Another year has gone by, and now I owe my loyal followers an update. In a nutshell, here it is: I am still very much alive, doing quite well, and remain eczema free. So, that’s nice. Oh, and yes, I am continuing to live on my vitamin A elimination diet. That’s nice too.
But, I’ve not been sitting idle regarding the vitamin A topic either. In addition to my day job, and other life responsibilities, I’ve spent more time investigating the history and nuances of the vitamin A story. This investigation has now led me to make a rather profound discovery. That discovery is that vitamin A is not a vitamin, at all. Nope; in no way is retinol, nor it’s precursors, a vitamin. That grand theory and the esteemed vitamin label given to this toxic molecule is rooted in nothing more than botched science.
Of course, that’s not just my opinion, and no, I am not delusional. Rather, you’ll soon see that it is simply a fact. So, if you are like me, and have been wondering why the symptoms of so-called vitamin A deficiency are a perfect match for those of vitamin A toxicity, you’ll get the answer to that little 100-year-old mystery.
I’ve documented this investigation in a new eBook. Like with my prior eBook, this one is completely free too. There are no hooks or gotchas to it, nor advertising associated with it. There’s no monetary gain in any of this for me, or anyone else. However, there’s a gigantic amount of money being made in attempting to treat the endless autoimmune diseases. Thus, the title: Poisoning For Profits.
Please download the eBook and share it with as many people as you like. All I ask in return is for you to please comment on it as you see fit. Therefore, please feel completely free to contact me with any feedback and questions.
Like always, you most certainly should not just take my word, or anyone else’s word, on any of this. Rather fantastically, you get to conduct a very simple in-home experiment and prove the science of it. You’ll get to see the results of that experiment with your own eyes. In doing so, you’ll get to participate in one of the most important health science experiments ever conducted. Science just does not get to be any cooler than that.
Poisoning For Profits Why so many of us are sick and dying young.
Thank you
I found it interesting watching Vegetable Police the other day. He’s thinking about quitting his vegan diet after 10 years of being unable to overcome his chronic gut inflammation and itching. You can see the chronic inflammation in his skin. In the video he talks about some of the fruits that cause him acute distress. No surprise, it’s citrus, mango, watermelon, and papaya–some of the highest sources of vitamin A in fruits. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc0ssfgLpaA
Hi Matt,
Thanks for the info. Yeah, It’s all adding up with those phantom bugs. His presentation is totally hilarious too.
Grant
Grant,
Do you think retinol / retinoic acid is the plausible explanation for appendicitis?
I could not find a mention of it in your books but it seems to be a fit for the general mechanism you’ve described. Inflamed epithelial tissue resulting in duct blockage.
“Appendicitis is inflammation of the appendix. […]
Appendicitis is caused by a blockage of the hollow portion [lumen] of the appendix. […]
Inflamed lymphoid tissue from a viral infection, parasites, gallstone, or tumors may also cause the blockage. This blockage leads to increased pressures in the appendix, decreased blood flow to the tissues of the appendix, and bacterial growth inside the appendix causing inflammation.
The combination of inflammation, reduced blood flow to the appendix and distention of the appendix causes tissue injury and tissue death.[12] If this process is left untreated, the appendix may burst, releasing bacteria into the abdominal cavity, leading to increased complications.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appendicitis
Hi Frank,
I’ve not at all considered appendicitis. But, yes, it sure sounds like there’s a plausible mechanism there.
Grant
Just saw it happen to someone in a vlog I follow ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GsCgeiVzOU ) and so I looked it up.
Another unsolved mystery illness, inflammatory in nature, blindsiding 11+ million people per year, including 50 thousand deaths.
“In 2015 about 11.6 million cases of appendicitis occurred which resulted in about 50,100 deaths.[8][9] In the United States, appendicitis is the most common cause of sudden abdominal pain requiring surgery.[2] Each year in the United States, more than 300,000 people with appendicitis have their appendix surgically removed.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appendicitis#Causes
Sugar and molasses don’t have any vitsmin A, right?
Sugar should be vA free in North American and in Europe. But, that’s not so in South America and in other countries where WHO programs supplement sugar and MSG with vA.
