Saturday June 15, 2013 (foodconsumer.org) -- Increased dietary intake of vitamin A can be a risk factor for calcific aortic valve disease, according to a study recently published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology.  Calcific aortic valve disease is a heart disease that has no effective treatment other than surgery.

Joy Lincoln from The Research Institute, Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, OH and colleagues conductd the study and found high intake of vitamin A promotes aortic valve calcification in vivo.

Early research discovered that mature and healthy geart vales calcify when exposed to retinoic acid, which can be a treatment or metabolite of vitamin A. The current study was intended to exmaine whether excess vitamin A and its metabolite retinoic acid affect heart vale structure and function in vivo.

For the study, mice exposed to high doses of vitamin A were found to develop aortic valve stenosis and leaflet calcification.

The researchers concluded "Our studies demonstrate that excess vitamin A dietary intake promotes heart valve calcification in vivo. Therefore suggesting that hypervitaminosis A could serve as a new risk factor of calcific aortic valve disease in the human population."

Vitamin A naturlly occurs in plant-based foods.  It should be noted that the form of vitamin A used in the study is not the same as seen in most plant-based foods.   In plant foods, vitamin A is often times previtamin A or carotenoids including beta-carotene.  It is safe to eat a large amount of vitamin A rich plant foods.  But when you take vitamin A supplements, the vitamin may be in an active form and excess vitamin A can cause a variety of health problems in addition to calcific aortic valve disease.

The risk factors for aortic sclerosis and stenosis are similar to risk factors for atherosclerosis (reporting by Jimmy Downs)