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lil chick's log
hmmm, thats a good point, and yet our holistic dentist is all about giving enzymes so she believes in them.
It's hard to know what to believe,that's for sure.
If you google it, it's not black and white whether enzymes get destroyed by stomach acid. There are lots of points of view and one of the best articles said "more info is needed".
I thought this article seemed to be logical:
begin quote:
"The majority of enzymes, including pancreatic enzymes, are not stable under acid conditions and so are not effective taken orally.
There are 3 exceptions:
1. enzymes that have been enteric-coated (that is, treated with a substance that prevents contact with stomach acid)
2. fungal-derived enzymes
3. plant-derived enzymes.
The problem with enteric-coated enzymes is that the coating prevents enzymes from working in the stomach. Only in the neutral pH of the small intestine will they finally function.
Plant-based enzymes and fungal-derived enzymes, which comprise the bulk of enzyme supplements, are derived from organisms that secrete acid-stable enzymes. These enzymes have been purified and characterized so their pH optimum (acidity/alkalinity at which they work best) is well known and easily determined.
The majority of these fungal-derived and plant-derived enzymes can work in a pH range of 2 to 9 with no loss of activity.
This is not an opinion. The enzymes can be assayed, or analyzed, under lab conditions at different pH. This is easily verified by enzyme manufacturers.
The ability of enzymes to work in the stomach provides the means by which particular enzymes degrade gluten, casein, soy and other food proteins. The peptides that many find intolerable are degraded or not produced.
The stomach actually becomes a "safe house" when someone who does not tolerate dairy ingests these foods. No peptide or protein absorption occurs in the stomach, so you have a couple of hours to use the enzymes to break down the proteins before they move into the small intestine where the bulk of protein/peptide absorption will occur.
I was humbled years ago when I had to come back and admit to my "challenger" that I was misinformed about plant enzymes and their acid stability. It taught me not to take a teacher's word, but to verify the subject matter for myself. I highly recommend others do the same.
- Devin Houston"
end quote
Would there be any reason to believe that high enzyme foods eaten raw could have a counterbalance affect on the Vitamin A(in raw animal foods) or Beta Carotene(in raw. plant foods)?
Quote from joshz on February 20, 2020, 8:53 amWould there be any reason to believe that high enzyme foods eaten raw could have a counterbalance affect on the Vitamin A(in raw animal foods) or Beta Carotene(in raw. plant foods)?
I wonder! Good point. Like maybe raw egg yolk vs cooked? It took me several days to think of what you meant, LOL. But it is a really neat question!
Here is a photo of my forehead (you can click to see it closer). The first photo shows me at the lowest ebb this spring (a severe early detox cycle I suppose). The second photo is this summer, and the third is today. I feel that I am just coming out of a recent detox cycle, had a low-grade headache all weekend. I'm starting to think that going over 5 days alcohol-free seems to send me into detox mode for VA. Hey, a hangover for not drinking! That's not fair! (Note, I never drink a lot, I am alcohol intolerant, I'm a one drink per night person--at max!-- but even that affects things!) The progress is slooooow.
Uploaded files:
I'm about at the 10 month mark today. When I first came here I came with the intent to try lowered VA for 3 months, and was warned early-on that I might not see my rosacea turn around in that amount of time, and that it might take a year to see results. This was good advice. I have seen some slow progress. I really don't expect to be clear by the one year mark. I suppose it comes down to just how bad the VA poisoning is. I took a LOT of cod liver oil over the years, and ate a high VA diet along with it.
I wanted to say, @ggenereux2014, great post about non-alcoholic fatty liver, I love the clear thinking.
Speaking of clear thinking, I had a moment of it the other night and realized that part of all of this is brain fog. I want more of that clear feeling. I also agree with Ourantia that chunks of my life-memory are quite foggy. The ringing ears are almost a metaphor for the feeling.
I want to comment on the idea of convalescing. I noticed the other day that I have subconsciously been considering myself in the midst of a long recovery phase. For good and/or bad. I limit my life and sometimes feel justified and yet sometimes wonder if I need to push myself more.