Just reading the part about grape juice in your book Grant. I thought you’d find it interesting to know that a popular alternative doctor, Dr. Morse, seems to be having really great results with all manner of health problems in his clients by having them fast on only grapes!
That’s interesting. However, people do need to be cautious and must include some source of protein too. There was a study done in Canada back in ~ 2006. They put 7,500 patients with kidney disease on a zero protein diet. The thinking was that the protein was “stressing” the kidneys. Result: within three months they had killed “most” of those 7,500. Study was terminated early.
“Cautious” has been removed from the vocabulary of most health fanatics these days. The stuff people are doing these days is absolutely insane–from eating rotten meat to dry fasting for an entire week without a single drop of liquid! It’s crazy.
I remember watching interviews with people surviving the siege of Leningrad during the WW2. They said that for a year (at least) they feed on nothing but potatoes. For a an advanced age they appeared quite healthy.
How do you explain some people having symptom relief when they eat retinol? What’s the mechanism behind it?
Hi Mats,
That’s a good question and any possible explanation is case or scenario dependent.
But, a few case studies that I’ve read go as follows:
1. Patient was on Accutane for 6 months
a. Patient developed dry eyes, inflamed lips, IBD symptoms etc.
2. Accutane treatment was stopped
3. Patient was “treated” with high does Vitamin A
4. After a year, the patient recovered.
5. Conclusion:
Vitamin A cures dry eyes, inflamed lips, and IDB!
But, of course the added VA did not cure a thing. What really cured the patient was that the ACCUTANE was stopped and then the time to recover.
VA is almost always administered in a fat / oil. In a reasonably healthy person, the body can just safely store that extra VA away in the liver and adipose tissue. It won’t be harmful. But, it won’t cure a thing either.
Here is a case report of an elderly lady on a restrictive diet who presented with “itchy, burning eyes”, who was supposedly cured with vitamin a supplementation. She reported improvement within 24 hours of starting the supplementation. Apparently she also showed improvement according to some occular testing that I have no understanding of.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4777935/
If you google something like: vitamin a deficiency eyes case report
you can find dozens and dozens of similair reports. Many autistic kids with restrictive eating habits and very low blood levels of vitamin a presenting with eye problems, who, at least according to clinical tests, in most cases improve following administration of vitamin a supplements.
Here is a report about an Australian man in his 50s, living on a diet of potatoes, white bread, and cola. https://www.mja.com.au/system/files/issues/195_05_050911/san10292_fm.pdf
I’ve tried a low-vitamin A diet for a while, and whlle I have experienced decreased inflammation I now also have pretty dry eyes. It could be due to my increased coffee consumption, I’ve read that it can both cause and treat dry eyes. It seems pretty unlikely that it would be the cause though.
Hi Matts,
Yes, I’ve read many similar reports.
Low serum levels of vitamin A are not observed with just autism. The same condition is seen in Alzheimer’s, Chron’s disease, AIDS, measles, eczema, dermatitis, breast cancer, etc. It’s the same story, low serum levels of vitamin A – chronic disease.
There’s a recent case in Canada where an 8 year old boy has gone blind by eating a restrictive diet too.
But, the critical question to ask is: where’s all that vitamin A disappearing to in the context of all these people with chronic diseases? It can’t be due to a lack of consumption. Rather, I believe it is due to long term damage to cellular membranes. With compromised cell membranes, more vitamin A is converted to retinoic acid. The disease, and eye damage is occurring due to the elevated levels of retinoic acid, not a deficiency in vitamin A. I think this theory is proven out with measles infections. It’s also been clinically measured to happen with vaccines too. Chronic cellular damage potentially leads to chronically elevated conversion rates to retinoic acid. I think the entire notion of there being purposely built vitamin A and retinoic acid receptors is bogus too. It is simply a hydrophobic molecule that effectively burns its way through the cell membrane. What make the retinoid so special? If there are purposely built “receptors” for them, then what about the “receptors” for Dixon, PCB, ricin, glyphosate, cyanides, thalidomide, poison ivy, arsenic, cyclamates, phenol, and hundreds of other toxins? The all have binding cites where they enter the cell. Are we supposed to believe that these are purpose built “receptors” too? So, I am not buying this vitamin + purpose built “receptor” nonsense. Just like I’m not buying the theory that low serum levels are somehow causing these diseases. It’s just a marker showing that more of it is converting more rapidly into something else.
