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6 month Serum result update
After 6 months on low VA my serum retinol has gone up from 3.0 to 3.1!
Vit E seems to get tested alongside for some reason. It's also gone up slightly to 34.7 whatever that means in relation to VA? I had actually requested a retinol ester test but got this instead. Maybe NHS don't do it.
I was slack on holidays but overall I have dramatically reduced VA intake. Disappointing result, any speculation as to why it would increase or at least not have decreased after 6months?
Hi @neilky,
Other people have reported similar results; where their serum levels have gone up. This result is consistent with what’s generally reported in the medical literature that serum levels are a poor indicator of storage levels. It’s also a good indication of just how long and slow the process is to get rid of stored vitamin A. Obviously even the small increase in numbers means that the extra vitamin A has come from the liver or fat storage, and not the diet. On one hand it might be a good sign that the liver is starting to detoxify itself. On the other hand, I think this is why many people get into the detox setback phase. The retinyl esters released from the liver are even more toxic than retinol (from food sources). That’s why the ratio of retinyl esters to retinol is regarded as a more accurate measure of toxicity. I’m sorry that this information is not very practical, and that the process is so slow going. Have you considered making blood donations?
Well done for getting the test on the NHS @neilky I tried for my Mum but her GP wouldn’t budge. I wish I’d done a serum retinol at the beginning of my detox so then I could add a more useful comment. I only have one measurement 9 months in (2.51 umol/l which I think is equivalent to 72 in US standard units) & am due to do another now at 15 months in. For various reasons I think it will still be high.
Grant that’s very interesting about the retinyl esters. I know you mentioned this in one of your blogs about the survey. I thought that many animal vA food sources were retinyl esters too? I know that plant vA food sources feed into retinylaldehyde further down the metabolic chain. Do you think for some people leaving some toxic retinyl esters in the liver - let sleeping dogs lie - is a good idea once the level is reduced to say the level of an average young person (not one whose Mum followed Ben Lynch’s advice while breastfeeding)?
@ggenereux2014 Thanks for the reply. I had been teeing up to do a blood donation, but one thing and another got in the way. This is my next measure to help reduce levels now I see that diet alone is incredibly slow.. at least the way I'm doing it which isn't perfect by any stretch.
Hi @jaj,
RE: I thought that many animal vA food sources were retinyl esters too? Yes, I think that's correct for sources such as from liver etc..
I don't think we have much control over leaving the toxic esters in the liver or not. I think that just by adopting the low vitamin A diet it is going to result in liver attempting to heal itself. Obviously, using diet alone is a very slow process. I wish we had a faster more reliable solution; like a dialysis process for the retinoids. But, that's not going to happen any time soon.
hey there. I've been on the diet for a year and 5 months so far. i wish i got a baseline test, but i've tested every 4 months since i started. depending on how much vitamin A stores you have, it will probably take awhile before you start seeing significant decreases in your VA blood levels, at least based on my results. dr. smith has seen clients who have had low baselines and jump up quite a bit after starting the diet. labs are in ug/dl:
4 months: 68
8 months: 65
12 months: 62
16 months: 45
Quote from pano200 on March 6, 2020, 9:46 amhey there. I've been on the diet for a year and 5 months so far. i wish i got a baseline test, but i've tested every 4 months since i started. depending on how much vitamin A stores you have, it will probably take awhile before you start seeing significant decreases in your VA blood levels, at least based on my results. dr. smith has seen clients who have had low baselines and jump up quite a bit after starting the diet. labs are in ug/dl:
4 months: 68
8 months: 65
12 months: 62
16 months: 45
@pano200 how are your symptoms?
Quote from Orion on March 6, 2020, 9:54 amQuote from pano200 on March 6, 2020, 9:46 amhey there. I've been on the diet for a year and 5 months so far. i wish i got a baseline test, but i've tested every 4 months since i started. depending on how much vitamin A stores you have, it will probably take awhile before you start seeing significant decreases in your VA blood levels, at least based on my results. dr. smith has seen clients who have had low baselines and jump up quite a bit after starting the diet. labs are in ug/dl:
4 months: 68
8 months: 65
12 months: 62
16 months: 45
@pano200 how are your symptoms?
better, but not resolved yet. the severe dry eye, i'd still probably classify as severe, but it's much better than before. my extremely tight muscles are loosening up slowly. a lot of my other issues have cleared up, but those are the most significant lingering ones. although i've been incorporating a lot of beans in the diet since the beginning, i've significantly increased my whole grain intake and beans and have had zero setbacks, which is nice.
i've also been experimenting, along with select other supplements, with allithiamine 50mg, riboflavin 10mg, nicotinamide riboside 30mg (about 1/10th of a capsule). started off daily for a couple months, and now i'm tapering it down slowly. i still need to take taurine every day, 1g in AM, 500mg in PM, helps my dandruff a bunch.. i'm hoping i can taper it off later on. hopefully body can more efficiently excrete the retinotaurine thru the bile now that i've significantly upped my soluble fiber intake.
@rachel you're welcome, yeah! i was expecting it to be 59 or something.