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first 9 weeks
Hi all,
Just adding my own progress on here. I started Sept 20, 2018. My main issue was extremely dry eyes that started in March 2018. So dry I have to wear sealed lab goggles at home and at work. Eye drops last 15-30 minutes tops. I bought all kinds of different eye drops from many different countries, but nothing worked. Ended up becoming a client of Dr. Garrett Smith and put me on the low vitamin A diet.
The first couple days on the diet, I didn't really notice anything. On the 3rd day onward, i had new onset tinnitus, brain fog, and paresthesias in the arms and toes. I also had these weird wave nerve sensations in my arms as well. By 4 weeks, most of these went away, except I still have mild tinnitus. I was also on several supplements that Dr. GS gave me. Vitamin K2 seemed to exacerbate the tinnitus and paresthesias like crazy, so I stopped taking that. I think about 6 weeks in, I had an ingrown toenail, which I attribute to the detox as well. All of these symptoms you can find related to isotretinoin used for acne, including the ingrown toenail.
It's 9 weeks right now and I'm doing pretty well except I still have the mild tinnitus. A few days ago I started dreaming every night. Prior to this, I cannot remember when I've dreamt so consistently. I'd have dreams I can vaguely remember maybe 2-5x a year if that. I still have days where I feel my mouth and eyes are dryer and days where they are pretty good.
The most common things I eat and cook myself are chicken/beef pho and porridge, adzuki or mung beans for breakfast or dessert (usually with date syrup, salt), rice, potatoes, black beans, beef, chicken, and some fruits/veggies that are low in vit A and carotenoids.
My dry eyes are a little bit better, but I'm sure my meibomian glands will take quite a bit longer to kickstart as my stores of vitamin A get depleted someday.
Whoever is just reading these and eating the low vit A diet, put your own progress too! The more the better!
I've been doing the low vA diet for about as long as you. Just before the diet (about 6 to 8 weeks) I had headaches every day and my sleep was even worse than before (30 years of chronic insomnia) and those 2 symptoms of headaches and extreme insomnia went away for the most part but I still have all the other bad stuff of the past that ranges from 5 years to 4+ decades. Not giving up for sure as I think vA is the root cause of my health problems. I have really blurry vision and not so good night vision - hoping that improves, plus even worse symptoms. I will update as I notice differences.
It sounds to me that the vitamin K2 is exasperating the problem. I've read about other people having a very bad reaction to K2. Not even in the context of a vitamin A detox program, rather just in its own. It could be causing the liver to expell more of its stored vitamin A faster. It might be good to put the K2 on hold for a while and see how you respond.
I am coming up on 4 weeks no vitamin A intake. I am a two time accutane user, and accutane made my acne worse not better. Extremely oily skin, flakiness, dandruff, hair shedding, sleep issues, exhaustion, and also tinnitus.
The last 4 weeks have seen my skin return to pre-teen like quality, no dandruff, hair shedding stopped.
Seems my only issue now is long deep sleep, but hoping the coming weeks will give improvement like mentioned above.
Here are the foods I am using:
lean beef, lean chicken/turkey, egg whites, non fatty fish, some nuts
coconut oil, olive oil, butter(small amounts for butyric acid)
bread, pasta, rice, potato, black beans, oatmeal, cornmeal, non-fortified cereals
cauliflower, turnip, celeriac, parsnip, onion, garlic
banana, grapes, apples, pineapple, (thinking about adding: raisins, dates, blueberries, raspberries, strawberry, cherry)
Apple juice, grape juice, coconut milk(non-fortified)
Sugars, maple, honey, brown/white
I started on December 1st, so I´m only 10 days in now, but I want to boost the forum and report my small progress too.
I am male, 31. My main issue is my seborrheic skin condition. Already the small, but worrying dermatitis patch on my chest is fading away to the point it will be completely gone in a few days. Still present in the facial and scalp area, but overall less itchy, flaky and inflamed.
Other positive observations:
- Increase of energy, less fatigued
- My digestion is unbelievable stable, even though I eat large amounts of grains. I also eat meat alongside of the starches and have no issues with "food combining" in general. I come from a background with horrible digestive issues.
- Mental clarity improved
- I seem to be less worried of things
- I feel warmer. Less cold sensitivity
I noticed a drop in my energy this morning and sleep interruptions at night though. Also I have a sore throat for no obvious reason. If Dr. Smith is right I suspect the first big detox wave is coming in, so I went to the sauna today to sweat some of the A out already.