I don’t want to speculate on your own particular experiences. But, thanks so much for reporting them.
“It can’t be due to a lack of consumption.”
What do you base that on? The lady in that case report only ate rice porridge and tuna, and b-vitamin supplements. If she ate one can of tuna per day, she would only have 2% of the RDA according to official numbers. If she had 2 cans she would have 4-5%. According to official guidelines, presupposing vitamin a is essential, it can definately be stated that she was vitamin A deficient. The guy who only ate white bread, potatoes, and coke, that’s an even more vitamin-a deficient diet. Your theory about autism is interesting, but it doesn’t seem far fetched that a lot of autistic kids would eat a VA deficient diet by official standards. A lot of autistic kids are extremely picky with their food. From the case reports I have read these kids have been on diets like hot chips and nuggets. Another kid only ate french fries and water. Yet another one would only have rice balls and french fries. If you’ve been around one of these kids you know how extremely picky they are. Growing up I personally knew a kid who would exclusively eat milk, white bread, ham, and cinnamon buns and that was it, nothing else.
Uh oh Grant. At least he acknowledged that vitamin A palmitate is dangerous though… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Kv40Es_d7o
What about alcohol? What types of alcohol are acceptable? I guess hard liquours would be the way to go? Vodka, rum, whiskey?
I guess coffee drinks would be safe to order, as long as you can get them without dairy?
Hi Mats,
I’m sorry but, I don’t know. Personally, I did not include any alcohol in my diet.
If you do a search on “retinol alcohol” you can find some pretty interesting stuff. It seems like alcohol both makes the liver send out its retinol to the rest of the body, and it also seems to increase the breakdown of retinoic acid. Apparently alcoholics have very little retinol in their livers.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3367262/
Yeah, it looks like there’s some evidence that alcohol consumption protects against a wide spectrum of autoimmune disease…
8 Orgogozo JM, Dartigues JF, Lafont S, Letenneur L, Commenges D,
Salamon R, Renaud S & Breteler MB. Wine consumption and
dementia in the elderly: a prospective community study in the
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9 Lieberoth S, Backer V, Kyvik KO, Skadhauge LR, Tolstrup JS,
Gronbaek M, Linneberg A & Thomsen SF. Intake of alcohol and risk
of adult-onset asthma. Respiratory Medicine 2012 106 184–188.
(doi:10.1016/j.rmed.2011.11.004)
10 Kallberg H, Jacobsen S, Bengtsson C, Pedersen M, Padyukov L,
Garred P, Frisch M, Karlson EW, Klareskog L & Alfredsson L.
Alcohol consumption is associated with decreased risk of
rheumatoid arthritis: results from two Scandinavian case–control
studies. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases 2009 68 222–227.
(doi:10.1136/ard.2007.086314)
11 Maxwell JR, Gowers IR, Moore DJ & Wilson AG. Alcohol
consumption is inversely associated with risk and severity of
rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatology 2010 49 2140–2146.
(doi:10.1093/rheumatology/keq202)
12 Hardy CJ, Palmer BP, Muir KR, Sutton AJ & Powell RJ. Smoking
history, alcohol consumption, and systemic lupus erythematosus:
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451–455. (doi:10.1136/ard.57.8.451)
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might be protective for systemic lupus erythematosus: a
systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Rheumatology
Yeah I know for sure that I get very good symptom remission after a couple of drinks from all kinds of inflammatory problems. My joints become so smooth. It’s pretty short lived for me though.
I think it’s likely that some alcoholics self-medicate with alcohol, probably a lot of psychological diseases are caused or very much affected by inflammation in the brain, I’ve even heard of schizophrenics drinking and then the hallucinations go away. Very interesting that retinol could be a part of all of this.
Hi Mat,
Yes, I’ve read similar reports. Alcohol seems to wash out retinol from storage, and therefore form the body too. I’ve also read that long-term alcoholics actually fair better in terms of rates of auto-immune diseases too. Although, that sounds counter intuitive, it makes sense when you understand the mechanisms. But, obviously, they suffer from liver sclerosis more often.
So, alcohol is bit like the knife that can cut both ways. The down side is that that long-term alcohol use will also wash out fats from cell membranes too. That condition would then make people far more susceptible to any circulating retinol.
