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First 100 days
Today I went to have my hair done by the same person who has been doing it for the last 2 years. She commented right away that she had never seen a person's hair improve so much between appointments. She really wanted to know what I'd been doing differently and was talking to her coworkers about the change in my hair. I still have some gray but it's not getting worse for a change and I have lots of new growth that she pointed out to me and the texture is smoother and healthier. She also commented on how healthy my skin looks. 🙂
Great news!!!!
DS
I've experienced something similar. My hair texture started changing within a week of reducing the Vitamin A content of my diet. It surprised me at first because I was so used to my hair feeling coarse and unmanageable. After two months the texture is soft and it hardly needs to be combed.
-Y
Harry,
I have been doing the diet for 2 months also and none of my chronic problems are better though the accute symptoms I had just prior to the diet went away for the most part after 3 weeks to 4 weeks into detox. I had bad pressure headaches and could hardly sleep and even if I did I was extremely drowsie and fatigued but those symptoms are gone. I still have insomnia but it is my "normal" insomnia. I am sure I am one of those people that will take a year or more to get rid of problems - mine go back when I was a child 4 decades ago and I can't see how just a few months would make things much better though for others who haven't had all the problems I have had and for as long as I have, I can see that a few months would be what it takes to get mostly better.  Good luck to both of us not having to wait too much longer!
Quote from Guest on November 22, 2018, 10:01 amHarry,
I have been doing the diet for 2 months also and none of my chronic problems are better though the accute symptoms I had just prior to the diet went away for the most part after 3 weeks to 4 weeks into detox. I had bad pressure headaches and could hardly sleep and even if I did I was extremely drowsie and fatigued but those symptoms are gone. I still have insomnia but it is my "normal" insomnia. I am sure I am one of those people that will take a year or more to get rid of problems - mine go back when I was a child 4 decades ago and I can't see how just a few months would make things much better though for others who haven't had all the problems I have had and for as long as I have, I can see that a few months would be what it takes to get mostly better.  Good luck to both of us not having to wait too much longer!
Hi,
Thanks for sharing your experience. By all accounts, the process can take much longer than two months, but your early signs look very positive. There may be things which can accelerate the process, but it's early days in terms of working this out. Since I last wrote about my experiences, I have noticed some positive improvements, but they are subtle. I have also experienced some odd symptoms which suggest a kind of 'detox', but I am cautious about speculating. My insomnia is my longest and most recalcitrant issue, but I have slept a little better in the last week or so... fingers crossed it continues!
I think individual variations in metabolism probably have a lot to do with the speed at which someone moves through this process, not to mention uncontrollable environmental factors.
Harry
Glad to hear your insomnia is improving!
I am taking zinc, topical magnesium, boron, (these minerals were low on tests for me), vC, vE, and vK2.  Some of those are supposed to speed things along from what I understand.  I've known my metabolism is fairly slow since I was young - I wonder about all the different ways a young kid could have a low metabolism. I remember Matt Stone writing that if a mom has a low metabolism when pregnant that it can be passed on, not sure if that is what happened to me.  I don't think I got higher than normal vA as a kid either but maybe? We had milk alot, and cereal but I think it wasn't fortified then.
Anyway, I hope you continued success.
By my rough calculations I’m closing in on 150 days of low vitamin A. I figured I’d update how things are going.
When I started this process I was on thyroid, low dose naltrexone and medicine for a benign pituitary adenoma which has flared up periodically for about 12 years. I’m pleased to report I’m off all those meds now. Thyroid was the most recent discontinuation and I’m not sure yet if I’ll be successful staying off of it but I’m hopeful.
My spike in appetite seems to have normalized and I now typically eat just a bit over 2000 calories per day without any weight loss or gain. I’m happy with that as a petite menopausal woman.
The mental/cognitive/mood effects have been very nice. I just finished a course I started in the spring one month ahead of schedule and passed with a solid B+ with ease. The impressive thing is that I started this same course back in 2014 and it was too much so I withdrew.  I never needed to study much in high school or college but as a middle age adult  I noticed my retention and processing had significantly declined. This seems completely resolved which I’m thrilled about!
I have had some episodes that I think were due to detox like nightly headaches for several days. I didn’t realize it was detox and figured I was coming down with something which is typical in winter. I never got sick thankfully though so I assume it was just detox. I had a yeast infection recently which may be retracing or just hormones shifting but that’s behind me and nothing to really complain about in the big scheme of things.
I’ve been rereading Grants books and got more out of them this time around. I’ve also been reading Garrett Smith’s forum and watching his YouTube videos.
So far so good.
The above was Bella from my phone!
I've decided I'm probably going to extend my original plan of 6 months for detox to 9 months.
I recall reading in one of Grant's ebooks that it could take some people up to 9 months to heal and even though I've healed a lot I feel there is still more healing to be accomplished.
Dr. Smith posted a list of symptoms of toxicity on his forum and I've had them all over the years. I'm also very close to age 50 which Grant points out as one of the life stages where the liver capacity to deal with A is diminished. I'm just trying to be realistic about my situation.
Early on in my effort to prove that Grant's success was not due to eating a low allergen diet I set out to eat the widest variety of food imaginable while still low A. I think I was probably getting a bit more carotenoids than I realized specifically by consuming yellow corn grits and chips. Certainly I still decreased my A intake dramatically so I don't see it as a complete failure but it's possible it's extended the time it will take me to become depleted. Recently I also made the mistake of drinking an herbal tea blend for about a week. This whole process is sure an eye opener when it comes to learning about what's really in our foods! I'm questioning more and more if we really need many of the vitamins the government/health authorities recommend.
Someone on another forum brought up B9-folate as a possible deficiency that could arise because most high folate sources are also high in A/carotene. I have no idea but so far I haven't heard of that being an issue. If anyone knows anything about the folate recommendations I'd love to hear. I remember that foods started being fortified with it at some point in my lifetime to prevent neural tube defects and across the board we were all advised to get at least 400 mcg per day. My gut tells me they have set that too high at least for those of us not pregnant or breastfeeding.
I decided to go ahead with a HTMA because I think the information will be valuable to fine tuning things moving forward. I consumed massive amounts of A, D and calcium over the years in an attempt to avoid the severe osteoporosis that plagued my mother so I'd like to get some inkling of how to proceed now that I've basically quit them all.
That's all for now. I hope you are all well and have a lovely holiday!
Hi Bella what's wrong with herbal tea? I know matcha has some VA
Very encouraging hearing your success. If saw results like you did I would be on this diet for life. Can't see myself going to daily eggs, fish and greens knowing that they harm more than help