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leap7's log
I also want to add that I never restricted calories when I was on this diet. I think I tried initially, like in the first month, but I gave up because I thought it would hinder the "detox" and wanted to give my body a chance to "heal." LOL. So I am pretty positive I was eating enough. Like at least 2000 calories a day, I'm pretty sure it was even more. Now I'm scared of weighing myself.
Forgot to talk about supplements. So I have been pretty inconsistent with supplements throughout this whole detox experiment because I either noticed no effect, any positive effects went away after a few days, or it started to have a negative effect. The supplements I was taking right before I had my severe symptoms were high dose thiamine HCL (around 1500 mg a day), iodine(225 mcg), and zinc (15 mg, and only every few days). They possibly could have also catalyzed/contributed to my severe reactions.
Hi Leap7, have you been following the thread about "wahl talking VA"
On it, I had an aha moment that some of us might have ended up VA toxic because of being low B12. I'm exploring this now. I see that you went through a vegetarian/vegan phase. I did too. As did several of us here. I actually think my B12 problems might have been from birth though.
You might want to give the idea a try, I have my little bottle of B12 now and my b spectrum. It's only been a couple of days, but last week when I was grieving for the loss of my sweet kitty I felt horrible physically and Friday broke down and took a b spectrum (I HATE SUPPS) and it cured me of the physical symptoms of grief that I was experiencing. I took it really hard when he passed and I suppose the stress of it burned out whatever small amount of B vities I had in storage.
On the thread mentioned above there is a video that I posted called "pernicious, with or without anemia" and it talks about how B12 is literally essential to life and without it you die. I think B12 doesn't get the recognition it deserves. I almost wonder if it is the answer to VA.
I think I've mentioned here before how important iodine also is to fertility signs, but I can also see that if a woman doesn't have enough B12 her body might not want to become pregnant because the baby would be very weak.
If you have lost a lot of weight that might also cause your periods to stop. Calories are very important (low calorie food is an oxymoron, LOL)
@are Thanks for the message. I have not had a complete physical checkup in the past two years or so. I did get a hemoglobin a1c done when I was about three months into the detox diet when I was having my extreme sleeping episodes (needing to sleep like 10 hours a day, plus 2 two hour naps). I took some of my own blood sugar measurements and my fasting blood sugar was in the 160's, so I took myself to a clinic to get the test. My result was in normal range, but at the higher end, at 5.1. I never mentioned this in my log. I guess I didn't want to face it.
I will not continue with the diet, at least not in the way I have been doing it. I don't want to take any risk of my symptoms getting any worse - I feel like that would be doing myself a huge disservice. I will stop supplementing though.
I also hope no one thinks I have not succeeded with this diet because I have not followed it properly. I really have been going out of my way to follow the diet. Especially since I've been quarantined at home, I've been able to be particularly strict with this diet. I have also done so many weird diets in the past, so I definitely know how to not eat at restaurants, bring my own foods to events, or just not eat anything at special events. Although I have not been perfect on the diet, and have had a few cheats once in a blue moon, I completely believe I have adhered enough to the diet to be able to attribute my results to the diet. Trust me, I have followed so many weird diets in the past, motivated by my desire to lose weight, so I know how to be disciplined on a diet.
@lil-chick I'm pretty sure I have actually gained weight on this diet. My diet has not been low calorie at all. I remember counting one day and found that I ate 3000-3500 calories for a few days. I do think my appetite died down after a certain period, but yea, not low calorie at all. I have taken a B complex that has B12 a few times on the detox, not really noticed anything besides it making me feel racy. Despite how tempting it is for me to believe that one supplement will miraculously make me healthy, I have done that so many times in the past, and have been burned pretty much 100% of the time, so I'm finally going to learn my lesson. I highly doubt a B12 supplement will fix things for me. It's good to hear that it helped you though, and I'm really sorry about your cat.
Thanks, re: kitty!
I think that the B12 problem might be something that a b-spectrum can't fix. I have been taking the high potency b12 for a few days now, along with the b-spectrum. I think what might happen is that being low B12 stops you from being able to absorb B12. There is only a "small" amount of B12 in a b spectrum vitie. Of course, when you are bottomed out like maybe I was, that's a lot better than nothing. However, if you watch the video you will see that sometimes B12 deficiency is not fixable, ie you need to overload it for life once you've goofed yourself up so badly that you can't absorb it!