So, I think it would make a lot of sense to adopt a very high fat diet. Say lots of prime rib or ribeye steaks?
I’ve seen studies in which animals “deficient” in unsaturated fats don’t develop liver cirrhosis even when fed large amounts of alcohol that would normally cause it. Same with sugar and non alcoholic fatty liver disease. There are also a few population based studies where certain populations whose only fat source is from dairy barely get any liver disorders, the alcoholics don’t get cirrhosis.
It seems to me like saturated fat is protective and unsaturated fat is damaging, and almost necessary for liver cirrhosis to develop. Coconut fat is the most saturated, then dairy fat, then beef fat.
Hi Grant — in a previous post here (3-17-18), you commented that, although alcohol does wash Vit A out of the liver, the problem is preventing reabsorption by other organs. You had wondered about using charcoal, although someone responded that that wouldn’t get into the bloodstream to do the job.
Have you had any other thoughts about what might work to prevent reabsorption?
And for someone like me, who has almost zero alcohol tolerance, I wonder if using alcohol is a good idea, even therapeutically?
thank you
Hi Turtlegirl,
Yes, I’ve thought about that some more. Although I agree that activated charcoal will not enter the blood, it does not need to.
The liver releases bile into the intestine, and contained within that bile is both retinol and sometimes retinoic acid too. The problem is that most of the bile is reabsorbed by the small intestine. So, unfortunately, it’s almost a closed loop cycle.
But, therein lies the opportunity to apply activated charcoal. If you were to take some activated charcoal before the first meal of the day, then it should capture some of these retinoids in the intestine, and keep it from being reabsorbed. Thus, if the timing is right, activated charcoal could be very effective. Of course, this is entirely theoretical on my part. I did not test this. However, there’s got to be a real reason and explanation for why other people have reported taking activated charcoal to be beneficial.
Thanks
turtulegurl, Yeah I would assume that the liver flushing out retinol to other organs could be harmful. However alcohol also increases the breakdown of retinoic acid itself which would be very beneficial if Grants’ theory is correct. I wouldn’t suggest using it therapeutically but maybe it could be useful. In my experience, lowering the intake of unsaturated fats and increasing the intake of carbohydrates, both starches and sugar, increased my alcohol tolerance. The opposite also seems to be true, if you do a search for it you can see that a lot of people on low carb diets become much more sensitive to alcohol.
Grant, here is a quick collection of some of the studies about unsaturated fats and the liver:
Dietary saturated fatty acids reverse inflammatory and fibrotic changes in rat liver despite continued ethanol administration.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11602676
Dietary factors and alcoholic cirrhosis.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3526949
Dietary saturated fat reduces alcoholic hepatotoxicity in rats by altering fatty acid metabolism and membrane composition.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15051845
Protective effects of medium-chain triglycerides on the liver and gut in rats administered endotoxin.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12560783
Beef fat prevents alcoholic liver disease in the rat.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2646971
I have some questions about what you wrote about fat in your books by the way. You wrote “Olive oil (max of 1 teaspoon per day)”. Do you get retinol symptoms if you eat more than one teaspoon of this or why max 1 teaspoon? You also wrote that coconut oil is problematic because of the palmitic acid in it. But coconut oil and olive oil have almost he same palmitic acid content. Coconut oil is about 8-12% palmitic acid, olive oil is about 7-16% palmitic acid. Maybe the coconut oil issue is unrelated to palmitic acid. What kind of coconut oil were you eating? Did you try deodorized tasteless coconut oil? Coconut is a very allergenic food, a lot of people have various problems with it, the the “cold-pressed” oil may be a bad idea, sometimes processing is a good thing, the allergenic aromatics get discarded. Beef fat is 27% palmitic acid btw, so if you’re not trimming the fat off you might get more palmitic acid that way, and if it doesn’t cause a problem maybe palmitic acid wasn’t a bad thing in the first place.
Thanks for the list of reading material.
Regarding my recommendation for limiting the olive oil was that it appears that some brands do contain carotenoids. Although, I did not have a negative reaction to olive oil, I just wanted to be on the safe side an avoid carotenoids. I still use some olive oil, but there’s been two people now contact me saying they are having negative responses to olive oil on their low vA diet. It could be brand dependent?
