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An 11-Year-Old Boy With Vision Loss
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/2654882
An 11-year-old boyof East-Asian descent presented to the hospital with an 8-month his-tory of progressive vision loss, night blindness, and light sensitivity. He also had a long-standing complaint of dry eyes.His medical history included diagnoses of eczema and multiple food allergies. Owing to concerns about food triggers of his eczema, the child had a restrictive diet consisting solely of potato,pork,lamb,apples,cucumber, and Cheerios.Therewas no history of redness, discharge, or trauma to the eyes. The vision loss was not associated with pain, headache, fever, or photopsias (flashes of light). On examination, the child’s visual acuity was limited to detecting hand motion at 30cm. His conjunctiva had dry, keratinized patches with foamy appearance (Figure 1A). The cornea showed areas of marked epitheliopathy with opacity(Figure1B).His pupils were equal and reactive to light with no relative afferent pupillary defect. His funduscopic examination showed mild optic nerve pallor. He had normal extraocular movements.
[...]His vitamin A level (drawn on presentation) was 14.33 μg/dL (normal range, 25.79-48.71; to convert to micromoles per liter, multiply by 0.0349)
[...]The patient started receiving megadoses of vitamin A, consisting of 200.000 IU daily for 2 days followed by a third dose 2 weeks later based on the findings of xerophthalmia and vision loss, alongwith his limited intake of foods rich in vitamin A.
[...]Follow-up examination 6 weeks after vitamin A supplementation showed major improvements.Visual acuity improved to 20/800 bilaterally, and the xerophthalmia with Bitot spots resolved (Figure 2). Vision loss associated with vitamin A deficiency can be reversible; however, in cases with established optic atrophy, as was the case in this patient, a degree of vision loss is likely permanent.
Apparently his condition seems to be vitamin A intoxication (eczema, food allergy, dry eyes) but his vision has improved as a result of vitamin A megadoses ...
Any opinion to explain this? Thanks!
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Yes, I’m aware of that report. It is such a tragedy, I almost don’t know where to start in responding.
Firstly, the reported 14.33 μg/dL is only in the mid-range of moderate deficiency (defined as (10 to <20 μg/dl). And many perfectly healthy children from around the world routinely test below this level.
So, even if vitamin A deficiency did truly exist, he would not be technically deficient enough to manifest these dire symptoms.
Secondly, by including pork and lamb in his diet he would be getting a reasonable amount of preformed vitamin A (retinol).
Then, don’t most kids eat their Cheerios with milk too?
I tried to contact the author of this report when the story first appeared. I wanted to see if there was any follow up on his outcome – recovery. I did not get a reply.
Of course, the great tragedy for this boy, and for probably millions of other kids around the world is that when the so-called vitamin A deficiency symptoms show up doctors then dose them up on even more vitamin A.
Then, surely if he was vitamin A deficient after dosing him up on massive amounts of it as a “treatment” then you’d expect that his vision should have made a major recovery. But, of course, that did not happen:
RE: Visual acuity improved to 20/800 bilaterally
The 20/800 vision score is defined as “profound visual impairment” (next to near blindness).
So, their “treatment” was obviously a complete failure.
And, then they say: the xerophthalmia with Bitot spots resolved, but what about the eczema??
It’s very similar to other reports I’ve read where they rationalize away this total failure to recover the health of the kids when dosing them up on vit A (and when doing so, sometimes even killing them) by claiming “we just didn’t get to them soon enough”.
I think it is completely obvious xerophthalmia is not caused by vitamin A deficiency, and just this one statement from the world’s top “experts” on the topic should make it perfectly clear.
A significant proportion of children with clinical xerophthalmia have serum levels above 20 μg/dl, while an even larger proportion with seemingly normal eyes have levels below 20 μg/dl.
Source: VITAMIN-A DEFICIENCY, page 8
Health, Survival, and Vision Alfred Sommer and Keith P. West With James A. Olson and A. Catherine Ross Oxford University Press, 1996 ISBN: 9780195088243
Next, if vitamin A deficiency did exist, then what would you expect to happen if you took a group of perfectly healthy kids and gave them a single massive dose of vitamin A?