I want to comment to the Chronic Fatigue (CFS) people here, I do believe there is a component of this VA thing that affects the adrenal. The proof of this is that many of the "disease" states will remiss with a boost from steroids. I think the adrenal will need a very long recuperation phase and it will just take as long as it takes. But it will happen. A rising tide raises all boats. How is your ability to deal with the cold? When you easily get chilled and can't easily get back to warm again, think adrenal. I do feel that I've become a bit better about this particular stress.
As for lifestyle, I'm still just LOWER-VA and not ultra-low. I have scaled back to a drink or two on the weekend and NOT one per night. This seems to be the perfect balance for me? But we'll see. I eat a small amount of egg maybe 3-4/week in baked goods and Saturday morning special breakfast (remember, I'm an egg farmer, LOL!). I'm pretty strict about VA veggies but not adverse to a thin slice of tomato on a burger when out. I still drink about 1 cup of whole milk per day. I eat peanut butter now, a food that used to give me hideous cramps (but that I love). I take sunshine. I'm working on getting some sauna time into my life. I eat bacon, chicken, lamb, fish...I try to eat organic but I'm not 100%. Still in the HUGE APPETITE phase.
It makes me a bit sad to think that I probably won't replace these chickens when they pass into the great coop in the sky... But why I continue chicken keeping at this point is beyond me, LOL.
Edited to add: I really wanted to touch on polluted living environs and how I've begun to make a concerted effort to keep the interior of my home (and as possible, work) well ventilated! I've even gone so far as to exile stinky things like permanent markers and to start choosing all zero-frangrance products. I'm trying to get rid of things we don't need (so many things off-gas and we don't think about it!) And to spend time out doors in the fresh air. I think this will help in the long run, as it will reduce the load on the detoxification routes.
edited again: my eye rosacea (surfer's eye, or whatever you call it) looks very, very good. (raised, inflamed area of the white of the eye) More than halfway gone. This is kind of telling, that an eye problem got better on a lowered VA diet, where VA is so closely associated with eye health.
Damaged skin means damaged intestine as well(most likely). So with damaged gut(leaky gut) basically everything can be problematic. especially hard to digest proteins like gluten, caseine and also lectins, oxalates...
Jiri, Yes, I do believe my gut is benefiting (and the proof of that is being able to add back legumes like peanuts).
However, I have spent entire years taking things out of my diet and it had very little affect on my rosacea. I was gf/cf for 2 years, for example, but really that is just the tip of the iceberg of what I've tried. The only diet that seemed to make a dent was the one out of Australia called "failsafe" which limited amines and salicylates and resulted in a very non-colorful, bland diet! I think that possibly reducing histamines helps an immune system that is in overload (as a high VA system is). But my interest in that diet (and low histamine diet as well) ran their course when no healing happened.
I also spent many years drinking home-made, raw kefir, and I do think that it populated my gut as well as could be given the situation.
In general, my gut isn't my problem, it usually runs like clockwork (knock on wood).
I do have the occasional "food attack", however, which I've spoken about at length. In my mind, a food attack is more like an abdominal migraine. I have only had one since lowering VA, and for that I'm very grateful.
Quote from lil chick on June 7, 2019, 7:38 amHello all! I'm a few weeks into the diet.... my original symptom list ...Vertigo, Itching, Rashes, Scaly Skin, Papular Rosacea, Peeling Lips, Spider Veins, Muscle Aches, Coarse Hair, Hair Thinning, Gingivitis, Dry Nose, Dry Eyes including rough patches on the white, Nausea, Light Sensitive, Mense Abnormalities, Headache, Migraine, White Hair. (Another odd symptom, which I haven't seen on the low A list: occasional Raynaud's Phenomenon.) Edited to add: Facial Orange-ing, Constantly Running Nose, Head Pressure and The Prayer Sign.
