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Accutane causes vitamin A deficiency (?)
This comment is in password protected Member area of Masterjohn’s website. It’s the C Vitamins and minerals 101 Q&A area, which you might be able to get to for free if you subscribe to free 101.
here’s the quote:
Chris Masterjohn, PhD
I wrote this elsewhere:
13-cis-retinoic acid interacts with the genome in a completely different and far less regulated way than all-trans retinoic acid. In a mouse model of emphysema, vitamin A is protective while 13-cis-retinoic acid is not. 13-cis-retinoic acid accumulates in the eyes of rats and interferes with vitamin A recycling; in fact, rats taking it took fifty times longer to recover from exposure to intense light than rats that did not take it. This is a sign of functional vitamin A deficiency.
Chris Masterjohn, PhD
I wrote this elsewhere:
13-cis-retinoic acid interacts with the genome in a completely different and far less regulated way than all-trans retinoic acid. In a mouse model of emphysema, vitamin A is protective while 13-cis-retinoic acid is not. 13-cis-retinoic acid accumulates in the eyes of rats and interferes with vitamin A recycling; in fact, rats taking it took fifty times longer to recover from exposure to intense light than rats that did not take it. This is a sign of functional vitamin A deficiency.
2. if it’s renewing skin cells more frequently, is that because... what? (Lots of ideas coming to mind)
Taking vitamin A in carotenoid, retinol or palmitate storage forms, puts you in protective storage mode. Taking accutane or retinoic acid, is taking vitamin A in excretion mode, equaling toxic detox effects. Taking vitamin A did not cure the night blindness, its a band-aid solution.
Quote from Rachel on September 22, 2020, 8:51 amChris Masterjohn, PhD
Accutane causes vitamin A deficiency, not vitamin A toxicity.
nice cherry picking phd, bow down to the master. this is an amazing statement. why do the rest of the effects of 13-cis-retinoic acid look like vitamin A toxicity? i don't even know why i am compelled to type this even though it's a waste of time reading his thought process. i think one of the hardest concepts for people to accept is that, like orion said, supplementing with vitamin A just puts the body into storage/protective mode... maybe unless the liver/fat is completely overloaded already, that mechanism wouldn't work.
@pano200 Chris is wrong in many things. Because like most people who are trying to know everything. They miss a lot of stuff.. For example he has no idea about copper metabolism. He just says that do blood test and that will tell you if you are toxic or deficient. Which is completely wrong. He has no idea about transport proteins, that you can have for example liver, brain damage from copper toxicity, but low serum copper at the same time etc..
I suppose, if he continues down a WAPF path, there is a pretty good chance Chris Masterjohn will end up VA toxic himself. He's still young.
I don't wish it on anyone. But fate can be funny that way.
I feel horrible for all of the bad advice I've given over time to people, talking up the VA foods as WAPF'ers will do. sigh. At least he has a platform for clearing the air, if and when he comes around to realizing that VA toxicity is for realz and a pain in the tuckus too.
Accutane causes vitamin A deficiency, not vitamin A toxicity.
He's right. It doesn't deplete vA stores of course but the megadose of 13-cis is an agonist of ATRA and retinal. It can cause the early symptoms of xeropthalmia because like he said it messes with retinal utilization in the eye.
Of course, I disagree with him that vA supplementation is a sensible solution because everybody has large enough vA liver stores. His solution will backfire and make the problem worse in the long run. A low vA diet helps detox Accutane because over time it reduces the amount of 13-cis being created endogenously. However, I would caution against those who have taken Accutane depleting vA liver stores to the point of deficiency.
It’s very likely that the reason they think Accutane can cause VAD is because the long held and accepted symptoms of VAD are actually those of vitamin A toxicity. Given that, then yes, directly poisoning people with the active form of so-called VA does indeed cause the symptoms of vitamin A poisoning (aka VAD).
Trying to make a distinction between 13-cis-retinoic acid (isotretinoin) and trans-retinoic acid is a completely meaningless distraction. They are both extremely toxic. Distinguishing between these two isomers is purely an academic exercise because vitamin A taken in from diet has been shown to convert to both 13-cis-retinoic acid and all-trans-retinoic acid. People need to stop splitting hairs and using this “it’s a different isomer” excuse, and look at the big picture. Both isomers have been proven to poison people and animals to death. That’s just a hard fact.
@ggenereux2014 From all your research and direct experience and blood works it is evident that the compound called "vitamin" A seems totally unnecessary to say the least and toxic in excess in whatever form it is found but when some people want to believe that 2+2=7 then for them it will be 7 and not 4 no matter the power of the proof. It seems very difficult to accept facts if they go against the commonly held beliefs (see what is happening around the world right now).
I wrote this elsewhere:
13-cis-retinoic acid interacts with the genome in a completely different and far less regulated way than all-trans retinoic acid. In a mouse model of emphysema, vitamin A is protective while 13-cis-retinoic acid is not. 13-cis-retinoic acid accumulates in the eyes of rats and interferes with vitamin A recycling; in fact, rats taking it took fifty times longer to recover from exposure to intense light than rats that did not take it. This is a sign of functional vitamin A deficiency.