Surely, the last thing you’d expect to happen is for them to develop xerophthalmia and other signs of vitamin A deficiency, right? But, of course that’s exactly what happens.
See:
Failure of a Massive Single Oral Dose of Vitamin A to Prevent Deficiency
SHEILA M. PEREIRA and ALMAS BEGUM
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1647752/
Not surprisingly, not only do these “researchers” poison the kids into disease, they have experimented on defenseless kids in an orphanage, you know, to get past that pesky little detail of getting informed consent.
Another note, Cheerios in the USA are fortified with vitamin A palmitate. Says east asia descent, but I assume this is in USA?
Similar study, showing the kids worse off:
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Yes, I’m aware of that report. It is such a tragedy, I almost don’t know where to start in responding.
Firstly, the reported 14.33 μg/dL is only in the mid-range of moderate deficiency (defined as (10 to <20 μg/dl). And many perfectly healthy children from around the world routinely test below this level.
So, even if vitamin A deficiency did truly exist, he would not be technically deficient enough to manifest these dire symptoms.
Secondly, by including pork and lamb in his diet he would be getting a reasonable amount of preformed vitamin A (retinol).
Then, don’t most kids eat their Cheerios with milk too?
I tried to contact the author of this report when the story first appeared. I wanted to see if there was any follow up on his outcome – recovery. I did not get a reply.
Of course, the great tragedy for this boy, and for probably millions of other kids around the world is that when the so-called vitamin A deficiency symptoms show up doctors then dose them up on even more vitamin A.
Then, surely if he was vitamin A deficient after dosing him up on massive amounts of it as a “treatment” then you’d expect that his vision should have made a major recovery. But, of course, that did not happen:
RE: Visual acuity improved to 20/800 bilaterally
The 20/800 vision score is defined as “profound visual impairment” (next to near blindness).
So, their “treatment” was obviously a complete failure.
And, then they say: the xerophthalmia with Bitot spots resolved, but what about the eczema??
It’s very similar to other reports I’ve read where they rationalize away this total failure to recover the health of the kids when dosing them up on vit A (and when doing so, sometimes even killing them) by claiming “we just didn’t get to them soon enough”.
I think it is completely obvious xerophthalmia is not caused by vitamin A deficiency, and just this one statement from the world’s top “expert” on the topic should make it perfectly clear.
A significant proportion of children with clinical xerophthalmia have serum levels above 20 μg/dl, while an even larger proportion with seemingly normal eyes have levels below 20 μg/dl.
Source: VITAMIN-A DEFICIENCY, page 8
Health, Survival, and Vision Alfred Sommer and Keith P. West With James A. Olson and A. Catherine Ross Oxford University Press, 1996 ISBN: 9780195088243
Next, if vitamin A deficiency did exist, then what would you expect to happen if you took a group of perfectly healthy kids and gave them a single massive dose of vitamin A?
Surely, the last thing you’d expect to happen is for them to develop xerophthalmia and other signs of vitamin A deficiency, right? But, of course that’s exactly what happens.
See:
Failure of a Massive Single Oral Dose of Vitamin A to Prevent Deficiency
SHEILA M. PEREIRA and ALMAS BEGUM
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1647752/
Not surprisingly, not only do these “researchers” poison the kids into disease, they have experimented on defenseless kids in an orphanage, you know, to get past that pesky little detail of getting informed consent.
Grant, a while back, someone asked you a question about what to say to people who have eye problems who say they got better after taking more vitamin A. If I remember correctly, you said they were just postponing the problem by changing one form of vitamin A for another. Can you explain that a bit more?
There is a nutrition "expert" named Chris Masterjohn who recently posted that he had missed his regular vit. A doses for a while and was suffering from eye problems, which he claimed got better after taking more of the supplement. I suspect that he is very close to getting himself into a state of toxicity.