I mainly rely on the following foods: Oats with maply syrup and oat milk, rice with beef cooked in butter, apple juice, grape juice, coconut cream, honey, chocolate, chestnuts, sourdough bread, apple compote
Just a quick update on progress. my eyes are still dry, but slightly improved from baseline, i think it's going to take quite a bit longer.
My gut for the past 1 year prior to this diet has been on the loose bowels side, now it's none of that. i used to tolerate 1-2g of vitamin c (ascorbic acid) a day and now i can tolerate 9+ grams without any issue.
i'm still intolerant to vitamin k2. i used thorne k2 (1 drop) and spread it over my stomach and i had very mild paresthesias in my arms. The dose i was supposed to take was 10x that and i'm sure that would have made the paresthesias worse.
Quote from Guest on November 29, 2018, 2:44 amIt sounds to me that the vitamin K2 is exasperating the problem. I've read about other people having a very bad reaction to K2. Not even in the context of a vitamin A detox program, rather just in its own. It could be causing the liver to expell more of its stored vitamin A faster. It might be good to put the K2 on hold for a while and see how you respond.
It's also interesting i was tolerating k2 perfectly fine when i was gobbling all that vitamin a and cod liver oil. now, not so much. yeah i'll have to hold off on k2 for awhile.
Quote from Orion on November 29, 2018, 6:31 amI am coming up on 4 weeks no vitamin A intake. I am a two time accutane user, and accutane made my acne worse not better. Extremely oily skin, flakiness, dandruff, hair shedding, sleep issues, exhaustion, and also tinnitus.
The last 4 weeks have seen my skin return to pre-teen like quality, no dandruff, hair shedding stopped.
Seems my only issue now is long deep sleep, but hoping the coming weeks will give improvement like mentioned above.
Here are the foods I am using:
lean beef, lean chicken/turkey, egg whites, non fatty fish, some nuts
coconut oil, olive oil, butter(small amounts for butyric acid)
bread, pasta, rice, potato, black beans, oatmeal, cornmeal, non-fortified cereals
cauliflower, turnip, celeriac, parsnip, onion, garlic
banana, grapes, apples, pineapple, (thinking about adding: raisins, dates, blueberries, raspberries, strawberry, cherry)
Apple juice, grape juice, coconut milk(non-fortified)
Sugars, maple, honey, brown/white
that tinnitus is super annoying isn't it... yeah i've been kinda lurking in accutane forums on facebook for awhile trying to find some answers to dry eyes. that's some bad stuff.
i think i currently still don't tolerate wheat very well. no symptoms, just stomach fat gain. i ate a loaf of bread made of organic sprouted wheat and i gained a ton of belly fat.
Quote from pano200 on December 21, 2018, 3:07 pmQuote from Orion on November 29, 2018, 6:31 amI am coming up on 4 weeks no vitamin A intake. I am a two time accutane user, and accutane made my acne worse not better. Extremely oily skin, flakiness, dandruff, hair shedding, sleep issues, exhaustion, and also tinnitus.
The last 4 weeks have seen my skin return to pre-teen like quality, no dandruff, hair shedding stopped.
Seems my only issue now is long deep sleep, but hoping the coming weeks will give improvement like mentioned above.
Here are the foods I am using:
lean beef, lean chicken/turkey, egg whites, non fatty fish, some nuts
coconut oil, olive oil, butter(small amounts for butyric acid)
bread, pasta, rice, potato, black beans, oatmeal, cornmeal, non-fortified cereals
cauliflower, turnip, celeriac, parsnip, onion, garlic
banana, grapes, apples, pineapple, (thinking about adding: raisins, dates, blueberries, raspberries, strawberry, cherry)
Apple juice, grape juice, coconut milk(non-fortified)
Sugars, maple, honey, brown/white
that tinnitus is super annoying isn't it... yeah i've been kinda lurking in accutane forums on facebook for awhile trying to find some answers to dry eyes. that's some bad stuff.
i think i currently still don't tolerate wheat very well. no symptoms, just stomach fat gain. i ate a loaf of bread made of organic sprouted wheat and i gained a ton of belly fat.
I got extremely dry eyes when eating a low VA diet, vitamin C fixed it.
nm nt