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Eggs as part of Vitamin A reduction
An egg update: I went to the dental hygienist today, my last visit was six months ago. She mentioned how much less plaque and tartar there was on my teeth. My gums looked healthier too. "You are doing a good job of cleaning your teeth," she said. But I hadn't changed anything in my routine. What I have changed is I've started supplementing with sunflower lecithin and phosphatidylcholine, and about two months ago I started eating egg yolks for their choline, about two to four a day. I think it's the increased choline intake that's responsible for the better condition of my teeth.
@hermes and so you go to your dental hygienist regularly? why do you think that the increased choline intake is responsible? did you go to your dental hygienist two months ago when you started eating eggs?
All right, let me try to allay your skepticism. There's good reason to believe it was the extra choline in both the supplements and the eggs. About a year ago, I went to the dentist for the first time in years because my teeth were starting to look bad. I had been on the vitamin A detox for about 2.5 years at that point. Instead of getting nicer, as some have reported, my teeth started to look brownish, with lots of tartar and plaque. The second time was half a year ago. And again there was a lot of work to be done. And so this time I was surprised to hear her judgment when she said that my teeth looked much better than the last time.
My body's parasympathetic activity has increased tremendously over the past few months. And it's clear to me that the supplemental choline and eggs are responsible for this trend toward more relaxation. This has been a major health improvement for me, and it's only reasonable to assume that improved choline status will also improve dental health through better bone mineralization and improved saliva composition. It's not a miracle fix, we're still talking about a slow train, years of healing taking place.
There are still some issues I'm struggling with, mainly brain fog, feeling really dumb at times, and an erratic sleep schedule that I find difficult to control. Certainly the choline has helped in that I feel less incapacitated without enough sleep, but I'm still far from being able to sleep on a reasonable schedule. It's frustrating.
By the way, I measured my vitamin A blood levels two weeks ago, I'm still waiting for the results. The last time I measured it, in about January 2022, it was still very high and hasn't really moved much from where it started. My body was just not able to handle the detox because I was severely deficient in choline. I wish I had known about choline sooner. Andrew (or was it Jenny who said that? Maybe both) is right that it's a bad idea to go straight to a low vitamin A diet , better to improve nutritional status first.
The result of the vitamin A test arrived in my inbox today. Nothing earth shattering, no breakthrough with all the extra choline I've been taking since about November 2022, but no crazy jump above baseline either. It just confirms how slow the detox process can actually be, something other users have noticed as well, like @mmb3664.
- 01/14/2019 --> 3.1 μmol/l
- 08/29/2019 --> 4.14 μmol/l [strong increase in blood levels as liver releases all the retinol]
- 06/10/2020 --> 3.12 μmol/l
- 01/12/2022 --> 3.24 μmol/l
- 05/12/2023 --> 3.0 μmol/l [at this point, I've been supplementing with sunflower lecithin and phophatidylcholine for six months, and in the last two months I've reintroduced daily egg yolks, ranging from two to four.]
At least in my case, there was no great increase in blood serum vitamin A after the introduction of egg yolks. Well, I couldn't possibly know, to be honest, the levels might have been below the 3.0 mark if I hadn't introduced eggs, but I highly doubt it. To me, this is strong evidence that re-toxification occurs when the body can't handle the massive amounts of retinol. I don't know why this is taking so long, but I believe the choline is acting as a helpful buffer and actually allowing me to start detoxing, it looks like I barely detoxed before. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions on how to improve the detox, I'm all ears. Right now it looks like this is going to take me until I'm really old to detox all the vitamin A. Something is wrong. But what is it? I'm scratching my head.
By the way, ferritin was 240 μg/l, vitamin K was 175 μg/l, again at the low end of the reference range. Maybe it's time to donate blood. I've always been worried about becoming anemic, but ferritin is actually at the top of the reference range.
@christian Your level is 54 in mg/dl. The other person I know who measured serum retinol after eggs was a bit lower than this but within a similar healthy range. I think I was detoxing like an amateur before. This feels like the pro level because the bile flow and bowel movements are much better with eggs, fibre and extra fat. Hence detoxing was addressing tip of iceberg before and getting improvements and why it's taking so long. And no I dont have any proof. Apart from testing stool samples I've no idea how to measure decrease in liver levels. I feel getting the bile flowing was the key and improving that is when much more significant detox takes place. Serum retinol I couldnt care less about. I want my liver Vitamin A reduced more than that.
@andrew-b Thanks for the encouraging words. Actually my stools have improved drastically, I've had ghost wipes, which is pretty impressive for someone who used to have regular diarrhea. Eggs have also helped me to calm down a lot, as I was just anxious a lot before. I agree that liver health is paramount, but I don't think vitamin A is unimportant either. Well, it takes as long as it takes, I guess, to detox vitamin A, and I definitely want to see those vitamin A levels drop. To me, that is the whole point of a vitamin A detox diet.
A few symptoms were getting a bit much so I slowed down on the eggs. I went down to 1 every other day plus a phosphatidylcholine supplement (420 mg/day) and I had also started taurine (250 mg/day). The intensity of some symptoms seemed to go down a bit but also some good things slowed down, such as the reduction of swelling on my hands and feet. So after 1.5–2 weeks of 1 egg every other day, I went up to 1 egg per day. 3 days in today I get terrible nausea, headache, and pooping a lot. Seems to me like the floodgates opened on bile flow. The thing is that regardless of what I eat, it seems to be inconsistent. I never know when it's going to slow down and increase symptoms of crap building up and when suddenly the bile will flow and make me sick temporarily. Usually after the terrible episodes of nausea and headaches, I tend to feel better. I still have a bit of the headache now, but I do feel better in other ways than last night or this morning. It seems to be consistent with the pattern.
I wish I took photos of how swollen my hands were before I started eggs. It's only been ~3 months, I think, and the difference is noticeable, which makes me happy. I took some photos today so I can have a photo comparison later.
Thanks for the egg reports, guys. 😁
How wonderful your hands are healing, @aleksey! But that sounds like a rough time, overall. I hope the feeling better times lengthen and the sick times lessen.
I'm really happy you're doing so well on the eggs, @christian! That's awesome news about your teeth. And it is egg-cellent to hear no major jump in your serum retinol has occurred. 😎