I made a comment on Peter Attia's FB page about that which may have triggered Chris to do a series on Vit A toxicity. (At least he admitted that there was such a thing!) Chris is a spokesperson for the Weston A Price Foundation and his podcasts are sponsored by a company, Wellness Meats, that sells organ meats. In his last post he says we should not take more then 10,000 ius per day to avoid toxicity, but he also says most people need more A, not less. And of course, we need to eat liver.
His articles are behind a pay wall on his website, but you can read them on facebook for free. We can leave comments on FaceBook which would reach a huge audience. I can send you the links if you or anyone else here would like to respond. Thanks.
Hi Judy,
I can see that some people could respond to cod liver oil or butter in a positive way in the short term. That’s because the oil/fat itself will very likely help emulsify existing serum retinoids and facilitate their quicker storage. Meaning that the benefit of just the oil and its emulsification capacity will offset the risks of the additional vitamin A.
However, in the long term, people will tip over into toxicity once the consumption rate starts to exceed the liver’s storage + detoxification rate. Of course, there’s a limit to just how fatty and the physical size the liver can swell up to in accommodating the excess consumption.
So yes, for anyone supplementing with even moderately high doses I do think it is just a matter of time before it catches up to them.
I have been in contact with several people who were taking the WAPF FCLO, and they have suffered devastating health consequences because of it.
Here is the link to Masterjohn's video. https://www.facebook.com/chrismasterjohn/videos/697771543915150/?v=697771543915150
It is amazing that he is still alive! I'd like to leave a comment, but don't know what to say.
How long would it take for just one serving of liver (about 53,000 ius of A) to be depleted?
Hi Judy,
I just watched his video. He’s certainly a huge proponent of vitamin A. It is scary to hear about how much he’s been consuming, and it’s extremely concerning to think that he has a big audience and is giving that same advice to others.
Since he’s aware that so many people now have NAFLD, and that condition is associated with all kinds of other poor health issues, I wonder what he would make of this HHS patent where they induce fatty liver in animals just using retinoic acid.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US4649040A/en
The present invention discloses a pharmaceutical composition and a method of treating retinoid induced pathogenesis. The pathological effect of retinoid is ameliorated by a suitable dose of a rescuing agent selected from the group consisting of choline chloride, methionine, betaine, biotin and inositol, the rescuing agent having the property of preventing formation of fatty liver.
Obviously, the root cause of the fatty liver disease is not a choline deficiency, rather that the choline etc. is being exhausted due to the VA toxicity of retinoic acid. And, not surprisingly, the substances in their “pharmaceutical composition” are all readily available from food sources.
Of course, there are other studies showing that just vitamin A (not even retinoic acid) causes fatty liver and cirrhosis, such as this one:
Hypervitaminosis A-induced liver fibrosis: stellate cell activation and daily dose consumption.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16448456
I wonder if there’s anything we can do to have Chris re-evaluate his position?
"I can see that some people could respond to cod liver oil or butter in a positive way in the short term. That’s because the oil/fat itself will very likely help emulsify existing serum retinoids and facilitate their quicker storage. Meaning that the benefit of just the oil and its emulsification capacity will offset the risks of the additional vitamin A.
However, in the long term, people will tip over into toxicity once the consumption rate starts to exceed the liver’s storage + detoxification rate. Of course, there’s a limit to just how fatty and the physical size the liver can swell up to in accommodating the excess consumption."
What if there is high intake of stable fats that have zero vitamin A, like olive oil, or perhaps better yet, tallow?
https://patents.google.com/patent/US4649040A/en
The present invention discloses a pharmaceutical composition and a method of treating retinoid induced pathogenesis. The pathological effect of retinoid is ameliorated by a suitable dose of a rescuing agent selected from the group consisting of choline chloride, methionine, betaine, biotin and inositol, the rescuing agent having the property of preventing formation of fatty liver.
I think Masterjohn is better off than most people with his high A intake since his entire diet seems to focus on nutrients that help deal with retinoids with a lot of animal proteins, eggs, dark leafy greens. These would provide ample amounts of choline, methionine, betaine, biotin and inositol.
I think many different diets can work out if they are well balanced between damaging and healing substances. I do not think though that this balance is easy to achieve.