Whereas, I did have a big and quick (within hours) negative reaction to coconut oils. I ASSUMED (meaning that I don’t know for sure) that the palmitic acids in the coconut oils were binding with the retinoids already parked within my intestinal tissues, and thereby acting as a carrier complex to bring it into circulation. I tried various brands, and had the same negative reactions.
I don’t have a lab, and I can only relate what my experiences with it were. But, I think a person’s potential reaction to coconut oils is going to be highly individual and will depend on how much retinol is available with in their intestinal tissues.
I really appreciate the discussion going on here. Thank you.
Grant and Mats: thanks for your responses.
Grant — is there a reason you suggest charcoal only before the first meal of the day and not before or after every meal? (If I remember right, I tried activated charcoal for something in the past, and I got terrible abdominal cramps. So, maybe this wouldn’t be an option for me but could work for others?)
Mats — I’ve always had a very low tolerance for alcohol and don’t know why (I definitely don’t do low carb). I did have a very bad case of mono and hepatitis at age 12 — maybe that somehow permanently compromised my liver?
Hi Turtlegurl.
Well, like with everything else we put into our bodies we’d need to be careful. Too much activated charcoal could really block a person up. The timing of it is important because you’d want to synchronize it with the time that the liver releases bile (it is cyclic).
I’m assuming this would usually be right before a meal. I’m also very intrigue with what’s termed the sundowner syndrome observed in dementia patients. For example, see: http://www.goldenyearslivingsolutions.com/blog/sundown-syndrome
I suspect this is do with more liver bile being released during the day (just before meals), and by the end of the day the additional retinol exposure is catching up to people.
BTW, I’ve been told that there is almost a perfect match between the bio-markers for Alzheimer’s and those of vitamin A toxicity.
Hi Grant,
What was the skin on your scalp like? Was it red? White? Yellow? Flakes? Scales? Rash? Did it differ from the eczema on the rest of your body? When a hair fell out did it have a white/yellow bulb of sebum attached to it?
Thanks
Hi James Dean,
Ouch! That question brings back painful memories for me.
Yes, my scalp was inflamed, red, weeping, and peeling. It was quite like the eczema on the backs of my hands. Except, I was not able to get a good look at it as I could with that on my hands. But, it was mostly on the back where the standard North American male has a bald spot. I did not examine the lost hair follicles. But, I have a theory that what causes the hair loss is that the bulb of the follicle loses too many of the rooting stem cells that anchor the hair shaft in place. When they die off, the hair itself falls out.
Thanks for the reply Grant. That’s interesting, on my scalp I get these yellow scales but it’s not red or weeping. It looks like sebhorreic dermatitis but I’m pretty sure it’s just vitamin A toxicity. I wonder why it would present differently on my scalp versus yours. Side note: I also do get the typical red weeping inflamed eczema on my hands.
Did eating a low VA diet improve your digestion? I’m having problems with beans.
Hi Mats,
There is another guy who has also reported that eating beans gave him a lot of trouble. You probably know it already, but just in case, kidney beans need to be cooked at high temp, otherwise they can be toxic. Or just buy them in cans.
Yes, my digestive health did significantly improve with my diet. Also, I did not add the beans into my diet until after about the first year. So maybe I did not experience trouble with beans because my gut issues had fully resolved by that time?
I have access to unenriched 0.1% fat milk. It should only have 30 IU retinol per litre of milk. Do you think this is ok, or do you think there is extra retinol bound to the casein that isn’t detected during the standard nutritional testing process?
Hi Mats,
There’s no way for me to say for sure.
Mats — maybe this chart will help? It looks like it would be approximately 61 mcg Vit A per 100 gms of milk. http://dietgrail.com/vitaminA/
turtlegirl, thanks for trying to help but that appears to be fortified milk. I already have an “accurate” reading of the milk content of non.fat milk in my country. According to an industry organization there is 0.9 µg retinol per 100g of non-fat unenriched milk. However I was wondering if perhaps there could be additional retinol bound to the casein, that would not be listed as vitamin a.
I think you’re correct to be concerned about the retinol bound to the casein. I’ve read from multiple sources that the retinol is completely wrapped up in the casein molecule. So, accurate detection and measurement of it might be problematic.
