Quote from Bruce on June 22, 2026, 6:24 am

M60

June 22 2026 - about 1 month off "the juice"

I am relatively new to this forum and to Low vA lifestyle in general, and perhaps like many of us, I have experienced mysterious ailments that my doctors cannot pinpoint (bone pain, joint pain, osteoarthritis, weight gain, to name the big ones), but I am not classically 'arthritic' from a lab perspective. Other symptoms include insomnia, weird muscle aches (anywhere and everywhere), inflammation (literally feels like my body is on fire at times), and what was most-telling (and ignored by my doctors)  … peeling hands and feet in January 2026 (not currently experiencing). 

I want to dive a little more into that because it was ignored, but should have been in the first sign something was really wrong.

Peeling Hands and Feet

In January 2026, I had a yearly exam with my doctor where I SHOWED him my peeling hands and feet, and explained the other weird symptoms (not an exhaustive list, but see above). He looks at my soles and hands and just kinda said, "Nothing to see here." I am not talking about a little chafing. It was basically like my soles and palm were literally coming off (not bloody, not painful, but just sheets of skin peeling off).  I could not explain it, he seemed unconcerned, and I had no clues in routine bloodwork. I hobbled out of the office and that was that. 

This Spring (2026) I continued to get worse and had largely abandoned any hope of feeling better. Laying on the couch was my routine. Some days, I literally felt like death would be better—I felt just that bad. Some days I still feel really bad and I just sulk.

Discovery of Low(ish) Vitamin A

I came across Low vA (Grant or Dr. Smith  … . can't recall which one  … probably something on YouTube) and it seemed to check some boxes, and seemed like an easy-enough approach.

I IMMEDIATELY cut down on ALL supplements containing A (cod liver oil, greens powders with a ton of beta carotene) and I also immediate cut down/out the biggest food culprits (canned sardines, canned mackerel, carrots, frozen mixed veggies, salads, dried apricots—these are my STAPLES so it was hard to give them up). I have never been a big fruit-eater, but I do love dried fruits and apricots are my usual dessert (every night a handful of dried apricots. Oh forgot, somewhere along the line this spring I started drinking at least one giant fresh squeezed beet, carrot, apple juice from a local drink shop. Probably no more than once per week, but at least once per week. I was also buying a similar juice from H-E-B that I would drink on days I did not have any of the fresh-squeezed stuff.

I had been taking the CLO for over a year (daily) and the greens powder much longer (years probably  … but sometimes on and off),

The results were impressive. I felt better in about two weeks. Better  … not 'well'. I make this distinction because just like with my B6 Toxicity, I realize it might take me a long time to feel 100%. That battle took me over a year to get back to normal.

My (Additional) Theories

I never took Accutane, I never took Vitamin A-specific supplements, etc., but I am a firm believer that my daily 'high quality' cod liver oil (Rosita's) + my greens powder with 1,000 mg of beta carotene daily + those damned apricots and canned fish pushed me over the edge—somewhere I read that "you're okay until you're not." Maybe it was Grant who wrote that. Just want to make sure I give credit to the creator of that comment.

I now believe that beta-carotene from veggies is not as harmless as people say it is, and would caution anyone chugging-back greens powders and smoothies to really think long-term.

One other thing that gets mentioned is what happens when all this stored vA is released you kind of re-poison (relapse) yourself because it is not being flushed out of the feces or the urine—that is another thing, sometimes I have weird bowel movements and sometimes my urine has a nasty smell. Could be my body dumping vA, could be something, could be nothing. I dunno. 

Testing

I wanted to document my progress, so I paid for my own bloodwork through Goodlabs. My baseline serum was/is 74 mcg/dl—which most labs, AI, etc. report as Out Of Range, but Quest Diagnostics (who the test was run through, classified it as In Range—go figure). This was my first inkling that whatever health issues I am experiencing COULD be related to Vitamin A, as it is a better theory than my PRIMARY CARE DOCTOR shrugging his shoulders and ushering me out of the door. That is the most-frustrating aspect of this—I have to self-run labs, conduct Google and AI deep dives on Vitamin A toxicity from Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini to even have an inkling as to what COULD be wrong with me.

At any rate, it was a starting point, and gave me some measure of where I am in all of this. 
 
I am in NO WAY cured, but in four weeks off "the juice" there have been noticeable improvements. My bones are not creaking and popping as much, my bones are not HURTING, my joints overall feel better, and I have the energy to walk daily (I was mainly confined to my couch for the past five months), and my mood is better (anxiety and depression).

My problem was that I just could not figure out what was wrong with me, and my doctors were of little help. They must have "Psycho" listed at the top of my MyChart, because they are quick to prescribe me painkillers and Zoloft and usher me out of the room. I also do not want to put all of my egg in the Vitamin A theory because I have been disappointed in a lot of health advice, but like I said  … it is a start, it is low-cost/low-effort, and to be honest, it is not a radical way of eating. Just cut out all the high-vA stuff and see what happens.

My Approach

As mentioned, I cut out the big offenders and try to keep my Vitamin A intake low-ish. I am not shooting for zero, but anything under 100-150 mcg per day is my target. I do not believe this 'vitamin' is needed in 900 mcg RDA, and when I pressed AI on the matter, it told me from a purely physiological standpoint, the body's NEED for Vitamin A is probably closer to 200-300 mcg per day. So why is RDA so high? I guess that is another topic.

I think I am repeating myself, so I will just say I am happy I have found this community, Grant Genereux, Dr. Smith (who seems to be on another kick now, but his early videos were helpful), and I hope to improve, learn more, and report-back as time progresses. 

Thank you for listening.