I too have weird results from b spectrum (usually) which actually makes me suspect that my B vities are whacked LOL.
Anywho, I'm still experimenting, but I feel hopeful. Like you say it could be another lost cause.
According to the video you need about 5 tests to conclusively figure out your b12 status. Probably many vitamins and minerals are that way. Just because it is at one level here doesn't tell you what the level is there. ;0 And they talk about how the supplementation of other b vitamins can "mask" the old fashioned symtpoms of B12 deficiency that docs look for.
I might get some criticism for this, but I really encourage anyone who hasn't seen amazing symptoms with this diet to stop before you run into some more severe symptoms.
A breakdown of my positive symptoms from the detox diet
- Mental clarity. I think this is more from avoiding dairy than avoidance of vitamin A. Everytime I have dairy, even if its zero fat, nonfortified greek yogurt, I get mild to severe brain fog and stomach issues.
- An accessory nail on my right pinky toe mostly disappeared. the accessory nail on my left pinky toe is still there though. I think this improvement is a small sign that my metabolism improved. However, I think it's likely this could just be from dairy avoidance, again. Even if it does come back if I include more vitamin a, it never bothered me very much in the first place.
- Feeling more natural in my interactions with people - Again, I think this is easily explained by dairy avoidance. Dairy proteins really make me feel drugged. I stuck with a dairy heavy Peat diet because I thought it was lowering stress, but really I think I was just being socially awkward and letting life pass me by. Maybe I can't handle dairy because I have gut issues? idk.
- Skin decreased in its orange color. I don't think this can truly be attributed to the vit a detox diet. The one time my skin turned quite orange was when I was doing a peat inspired diet where I cut out dairy and my diet consisted of pretty much copious amounts of orange juice, eggs, collagen, carrots, and some seafood. Once I returned to a more normal peat diet, my skin turned back to normal. However, I think the orange skin color wasn't even super bad. In some pictures I just look very tan, and when I looked in the mirror I never thought I looked sickly. I just noticed the orange color when I looked back at selfies of myself during that time, and only in certain lighting... So maybe that was just me fishing for more positives I could list for the diet.
After having a lot of oj these past few days, I haven't noticed a return of my mental symptoms.
You have done basically an Elimination diet. I would recommend that you introduce new foods slowly to make it easier to identify potential issues with other foods.
I have never been able to go as far as you did. What I have learned most from this theory is that no food on Earth is unequivocally good. All foods are good and bad and we have to find our personal diet.
I also followed a Peatish diet for a while. It did some good, but I am done with it. Fructose and dairy mess with me, so there's no way it's gonna fit me. I'm under the impression that the only way to make that diet work is to use thyroid and progesterone supplements.
I'm actually looking forward to the day Grant's take some vitamin A again. I do wonder if it's vitamin A, or carotenoids that were bad for Grant. His experimentation is nevertheless interesting going without a supposedly essential vitamin for such a long time makes you wonder about what we really know about nutrition.
Leap7 those are some pretty good benefits. I have never actually done Grant's diet the whole way and don't think that a person needs to do Grant's diet, I just think we need to realize that VA isn't a vitamin, and is actually a plant poison that is unavoidable in life on Earth.
The opposite side of the coin, then, is what is nature giving us to keep us resilient to the VA that is unavoidable?
I think that those of us (1/3 by Dr Garret Smith's estimation) who end up toxic with VA must have become low on whatever nature provides as an antidote.
I no longer am having signs that I was poisoning myself. (such as migraines and vomiting nights) However, like you, I have lingering problems that make me think that something good is missing.
Now, Whal came at things from the "other side" in my opinion... and cured her MS without limiting VA. Was it because she was taking liver-- the highest food in B12?
After watching the video on B12 (several times, it is thick and chewy), I can see that several of my lingering symptoms could really be B12 symptoms. B12 helps build the outer layers of things. In VA toxicity, the outer layer of things is often very upset, broken down. Do I need B12 to stop the ringing in my ears, to fix the lining of my cappiaries, to stop the peeling of my lips and the sore cracking of my fingers? Here is a study that links the tinitus thing:
I hope I don't seem to be bullying you, or trying to influence you. I just like talking about things! You are obviously free to test any path that feels "hot" to you, and please do keep us updated on your progress! Every little bit of info helps.
