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chickadee's rough start, and hopeful recovery
@wavygravygadzooks your symptoms sound horrible. I just wondered if you were aware of the Greg Nigh theory about H2S producing bacteria over growing in the gut to compensate for a lack of sulphate. The H2S is converted to sulphite then sulphate. A clever workaround by the body to solve a serious deficiency issue. It’s an interesting theory. He reports solving many gut issues with Epsom salt bath protocols.
I have a suspicion (just from anecdotal evidence) that many vA toxic/detox people have poorly working transsulphuration where sulphate is formed. Sulphate is essential to life. The Greg Nigh theory makes sense to me. I have no idea if it is true.
It's been a pretty good week. I finished the Dr. Nigh podcast you both mentioned @wavygravygadzooks @jaj
It resonates for me so much. My instinct has been to avoid cruciferous vegetables for years, but I never associated it specifically with sulfites not properly converting to sulfates. And I certainly never thought of garlic being an offender for its sulfur content. I have instinctively been doing more Epsom salt soaking since Covid. It's good to know that the sulfates seem to be beneficial, even if sulfur / sulfites from food may be problematic.
@kathy55wood told me about Karen Hurd and I'm very grateful. I listened to a few podcasts and started eating beans right away. To my surprise, I didn't have any more GI upset than usual. I also started taking my blood sugar more regularly and realized that it is spiking high even when I eat fruit. I tried eating a couple grains without sugar added, and to my surprise, my blood sugar hasn't seemed to spike. But I am noticing other symptoms like tiny bumps on my arms and back, which may be due to grain intake. Also I've put on a couple pounds very quickly, and I'm not sure if that's because of beans or grains. I'm not opposed to some weight gain after being emaciated for so long.
I can't see myself doing the full protocol, though, namely the "no exercise." I totally get it. Exercise creates spikes in cortisol, and obviously I have hormonal problems. So the fewer toxic hormonal by-products in my bile, the better. But here's the thing. I have scoliosis and some other anatomical complications. I was in physical therapy for years and now see a chiropractor. I go to the gym once a week and don't push myself. I do gentle cardio for 20 minutes, some dips and pullups, weights with my legs, etc. At home I keep up with a few chin ups and squats here and there. I feel good when I work out, and I like to bring my body and mind to the present moment with some qi gong and deep breathing. I'm like one of the only people at the gym smiling while I work out, usually because I'm cracking up about something silly I thought of. Anyway, I wouldn't give up lifting weights because they keep me from devolving to a even more crooked state.
To be candid, I'm kinda getting burnt out by all the extreme opinions on the Internet. "No" this and "no" that. I understand the philosophy, i's just that these things feel so black and white, and I'm trying to let myself be free from that kind of rigid thinking. I do think it's easier for us to follow rules than to abide in gray areas, so that may be part of it. Part of it may be that they're just plain right of course, ha! But what if they're not? A lot of this is still theory. I'd rather trust my instincts than end up angry at someone I listened to on the Internet five years from now.
I think we tend to idolize experts, even if we don't mean to. And we ask a lot of the medical field. Today I had an appointment with a new doctor and it was totally underwhelming. I was hopeful this guy was going to figure me out. Instead, he recommended some supplements, which I had already considered, to purchase through his dispensary of course, and he prescribed me an antispasmodic. I looked it up and found that it is an anticholinergic and would likely do more harm than good for me.
I am disappointed because I spent hours entering my lab values into a neat spreadsheet so that he'd be able to see my trends, instead of shuffling through papers from different dates. Well he didn't even look at that or the brief history I had prepared and sent prior to our appointment, nor did he ask about medication allergies and I've got a bunch. It makes me feel grateful for my current naturopath, who I've complained about plenty here. Sorry doc. But what I'm realizing is that I've come to expect too much from doctors in general.
In fact, I learned about myself as I prepared that spreadsheet, so it wasn't an exercise in futility.
- My white blood count has been consistently high, except for when I had Covid.
- I have been becoming more anemic (macrocytic) even though I've been taking methyl B12 shots like it's my job.
- My triglycerides have been consistently low, and my HDL / good cholesterol is consistently high.
- My blood sugar has been high.
So I might try folinic acid to help my anemia situation, or I might not. My WBC was actually fine when I first went in for labs before I started getting these injections. I had just slight macrocytic anemia. Maybe my body knows there's a foreign ingredient being injected into it and it doesn't like that? Maybe mounting some kind of immune response to intramuscular vitamin particles? I don't know, but at this point, I'm pretty happy to be conducting my own n=1 experiment.
I feel like Grant deserves some props. From what I've found, he's the only one sharing his ideas with no cost or membership fee. He's even hosting a public, open discussion about his theory. He's invited us to share our perspective of what he's found in his own research and life.
