Quote from Jude on October 18, 2021, 11:02 pm

Hi everyone,

It seems that one of the reported symptoms of Accutane is calf swelling: https://www.acne.org/forums/topic/42282-leg-swelling-accutane-help/

But I noticed that I shift from Ghee to Coconut Oil and now Beef fat that my legs (both my thighs and calf muscles) stopped swelling. I've also noticed that all the times when I ate a loaf of bread with butter (a few months ago this year) that my legs, especially my thighs, would swell up like balloons. At first, I thought it was simply because I eat a high carb diet. But then I could eat a whole medium sized pizza and not have my legs swell up (at least not to the same highly noticeable degree). 

In Kenya, where I'm from, Pizzas have very little cheese on them and have a few green peppers (low vitamin A content) on them and I never eat Pizzas that have chili on them, because I hate chili. When a whole loaf of bread in one sitting I butter both sides. I've noticed this even with Ghee as well when I don't have the time or money to buy butter, I will spread Ghee on both sides of each slice of bread until I've finished the whole loaf of bread. The times when I was eating a whole loaf of bread were also the times when I was trying to go full carnivore by eating minced meat and eggs, but relapsing to my old carb addiction.  

I switched from Ghee to coconut oil and beef tallow (there is no beef tallow in Kenya so I had to render my own tallow from raw beef fat) and I've stopped eat beef liver, onions, tomatoes, green peppers and red kidney beans. My leg swellings have now completely disappeared even though I'm still on a high carb diet that includes raw noodles, black beans and potato fries fried in beef tallow. 

My DSD

I have DSD (Detrusor Sphincter Dyssynergia) and I suspect that it has something to do with a decade long high vitamin A diet. I noticed that since the age of 18 my vitamin A intake increased dramatically. This is the time when I travelled from Kenya to Canada to study at a pre-university for about a year and then at a university in Canada for about another year. When my family couldn't afford to keep me studying in Canada, I was depressed and I was eating a whole loaf of sweetened bread (sometimes with raisins) with margarine in Canada just before I came back to Kenya.

About 3 years ago. For about 2 years in Kenya I ate a whole loaf of bread with margarine (it's called Blue Band in Kenya). I had a lot of acne from eating blue band (especially on my back). But it seems that the acne was entirely caused by the Omega 6 fats. Side note: when I stopped eating vegetable oil and margarine my persistent acne completely disappeared. I didn't have swollen legs at that time (during my margarine obsession period), but I was also 10kg heavier despite running 2-3 hours per day on a treadmill for my marathon training. My DSD did, however, get progressively worse after the end of my margarine and bread obsession period. 

I also noticed that my DSD was at it's very worst this year when I was so broke that I had to eat very little meat. I was eating a lot of pancakes (a few eggs in the pancakes) and potatoes fried in ghee. At that time my legs were very noticeable swollen and I woke up 3 times to pee at night. I was also slowly gaining back weight due to a lack of exercise combined and high carb diet. 

I'm now taking magnesium and thiamine supplements. And I'm planning to go full carnivore next month with a diet that consists entirely of pork steak (I'm not sure I can overcome my carb addiction though at this time). In three months, I will see if my new diet combined with the aforementioned supplements cure me of my DSD.

I suspect that my DSD has something to do with both my prolonged vitamin B deficiencies (evident in my dandruff, dry cracking lips, and occasionally very dry skin on the surface of my hands) combined with my very high vitamin A diet. I would like to note that I have been eating a lot of margarine for about 10 years with a sudden huge increase in my margarine intake due a change in my schedule and the fact that I had to move out of my family's house and cook for myself as well as for my brother. I would say that at the peak of my margarine obsession, I was eating at least 1kg of margarine per month. And a lot of the times I would put a tablespoon of margarine in my rice and a tablespoon of margarine in my red kidney beans.  

Firstly, I suspect that my DSD has something to do with my high vitamin A diet, because I read an article on Wikipedia that says that DSD is very common among sufferers of multiple sclerosis (but I have no symptoms whatsoever of MS): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurogenic_bladder_dysfunction

Secondly, I also noticed when I was researching supplements for curing my DSD that children and old people often suffer from urinary incontinence, which is the opposite of DSD and is basically urinary hyperreflexia. It seems that MS sufferers also often suffer from neurogenic bladder issues. My identical twin brother has absolutely no signs of DSD, but he has acid reflux and I have symptoms of acid reflux.

Thirdly, Grant mentioned in his second book that  vitamin A is broken down by the body in the same way by the same enzyme - alcohol dehydrogenase - that alcohol is broken down by and alcohol is known to cause B vitamin deficiencies. 

And lastly, my brother is 14kg heavier than myself and has been heavier than me for the past 10 years of our lives so I think his weight combined with his B vitamin deficiencies (he also has dry lips, dry skin on the back of his hands and some dandruff) has lead to his acid reflux. But his margarine consumption has been far lower than my own for the past 10 years. And his bread consumption has been far lower. My brother does far less cardio training than myself. I'm a fitness fanatic. 

I'm only 30 years of age by the way. If anyone has any idea why I have neurogenic bladder, but no symptoms of MS please let me know in the comment section. I would also like to know if there were any sufferers of MS who no neurogenic bladder symptoms. 

If anyone knows how gluten and omega 6 fats interact with vitamin A please let me know in the comment section as well.