Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Sami_Lehtinen 4320 days ago
AFAIK vitamin A is poisonous in larger doses. In Finland they were worried at time that people might be getting to much of vitamin A. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypervitaminosis_A
1 comments

Everything is poisonous at some dosage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_lethal_dose

Edit: From this [1] non-scholarly source,

    "The median lethal dose (LD50 value) of vitamin A injected intramuscularly 
    in a water-miscible form in the young monkey is 0.6 mmol (168 mg) retinol/kg 
    body weight. Extrapolated to a 3-kg child and a 70-kg adult, the total LD50 
    dose would be 1.8 mmol (500 mg) and 41 mmol (11.8 g) respectively."
Also, it's teratogenic. Just like an innumerably many other chemicals we ingest daily.

[1] http://www.uta.edu/faculty/sawasthi/Lecture%20Notes%20Chem14...

Hence why Isotretinoin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotretinoin) is a restricted drug in many countries, although it is a vitamin A-like chemical that is used to clear up very severe acne. Women who are prescribed the drug in the UK have to provide proof that they are on a reliable form of contraception and are not pregnant when they collect each month's worth of pills. It causes severe birth defects.