Whether you’re concerned about osteoporosis, breaking a hip or cavities, this article applies to all, young or aging.

Evidence that vitamin A in the body causes bone loss

When you read the word retinol from the medical studies below, they are referring to dietary vitamin A intake. Retinol is also the main form of vitamin A in our blood.

Here are several studies that easily link vitamin A intake with bone loss and damage:

• This conclusive study tells us, “… the incidence of osteoporosis appears to be highest in countries with adequate calcium and vitamin D intakes and where the intake of preformed vitamin A is the highest … studies should be designed to assess both vitamin A intake and status in persons with bone loss to clarify the remaining questions about the role of preformed vitamin A on bone in humans.”
• In this study of over 2300 men, “The risk of fracture was highest among men with the highest levels of serum retinol.”
  • This study concludes: “Our findings … suggest that current levels of vitamin A supplementation and food fortification in many Western countries may need to be reassessed.”
• This study points out that, “Older adults are at significant risk for osteoporosis and related fractures, and their serum (blood) levels of retinol increase with age.”
  • “Osteoporosis is a condition that causes bones to become weak and brittle. It can affect all bones in the body, including the jawbone.”
• In this paper, we learn, “The highest incidence of osteoporotic fractures is found in northern Europe, where dietary intake of vitamin A (retinol) is unusually high.” The same study shares, “In animals, the most common adverse effect of toxic doses of retinol is spontaneous fracture.”
  • This study directly links the amount of retinol (vitamin A) intake with an increase in osteoporosis. The more retinol consumed, the more osteoporosis.
• Restricting vitamin A intake in children who had a high prevalence of hypervitaminosis A, in this study, increased bone formation.

• This research shares: “Retinol is involved in bone remodeling, and excessive intake has been linked to bone demineralization …” The same article tells us to be cautious of increased vitamin A consumption for the safety of one’s “skeletal health”.
  
• From this study, we learn, “… elevated serum-retinol levels are associated with an increased risk of low bone mass …”
• Relating to the skull bone specifically, this study shares, “… vitamin A induced osteoclastic bone resorption on the endocranial surfaces”: In plain language, a high dietary intake of vitamin A rapidly caused thinning of the skull, reducing bone growth and mineralization. In more detail, in just one week of vitamin A supplementation, “… The bone formation rate was almost halved.”
• In utero, babies are affected by their mother’s high vitamin A diets in a variety of ways, including craniofacial deformities, such as cleft lip and palate. The same article goes on to say, “Pregnant women should refrain from using oral retinoid medications and excessive vitamin A supplements to mitigate the risk of vitamin A-related malformations.”
  • It’s not much of a reach to conclude that a baby’s teeth can be compromised in utero if the mother is consuming a diet high in vitamin A (such as: liver, liver pills or a “rainbow” diet of colorful vegetables OR processed foods [including most milks] or vitamins that are fortified with vitamin A OR topically, using skin products that contain retinoids).
  • “High-fat meals enhance the absorption of vitamin A in the small intestine.”: Most Americans eat a high fat and high vitamin A diet, and those on an Ancestral diet eat large amounts of both fat and vitamin A on purpose, a recipe for damage and disease.

Bone resorption and osteoclasts

One of the classic symptoms of vitamin A toxicity is bone resorption. This is the process by which osteoclasts (bone cell that breaks down bone tissue) break down the tissue in bones and release the minerals. The minerals are transferred from bone tissue to the blood.

Retinoic acid (another form of vitamin A) increases the activity of osteoclasts.

How Vitamin A is Bad for Your Bones, Teeth and Gums: Tooth resorption

It’s likely that tooth resorption is also commonly caused by chronic hypervitaminosis A (too much vitamin A in the diet over time).

Tooth resorption often occurs internally and painlessly underneath the gums, and modern medical research has a hard time understanding its causes.

Perhaps it’s not surprising that they have not yet considered the oral health impacts of high vitamin A diets and supplementation. Yet, it’s very logical, given the relationship between vitamin A intake and general bone loss.

Tooth resorption also occurs on the teeth themselves, externally.

Bile in the mouth damages teeth externally

This could be explained by diet, but also by the amount of bile detoxed into the mouth.

Bile is a digestive liquid produced in the liver.

Vitamin A is primarily excreted through bile and feces, when it’s detoxed from the liver.

Bile comes into the mouth with reflux, or indigestion. Symptoms of bile reflux are heartburn, hoarseness, chronic cough, painful swallowing, gastritis and esophagitis.

Bile and bilirubin also damage tissue, cancer causing

Bile acids and bilirubin (yellow colored bile) are found in the saliva of patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and other digestive disorders. These secretions are highly damaging and pose great risk.

We do not want bile acids or bilirubin in our saliva because they are now known to cause lesions and carcinogenesis (the initiation of cancer formation).

Bile in the mouth transports vitamin A onto teeth and gums.

How to reduce bile in the mouth

A good diet to reverse bile reflux includes many of the foods recommended on a low vitamin A or true anti-inflammatory diet: foods with soluble fiber [helps to usher bile from the body in bowel movements], oatmeal, beans, not too much fat and leaner meats. 

Foods to avoid include foods high in vitamin A, high in copper, high fat cheeses and meats, whole eggs, carbonated drinks, caffeine and alcohol.

Why does vitamin A reduce bone

Dietary vitamin A and/or vitamin D (in supplement form) cause calcium to be freed up from bones and to circulate in the blood, presumably in an effort to reestablish equilibrium.

(Learn more about the dangers of oral vitamin D here.)

While vitamins A and/or D in the blood cause an imbalance, Vitamin K, Zinc, Potassium and Magnesium help with bone repair.

Vitamin D from the sun, or other healthy sources (sun lamp [I have the Fiji model] and here) may also be useful.

Solutions for bone re-growth and tooth repair

A few main approaches help restore bone and tooth health:

1. This study showed increased bone growth with a low vitamin A diet, and this study shows us that a low vitamin A diet was highly effective in rescuing mice from skeletal mineralization defects. Long story short: Choose a low vitamin A diet to build bone.
2. Lactoferrin is a protein found in mammalian milk that plays an important role in bone health.
   • Incorporate lactoferrin (this brand) daily into one’s diet by starting with a low dose. (This supplement also balances iron levels gently.)
   • If you wish to start the most powerful lactoferrin (find it here), be sure to follow the manufacturer’s instructions, and start very slowly to avoid detox symptoms. This supplement should only be taken on an anti-inflammatory or low vitamin A diet, to avoid unpleasant detox symptoms.
3. Improve remineralization of teeth by abandoning old toothpaste solutions. Instead, read here how I got rid of my daughter’s cavities in 4 months, and look at #7 here: How to remineralize your teeth with saliva alone — or the other alternatives outlined.
4. Consider the supplements highlighted (in the above section) to regulate calcium levels: Magnesium, Zinc, Potassium, Vitamin K and Vitamin D from the sun or similar sources.

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