Thanks for clarifying, Grant. I’ll go take a look at the casein chapter again.
Hi Grant. I just finished reading “Poisoning for Profit” last night. It’s a real page turner. Thank you for writing it and for giving it away for free. I’ve had seborrheic dermatitis/scalp psoriasis for 14 years. I’ve done all sorts of diets in the past including paleo and keto but I think avoiding “Poison-A” is the missing link that’ll finally let me heal. I’m going to stick to a beef, salt, rice, and water diet and see what happens. Fingers crossed.
A while back I was listening to the Joe Rogan Podcast with Shawn Baker and that was the first time I heard about the Carnivore Diet. Then Jordan B. Peterson was on Rogan’s podcast more recently and told his story of how beneficial the Carnivore Diet has been for him, his wife, and his daughter Mikhaila. Mikhaila goes into more depth on her blog called “Don’t Eat That.”
I first heard of your blog through a comment Matt Stone made on a Shawn Baker video called ‘Carnivore Diet- Autoimmune Disease’ on YouTube. I have a few of Matt’s books and I like his writing style. He’s put out some good books. So his comment popped out at me and I read through the replies and someone posted a link to this website where I downloaded and read your book. So here I am. I bring all this up to illustrate the connectivity/synchronicity surrounding all this at the moment. It seems like now is the time for your ideas go mainstream. Jordan Peterson sees the internet media of YouTube and podcasts as the new Gutenberg Revolution. For the first time in history the spoken word has as much reach and permanence as the written word and people likely have always been better listeners than readers. Your book is great but not many people read these days. They usually go for an audiobook, podcast, or video to get their information instead.
So with that being said, have you considered going on a podcast tour? I think it’d be great if you got your ideas out there to more people. I believe it’s very important information and going on a variety of podcasts would be a great way to spread that information. The time seems to be now for all these dots to be connected from my observations.
Hi Tony,
Thanks for the comments and suggestions.
RE: 14 years – another guy has reported that he’s finally turned around his dermatitis issues after suffering from it for 40 years. So, he’s pretty happy about that.
So, fingers crossed, my bet is that this diet will eventually work for you too.
I’ve not thought about the podcast approach. I’ve just been too busy with my day job / etc. My most immediate plan is to more thoroughly document the causal connection with obesity.
I’ll consider doing a youtube video, too.
Grant
Ha, I was just about to publish my article about “Villain A” today. I think Grant will definitely be getting some podcast invites over time as this picks up some steam.
Matt is right! Found out about you from his site (BIG Matt Stone fan!) I’ve been binge reading your material the ever since and I’m greatly intrigued! Passed on the info to several friends and posted on YouTube sites that I follow. I’ve been doing a Keto diet since January and lost 55 pounds, don’t have any other health issues except hypertension and sciatic pain from either degenerative disc disease or residual shingles (don’t know which is causing it but it has improved a lot since January) not at all sure if the hip problem links to Vitamin A problems but I am quite likely going to give this approach a try and will report back any results. The keto diet led me to reading a lot about carnivore diet and fasting (watched the movie ‘Fasting’ recently) and it is notable that both of these approaches will automatically be totally eliminating or greatly limiting Vitamin A exposure, further clues that there may be something to this. The brother of a good friend has MS, hopefully he will give this a try, if he does I will be sure to encourage him to come here and report his results.
I’ve always looked at the risk/reward ratio when assessing these type of claims, the possible reward of following this dietary regimen is tremendous compared to any risks. Kudos to you on the incredible detective work you have done!!!
Question for Grant and anybody else here who might have an opinion.
What do you think about fasting as a tool to deplete vitamin A stores?
I’m referring to the longer fasts, 24 hours onwards when the research suggests the process of autophagy starts to kick in.
I ask this because when I complete a 24 hour fast the transformation in my general well being and energy levels is remarkable. I really haven’t found anything else like it.
When I eat again the fatigue, sinus issues, headaches and joint pains return.
Obviously I can’t be in a fasted state all the time which is why after a 24 hour fast a logical way to maintain the benefits might be a fasting mimicking diet such as the ketogenic diet. The main source of fuel on a diet like this is fat and here lies the problem. Healthy high fat foods seem to contain a lot of vitamin A. Two staples of the ketogenic diet, Eggs and Avocado are a no no on a vitamin A deplete diet. It seems there’s no way of combining a vitamin A deplete diet with a high fat fasting mimicking diet.