I'm grateful for your transparency and hope that you keep this open forum for a long time.
Quote from wavygravygadzooks on April 27, 2022, 7:57 pmWelcome, that's quite the laundry list. Hopefully you find some useful info here.
I think there's excellent evidence to support using a meat-heavy diet to cure just about any chronic illness. I've been using a low Vitamin A version to heal from Vitamin A toxicity and believe I am having good success, though it does take a long time depending on how much Vitamin A you've got stored away outside the liver. If you haven't delved into the whole world of carnivore eating, I would suggest watching videos by Anthony Chaffee, Amber O'Hearn, Judy Cho, earlier videos by Paul Saladino (before he started eating fruit and honey regularly), and interviews with Shawn Baker and Mikhaila Peterson.
Others here will advocate for various types of fiber to help detox. As opposed as I am to that general idea, in an effort not to be dogmatic, I will simply say - do your homework and come to your own conclusion. I've listed many reasons I don't think it's necessary or beneficial in my posts, but many members here will attest that fiber has helped them, s0...make what you will of it and try it if the idea speaks to you.
Aside from minimizing Vitamin A intake, the next two most important factors for detoxing Vitamin A are probably (1) bile flow (if you have poor bile output, you are not going to eliminate Vitamin A...I see that you turned yellow rather quickly at one point, which sounds more like bilirubin accumulation due to cholestasis rather than beta-carotene accumulation...read up on cholestasis and see if it matches your symptom patterns), and (2) ensuring that the alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase systems are working effectively by avoiding foods that occupy those pathways and by getting the nutrients that support those pathways.
You can make it as complicated as you want, but one of the many reasons the muscle meat carnivore diet works on so many levels is that it supports all your detox pathways by supplying plenty of bioavailable sulfur and the vitamins, minerals, and amino acids necessary for detox of just about everything, while simultaneously removing almost anything that can cause an inflammatory reaction.
My main word of caution is to start slow because Vitamin A appears to be really caustic when it comes back out of the peripheral tissues. The fiber-pounding crowd has indicated that eating too much, too quickly, can make your symptoms worse. My experience has been that dietary fat is the biggest trigger for Vitamin A dumping, and combining fiber and fat together is usually too intense.
Good luck!
Where did you find bile contain vitamin a?& Dumping it is helpful plz share some info..
I mentioned this elsewhere on the forum and for anyone dealing with ANY GI issues I will say it again - drink your own urine, at least all of the first morning urine and if you have serious issues then everything you pass throughout the day until they subside. Then continue with morning urine only.
I drink my morning urine every day religiously and my digestion is absolutely perfect, no doubt because of it.
Think about it - you consume a filtrate of your very own blood, which travels all the way through stomach, small and large intestine. No only has urine well known healing properties if used on the outer skin of our bodies, it also heals all tissues inside, including the GI tract. Apart from that, consumption of your own urine will lead to the development of microbial cultures in your gut that help to detox the very stuff that's in your urine (and by extension your blood), and so anything that is dumped into the intestines through any other pathways, like for example the bile ducts, will also be detoxed straight away whenever it happens.
I just don't see why a person who believes they are toxic would ever drink their own urine, unless they were dying of thirst.
I'd really like to hear someone talk more extensively about the potential mechanisms for this, but at the moment drinking your own urine still sounds terribly ill-advised (and I don't think I could stomach that one bit). It is chock full of urea and other waste products and probably some toxins, which I speculate is possibly how it could improve GI problems if it really does...by acting as an antibiotic. If the primary action is as an antibiotic, I think there are enough alternatives available to avoid having to drink urine.
If you've come across any material that actually attempts to explain any purported mechanisms scientifically, by all means please link them here so we can have a look-see.
@are @lil-chick @wavygravygadzooks Your comments show that you haven't tried it yet. I agree that for someone who is new to urine therapy it may sound gross to drink one's own urine, and the mind will probably rationalize that it must be toxic to do so. Yet the mind in a sick body rationalizes all kinds of harmful behaviours as healthy because of resonance, and all kinds of healthy behaviours as harmful. That's just how creation works.
There are a number of well known books about urine therapy. The classic "The Water of Life" comes to mind, or "Your own perfect medicine" which is also excellent, but there are others and also a lot of information about it on the web, on Youtube and elsewhere.
Yes, I do say that my digestion is perfect because I drink my own urine. It was messed up when I ate a standard diet and already improved a lot shortly after I started drinking my urine again, even before I stopped eating plant food. I drank my urine on and off during the last decade but the difference wasn't that pronounced until I really messed up my digestion with too much protein from whey protein shakes, various supplements incl. vA and other crap.
