[DrugAlerts 3-Line Summary💊]

Vitamin A dosage units are IU, RE, RAE three types, but RE is no longer used due to absorption rate errors.
Retinol 1 IU = 0.3 Î¼g RAE / Supplement beta-carotene 1 IU = 0.3 Î¼g RAE / Food beta-carotene has much lower absorption.
Adult daily recommendation is 900 Î¼g RAE for males and 700 Î¼g RAE for females, and toxicity occurs above 15 mg. Pregnant women must not consume more than 3 mg of retinol!

Think back to the display shelf in front of a pharmacy.

You pick up a small bottle and read the back, and at some point your eyes stop at a particular spot.

''Vitamin A 5000 IU', 'Beta-carotene 700 Î¼g RAE'... there's definitely Korean mixed in, but you don't understand what it means, and it feels uncomfortable to just skip over it?

So most people just put it back. Or they grab the most expensive one.

This column is for those of you who stopped at that spot.

IU, RE, RAE... I'll carefully explain why these three words you inevitably encounter on vitamin A labels exist, and how much you're actually consuming.

It's not difficult. Units are ultimately just 'ways of expressing' things!

Vitamin A has two faces

First, you need to understand what kind of nutrient vitamin A is.

Vitamin A is not a single substance. There are roughly two types.

The first is retinol. It's found in animal-derived foods or supplements, and when you consume it, it acts as vitamin A right away. It's fast and direct.

The second is beta-carotene. It's the orange pigment found in plants like carrots and sweet potatoes.

When it enters your body, it converts to vitamin A as needed, but, loss occurs in this conversion process. The efficiency is low.

Because these two substances work with different strengths in your body, it's not enough to simply label them by 'how many mg'.

So dosage notation methods have evolved in various ways. IU, RE, and RAE are traces of that evolution.

IU, RE, RAE â The Relationship Between These Three Words

IU: The oldest unit

IUstands for International Unit, meaning international unit. 'It's the oldest dosage unit created based on 'how much this substance works in the body'.

For vitamin A, you can understand it this way.

Retinol 1 IU equals retinol 0.3 Î¼g. Beta-carotene 1 IU equals beta-carotene 0.6 Î¼g.

Î¼g is read as 'microgram'. It's a very small unit of weight.

IU is still used on many supplement labels today. However, this unit alone has the problem of making it difficult to calculate 'how much is actually absorbed when combining retinol and beta-carotene'.

RE: A unit briefly used then abandoned

So that's when RE, Retinol Equivalent appeared. 'retinol equivalent'.

It was a unit calculated to reflect absorption rates, but it had a problem. The absorption rate calculation was wrong.

Earlier studies thought beta-carotene was absorbed fairly well in the body, but as more precise studies accumulated afterward, we confirmed that the actual absorption rate is much lower than that.

RE was a unit that didn't properly reflect reality. So it's almost never used now.

RAE: The unit we should use now

The current standard in use is RAE, Retinol Activity Equivalent. 'retinol activity equivalent'.

It was created by remeasuring absorption rates and is, the most accurate unit we have now.

The standard is as follows.

Retinol 1 Î¼g remains 1 Î¼g RAE. Beta-carotene in supplements 2 Î¼g equals 1 Î¼g RAE and beta-carotene in food becomes 12 Î¼g equals 1 Î¼g RAE.

There's one thing to pay attention to here. The absorption rate of beta-carotene in supplements differs from beta-carotene in food.

Supplements are in capsule form so they absorb a bit better, while beta-carotene in food is surrounded by dietary fiber and other components, so its absorption rate is much lower.

Even with the same ingredient, the amount your body receives differs depending on where it came from.

If calculations seem difficult

Numbers feel unfamiliar, so naturally you get anxious. But when you actually try it, it's simpler than you think.

For example, let's say a vitamin A supplement contains 1000 IU of retinol and 500 IU of beta-carotene.

How much would this be in RAE??

First, you need to know this, For your body to get the effect of 1 IU of vitamin A, you need 0.3 Î¼g of pure retinol or 0.6 Î¼g of beta-carotene.

So let's look at retinol first. Multiply 1000 IU of retinol by 0.3 and you get 300 Î¼g. Since retinol is absorbed as-is, this is immediately 300 Î¼g RAE.

Next, beta-carotene. Multiply 500 IU of beta-carotene by 0.6 and you get 300 Î¼g. Since beta-carotene in supplements is only half absorbed, you need to divide by 2 again here. Divide 300 by 2 and you get 150 Î¼g RAE.

Adding them together, this one vitamin A supplement equals a total of 450 Î¼g RAE.

There's also a slightly easier method. If you first add up the IU values of retinol and beta-carotene, then multiply by 0.3, you get the same result. This is because the beta-carotene absorption rate calculation mathematically works out the same way.

Once you understand the calculation principle, you'll naturally become curious about how to actually select ingredients when choosing supplements.

Whether retinol is better, or beta-carotene, how to look at raw material sources..!

👉 These criteria are [how to choose vitamin A ingredients]covered in more detail.

So how much should I consume per day?

Now that you understand the units, let's learn the actual recommended amounts.

Combining standards from Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and the U.S. Institute of Medicine, the daily recommended vitamin A intake for adults is 900 Î¼g RAE for males and 700 Î¼g RAE for females.

If you continue to consume less than half the recommended amount, deficiency symptoms may appear. These include night blindness (poor vision in dark places) and reproductive dysfunction issues.

Conversely, consuming too much is also a problem. The upper limit for the average adult per day is 3000 μg RAEIf you exceed 15,000 Î¼g, or 15 mg, toxicity may occur.

. Your liver becomes burdened and various abnormal symptoms can develop.

Special caution is particularly needed for pregnant women. retinol based on exceeding 3000 Î¼g research results showing that birth defect risk may increase.

It's known that consumption within the recommended amount presents no major problems, but if you're pregnant, it's safest to consult with a doctor before taking it.

Some of you might be curious about why vitamin A causes toxicity.

This nutrient is fat-soluble rather than water-soluble, so it doesn't get excreted in urine and accumulates in the body.

👉 The accumulation mechanism and the specific process of how night blindness develops are [what is vitamin A?]If you read in that article, you'll get a much clearer understanding.

More important than memorizing units

You don't need to memorize all three words: IU, RE, RAE.

There's only one thing you need to remember. The effective unit on vitamin A supplement labels right now is RAE. And even the same beta-carotene has different absorption rates when in supplements versus when consumed as food.

Knowing these two things means you no longer have to stop helplessly in front of labels.

지금 비타민 A 영양제 라벨에서 유효한 단위는 RAE라는 것. 그리고 같은 베타카로틴이라도 영양제에 들어 있을 때와 음식으로 먹을 때 흡수율이 다르다는 것.

Understanding units is a good starting point. But if you go one step further, you can look at ingredient sources and interactions with other nutrients.

If you're considering vitamin A for eye health,, the combination with lutein, which is in the same fat-soluble category,is also worth examining.

👉 A guide that organizes nutrient synergy along with differences in capsule ingredients that boost absorption, [how to choose lutein]will guide you to the next level!

In Closing

Remember that moment when you stood in front of a pharmacy holding a bottle of vitamin A and thought, 'What on earth is this number...?'.

Now that label will read a bit differently. IU is the international way of expressing it, RAE is the current standard for vitamin A, and retinol and beta-carotene have different absorption rates!

Dosage calculation feels unfamiliar at first, but becomes familiar with a bit of practice.

I hope this article has made that unfamiliarity a bit lighter.

This has been DrugAlerts!