To be honest im struggling to comply with the beef and rice diet and the extremely long time it takes to deplete vitamin A storage and recover with such a restrictive diet.
Anybody have any thoughts on this?
Thanks in advance,
Lee
Cholestyramine and sucrose polyester (Olestra) are know to reduce Vitamin A levels in the liver.
Thanks,
I do mention Olestra in my Breast Cancer eBook.
Grant,
You may already know of this but if not then you may find this interesting. There is a medical doctor by the name of Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker that claims to have helped alot of people overcome various health problems by prescribing them chloestyramine.
Dr. Shoemaker claims that cholestyramine helps people because it removes fat soluble toxins and mold mycotoxins from the body. But after reading through some of your research I can’t help but wonder if some of the benefit that his patients receive are due to cholestyramine’s ability to remove Vitamin A from the body???
Cholestyramine is known to help rid the body of various fat soluble vitamins and fat soluble toxins.
Thanks for sharing that info. Yes, it makes sense that it would be beneficial, and probably acting very similar to the action of activated charcoal.
Chelan,
I had experience with cholestyramine after toxic mold exposure per environmental testing and a hospital stay for cystitis of both parotid glands, probably fungal, but possibly bacterial. We had a seriously water-damaged building that had a two-story end wall replaced.
The interesting thing that I’ve just discovered (the events noted happened in early 2017) is that being on fluoroquinone antibiotics, both IV and oral, is very dangerous because the body’s magnesium stores are depleted (my theory is that one of magnesium’s jobs is to protect us from excess fluorine) when magnesium binds with fluorine (and even that brittle compound wreaks havoc when deposited in tendon and ligament tissue).
The long list of symptoms that Ritchie Shoemaker describes as due to mold toxins, of which I had 12, match those of magnesium depletion very closely. So lately I’m digging deeper into why some are overly-sensitive and get the cytokine storm, off-the-charts inflammatory response to those toxins. This is all very interesting and now adding Grant’s knowledge (just ran across the PFP book two days ago) gives me pause.
Thanks for the heads-up on Cholestyramine. I did use it off and on for a few months, but it was difficult to sort out what was having a positive effect since I was throwing everything I could think of at the symptom list, not knowing the magnesium connection at the time, other than having the most severe leg cramps one can imagine and applying magnesium oil in liberal quantities.
I just found out about Dr Carolyn Dean’s ReMag and ReMyte formulas and two weeks of using them has really gotten my attention. I’m planning to go for zero A to find out just how good I can feel. Just might add Cholestyramine back in to the mix now that you have reminded me about it’s function.
Grant, I appreciate the blog and look forward to reading more. I have made copies of Breast Cancer and Poison For Profit to study more deeply. I think your Breast Cancer book is very accessible for average readers and is very important. I will be sending that link to a lot of people in coming days.
hillcountry
I’ve been eating a ketogenic diet for 18 years. I gave up most dairy because of allergies. but I can eat clarified butter–it has zero vitamin A and it is delicious. I put it in a cup of decaf coffee and whip it with a blender. That is breakfast. It should be ideal for a high fat diet. (Ghee is similar to clarified butter, but it has been heated longer, so just clarified is better.)
Oops! After checking another brand, I found that clarified butter does contain vitamin A! Rats. However, I found that yellow tomatoes and chocolate have zero.
Another point to add. Longer fasting involves some fat burning as does the Ketogenic diet. Using fat as the primary source of fuel could potentially deplete Vitamin A stores more quickly as I believe it is stored in the adipose tissue along with the liver.
Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated,
Lee
Hi everyone.
I have been off my Vitamin a supplements now for a while and doing a low/none Vitamin diet. The last weeks before stopping my supplement I had automatically gone on a almost 0 VA diet. During that time I had a craving for redwine. Usually I do drink it just on rare occaisons, but now, it feels like doing me good. You were dicussing it here that it may has benefits. Just a thought from today. I have noticed that high quality beef gives me some palpitations. As beef should be helpful I can just explain it with the nutrients and proteins may detox the A out of the stores and I reabsorb the A after half an hour back into the bloodstream. Same time it happend today I got the feeling to have a glas of wine. What happend is that the palpitations stopped after a few minutes. As charcoal can not enter the bloodstream to absorb the released A, so can alcohol. Alcohol enters the bloodstream and if the theorie is right, that it is able to dissolve some of the retionic acid, then this is maybe what happend when my palpitations stopped. What do you all think about this?