Drinking your urine actually is more helpful the more toxic you are because you will develop a gut microbiome that is tailor-made to detox the very poisons that are in your body and need to be removed. Stop thinking about bacteria as harmful, even if they are present during phases of disease. All they ever do is help. It's poison that damages our bodies, not microbes. They're just the cleanup crew.
I'm not a scientifically minded person and couldn't care less about the exact mechanisms that come into play when someone consumes their urine and gets healthy. All I know is that it works like a charm. So I don't know about scientific studies although I'm sure they have been done and can be found online. For me, they're not important. I try something and if it works I recommend it to others. So that's what I did here - please don't overthink it. Try it for a week or three and see how it goes. What do you have to lose?
from Tim's post yesterday: "The majority of retinol metabolites are excreted in the urine, but they are also excreted in faeces and
breath."
Personally I've come to the conclusion that there is usually not a need for heroics.
It's been quite a while since my last post and I'm excited to check in with you guys. I had a really busy summer getting outside a lot, working with a personal trainer, and renovating my house. I have more energy and resilience than ever. I am, well, so darn proud of myself and beyond happy that I found Grant's name on a one-star Amazon review of the "Root Cause Protocol." Now I'm the type of person who can bust out a circular saw at dusk to cut down some plywood.
I also have to add that around the same time I started my vitamin A detox, I stopped taking vitamin D3, which I had taken for 5 years with disastrous results. I also started chiropractic treatment (instrument adjusting, no cracking). I don't have time to go too in-depth right now, so here's my current regimen:
I take absolutely no oral vitamins or supplements. I only take crampbark for menstrual cramps / dysmenorrhea. No "fortified" anything.
I work out at the gym at least once or twice a week when my kids are at their dad's house, and try to get some home exercises in during the week.
I abstain from toxicity in all its forms as much as I can: relationships, social media, etc.
I eat mostly organic. My current food list includes: decaf coffee, ghee, apples cooked with ghee and maple syrup, some oats, lots of chicken and turkey in many forms (roasted, pepperoni, sausage, deli meat: no funky ingredients), lettuce, avocado oil and balsamic vinegar, celery, some peas, some chocolate, grapes / raisins, cashews, white rice, non-fortified cereals, and more. Beans ended up not working for me, as they give me headaches.
I stopped taking weekly methyl B12 injections.
I take a weekly mineral bath with Dead Sea salt, sometimes I add Epsom salt. Sometimes I apply zinc, molybdenum, and selenium to sit on my skin for 20 minutes before I shower. Sometimes I use bentonite clay mixed with ACV to make a mask to to pull out toxins (does it? not sure), but I haven't felt the need to lately.
I try not to use anything with fake scents, and I never use antiperspirant because I want to sweat. Though I do use a bit of natural deodorant because I don't want to stink 😉
So, I've been feeling pretty good, and only expect to keep feeling better. I'm not sure how winter will go without the D3, but I'm thoroughly convinced that it won't help me, even close to the 45th parallel. Maybe a week-long trip down South in January/February is what we'll need to get some sun on our skin and stay healthy / sane through these long winters.
I had my first doctor's appointment in months the other day, and had some bloodwork done. I'm blown away!
My blood sugar is normal!!! My HbA1c is 5.5%! I have had high blood sugar (prediabetes) since having my third child. It would be anywhere from 5.7% all the way up to 6.1%! And you have to understand, I have been eating as many carbs as I want. Like, I don't know, 150-200 grams daily. So, if I cut carbs, my blood sugar would be even better. I do fast for about 12-14 hours every night/day.
My CBC is perfect!!! It has been out of whack for years! High WBC, low-ish RBC, high MCV, high MCH. I was diagnosed with macrocytic anemia, hence the B12 shots. Well, I last took a B12 shot in June, and noticed a huge welt at the injection site the next day, and my eyes were puffy - I just looked kinda sick. So I followed my hunch that my body saw the injected B12 as an invader.
And, man... I love being my own doctor. My poor naturopath looked at me so worried when I told her I cut out all my vitamins and was suspicious of fat-soluble vitamins (I didn't go down the rabbit hole though). There I sat in her office, happier and more grounded than ever, but she couldn't see that through her lens of medical training. Sure enough, the bloodwork confirmed my feelings.
Another improvement is that I seem to be more resilient eating out of the house. I ate some nacho cheese at our county fair in July, and usually would've been miserable with diarrhea for a week or so. Somehow, I didn't get sick at all! Even the food at our local hole-in-the-wall restaurant where I got ill seems to be going better. I took the kids out on Friday (they have an arcade, don't judge ;). And I just realized today that I didn't get sick from that place!
I still do have IBS symptoms, but they are much more infrequent and are correlated to my adventurousness with food.
All right, hopefully this continues to be a success story. I'll try to follow up more soon. God bless you guys.
@ggenereux2014 Thank you again for what you're doing with this site and all of your work.