Problem drinkers also have difficulty getting enough protein and calories to maintain a healthy weight. So it should come as no surprise that a study of 28 alcoholics, done at the University of Illinois in Urbana, found that 57 percent had low levels of vitamin A . Vitamin A plays an important part in helping you to reproduce, to grow new cells, to fight infection and, because of its important role in the retina, to see at night. Another study found that half of alcoholics who have severe liver disease also have night blindness. A deficiency is to simply pop a couple of pills, giving supplemental vitamin A to people with alcohol problems is tricky, cautions Dr. Lieber.
Vitamin A can be toxic to the liver if taken in large amounts.
But so is alcohol. It's important to correct the deficiency. But at the same time, it's important to avoid any excess. There's a very small therapeutic window. For a while, researchers wondered if they could avoid the toxic effects of supplementation and still prevent a vitamin A deficiency by prescribing beta-carotene , a nontoxic precursor of vitamin A that occurs naturally in dark green, leafy vegetables and in orange and yellow vegetables.