That’s a great question Anika. I have only been eating beef and rice, as well as macadamia nuts here and there. Even though it’s limited, I am still keeping a food journal. I notice that when I eat fattier cuts of beef (ribeye etc..and I make sure not to use grassfed) I get the Vitamin A symptoms again…heart racing, some palpitations. And if I eat higher fat a few days in a row I lose a little bit of my focus and clarity too. If I eat leaner cuts of beef, my mood is lifted and all of that goes away. I worry about trying to go too low fat as I am only eating beef and rice. Is this something I should just push through or am I getting too much vitamin A from the beef fat? The grain-fed white color to the fat should be pretty low in vitamin A and E. On your journey Grant did you stick to leaner cuts of meat? Would love your thoughts on this. Thank you
Hi Christina,
If you’re comfortable sharing I’d like to know how has that diet been working for you? Have you seen any tangible improvements? I’m considering starting a very similar diet and want to get all the data points I can.
Thanks,
James
Fatty cuts of beef seem to trouble me too. My symptoms are better when I eat really low fat diet.
Hi Alex,
If you’re comfortable sharing I have the same questions for you. Have any of your symptoms improved? And what specific diet are you following?
Thanks 🙂
Hi James,
my diet now is rice, beef (mostly steak or corned beef), cauliflower, a bit of potato chips, potatoes and french fries not so often, olive oil, salt. But I eat everyday at work cafeteria, I suspect sauces they put on meat having milk or something.. I drink coffee, sometimes energising drinks with taurine. I made mistake eating bread (which I didn’t eat much before this diet) so I stopped it.
My improved symptoms are: I no longer have recurrent abdominal pain and acid reflux. Seb derm has improved about 50%. Rosacea a bit improved, but it’s hard to tell ..
First of all I’ll make a disclaimer: My comment is not to make a diagnosis or treat or claim a cure to anything. Heart palpitaions could be something other than what I’m describing and it’s always a good idea to see a doctor to rule out something serious. I am just relating my experience and some information I found out. (Okay so with that out of the way…:) )
Heart palpitations can sometimes be a histamine response. I was having this problem too for a while last year sometime. I’d get heart palpitations after almost every meal. I started to realize that when I’d eat fat the palpitations would get really bad.
Thing is, if you have a sensitivity to histamines in food, which are in pretty much everything, you have to eat as fresh as possible. And if you are buying supermarket meat, then you really need to look at the date and time of day the meat was cut and wrapped. Also, you have the problem of not knowing when the animal was slaughtered, meaning you have no idea how fresh it really is.
I had bought some ground beef from the supermarket one day and didn’t look at the date. It had been there, ground and wrapped for a day. I cooked it up and had it for dinner and promptly experience the symptoms of a histamine reaction: Swollen legs and ankles as well as heart palpitations.
That’s when it really hit me that I have to check the dates on meats that I buy from supermarkets.
I have since begun buying all my meat from a local farmer because it’s flash frozen upon packaging and is the most fresh I can find around here.
I also took supplements like digestive enzymes, B vitamins, Vitamin C, HCl (was also having reflux) and the histamine issues have mostly subsided. I can eat fat without much worry, although I still drain fat from the pan when I eat burgers. I also don’t buy from supermarkets anymore, as I said, and don’t eat cooked leftovers.
Hope this helps a little.
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Hello,
Thank you Grant Genereux for your research that led to the revelations about A certain toxin. Reading Poisoning for Profits was one of those rare moments that reading a tome utterly transformed my view of the world (I can think of one other book that had such an effect). So thank you again.
My family has been on the low-to-no Vitamin A detox for around 4 months now. We’ve noticed increased energy levels and less grey hair 😀 *However I have one particular question about Vitamin K supplements and their additives. The brand we’re using also has extra virgin olive included in the capsules — does that oil not contain cartenoids which would negate the vitamin K intake?*
Many thanks
R.