Edting again to add more of the diseases I arrived with: Sparse Eye Lashes, Very Little Body Hair, Cracks in Nose, Poor Posture (around the neck and shoulders), Uncomfortable Bite, Ulnar Tunnel, "the LupusButterfly", Tinitus, Food Attacks, certain Tight Joints that don't bend, UTI's.
I'm a mid-fifites American female...
Hey, here I am at one year! Gosh that was fast! Newbies, don't worry it will go by... I've cut a chunk out of my original post, above so you don't have to look back...and I added a few things I forgot.
My biggest question to you is: Why is this so hard for others to understand? Why is there so much flack? After a few months on the diet I was sold on the idea, (mostly because of the severity of the sudden detox) and have felt since then that my question (what's wrong with my diet?) had finally been answered.
Please note that I'm not on a LOW-VA DIET (like Grant's). I eat a lowered-VA diet, sort of low-medium. But probably 4 times less than I was eating. So, I expect that my going will be slow. I eat very standard, traditional food.
Like Tim has said about himself: I feel that I still have a ways to go yet before I'm down to a good level of VA in my body. And I probably did have years ahead of me (due to the amounts I took in for so long!)
But every single thing that comes out of my body... whether it's a bathroom break or a booger! haha... I feel it is work that has been done! Yay.
To finally know the answer to what my damn problem was... is so gratifying to me.
But many people around me still think the idea is weird.
It is interesting just how quiet this list is. I think it is because the idea is so simple, so logical, and yet *so slow to work* that there isn't much to say.
There it is, like a gleaming light. You don't have to explain a light. You turn it off, you turn it on. It's a light. No more posts needed.
It's the forums that discuss diets that don't work that run into the millions of posts, LOL!!! hahaha
I have not had any DEBILITATING headaches since beginning. A few mild ones, but nothing with aura, no "whole day lost" sort of thing. And only one food attack. I will say that food attack got me down. I think it was because of Aldehydes.
I took a one-year picture yesterday, and the thing that leapt out at me wasn't what I was wanting (my lupus butterfly is still there) BUT the texture of my hair is so much nicer. Smoother! I've seen "corkscrew" hair listed as a high VA thing. I can almost see a line of demarcation across my hair at about 4 months into the diet (if I count each month as 1/2 inch of growth).
Any inflammation I get... takes less time to resolve. IMO the immune system IS slowing down from "beast mode".
Did you know that reddit has a tinitus exercize (it involved gentle tapping behind the ear). If you try it, let me know.
Cheers!
Nice work!
As long as there is discussion of Vitamin A being a non essential toxin I don't think many will jump aboard the low VA train. I read Grants books with an open mind and they led me to do my own research and realize that there is a legitimate issue due to the bioaccumulation of Vitamin A but there are many problems with the logical progression of those books. Not trying to denigrate here, just stating my interpretation. I shared one of the books with a science oriented friend of mine which only served to make it harder to convince him about the Vitamin A issue which he is now open to.
What the public needs is someone that is focused solely on the fact that the bar for Hypervitaminosis A is set too high.
@lil-chick I’m so pleased for you. I feel the same about vitamin A. It’s so obvious to me that I can’t see why others don’t immediately see it too! Nothing like personal experience I guess. My acute poisoning of excess vitamin A was very clearly associated with supplementation & revealed an underlying chronic problem so that probably meant I immediately got it.
@tim-2 I don’t disagree with you. I sit on the fence with the poison thing. Grant’s health certainly suggests that vitamin A is not needed in anything other than small amounts. I know that this is Grant’s main focus & I have total respect for that.
However, for me i think that there is a more urgent focus & this is that:
1. In excess vitamin A is very toxic. This is pretty well scientifically established (even Wikipedia has a good page on hypervitaminosis A) if not as widely known as it should be.
2. Hypervitaminosis A is common not rare. This is the fact that is not known. Dr Smith did a good Youtube video about this recently. This in my book is key.
@tim-2 I don’t think the bar for hypervitaminosis A is set too high. I think that many more people are over the bar than is realised. This is due to a multitude of reasons many of which are problems with vA catabolism.