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lil chick's log
On some threads we have talked about bad times, I thought this woman was amazing with her talk of "you cannot see a star in the day time". As a busy person (I'm being ironic here) I did have to increase the speed to 1.5. But I was glad I did because my ADHD (LOL) wouldn't have allowed me to hear all her wisdom. 🙂
Hello everyone, it's April and that is my anniversary here, 7 years. I went back to my post last of April to inspire this one. I'm now 63, BTW.
Please do remember that I only let my knowledge of vitamin A overload "inform" my life, and that I am on the "slow boat" and not on the so-called "prison food diet". This is because I vowed never to do a special diet again, just before I heard of Grant. I had come to realize that many of my plans for perfecting my health caused me to do the opposite. If I want to point to someone who's diet I admire, it is my Grandmother's who lived to 100 (and which was naturally pretty low in vitamin A, without trying). I currently take zero supplements.
1.Vertigo, Tinitus, Travel Aversion, Bad Bite. I experience the tiniest bit of vertigo now and then. I like to link this inner-ear symptom now with that of Tinitus (which is sometimes louder and sometimes almost gone). Quite early on in my time here I started posting about bad bite and Mewing etc. I sort of wonder if bad bite is involved in these two symptoms. Now, bad bite probably does result from vitamin A overload during growth. I think posture and exercise and mouth habits can help an adult, but I also think I won't ever have a perfect bite. I do try. I'm just glad I have teeth, haha.
One thing that I think lately is that head-forward posture has maybe goofed with my vision. Oscar Patel talks about hunter-eyes and I realized, the other day, that a girl in an antique photograph looked so odd to me because she was giving "hunter eyes". This is when you have a flat chin and your brows are down low and it's sort of a bad-ass sort of steady-on glare. (instead of head back, eyebrows up, eyes tilted forward to make up for it). I can feel my eyes re-adjust focus when I do this. I also think about keeping my feet straight while walking. Arms swinging. Breathing properly. Back straight. When I go for walks, I do all of this...and just walking is a workout. (ever see the computer game QWOP?)
At my age, I've sort of decided not to push myself to travel much and I try to devise a lifestyle that makes me happy without it. My family feels that I'm "giving up", but at 63 I feel it is more like being my own best friend. After 63 years of awful travel, why would I devote any of the short time I have left to it?
I also think that over-active nerves may play in to these problems (tinitus and vertigo and travel-phobia), and over-active nerves may also be the result of vitamin A damage over time. This is sort of my new thought. My insomnia from gentle hair brushing clued me in to this (I posted about it in the new "off topic" section of this site).
2. Itching after sweating, Scaly Skin, Peeling Lips. Not much change here. I'm currently in an experiment of avoiding shampoo and soap as possible, and just washing with hot water. (I still use soap on the stinkier places) I've been a proponent of soap and shampoos here before. My theory was, hey, let's get rid of fats because vitamin A is fat-soluble. I will update on that as time goes by, because skin isn't something that changes overnight.
3. Papular Rosacea. Not much change here. ie so much better but still an eruption here or there.
4. Spider Veins. I think I'm probably the only 63 year old who's spider veins look better than they did 5 years ago. But still, not 100% gone.
5. Muscle Aches, Spinal Crustiness, Disk Issues . Occasional left shoulder stiffness, but it never amounts to anything. Back or neck spasm sometimes but haven't been laid up lately. A well-timed Aleve is always better than being a hero. (don't let the spinal crustiness send you spiraling! sometimes it is right to put a cap on the inflammation with a pain reliever)
6. Coarse Hair, Hair Thinning, White hair. I actually think that possibly cutting back on eggs had a bad effect on my hair, (thanks to an old post by Hermes) so I went back to one egg per day. (breakfast: 1/4 cup of oatmeal with a tiny bit of butter and maple syrup and one egg and coffee with raw milk). I also sort of think I'm seeing a dark hair here and there in the white.
7. Gingivitis. I have more thoughts about this. I think that the reason why our teeth get rough and the gums can't glom on is because there are missing areas of enamel. Probably the calcium is getting used up detoxing vitamin A (and maybe other things like wrong PH in the mouth or even carotenes absorbing in the tooth). So, really the only way for your gums to heal is for your enamel to build back up again. Maybe plaque starts because food particles get stuck in the roughness. And then stalactites are forming, like in caves. Getting rid of the food particles is really only half the cure, the other half is the tooth has to fix-and-smooth it's own enamel from the inside with better overall health of lowered VA.
8. Dry Nose, Dry Eyes (including rough patches on the white), Constantly Running Nose. Some good progress here compared to last year, not totally gone but better.
9. Nausea and Migraine. No migraines this year, but one minor and one nasty nausea episode. I think amines are a thing that I really need to watch out for. A blood relative who has similar issues reacted to starting up a new oven, and I remember mentioning that here in my log a few years ago when I had a new oven. So, really open those windows if you get a new oven. I have mentioned that I think I have over-active nerves, and I think there may be something here about a hair-trigger on my brain's "you've been poisoned" flag. But I do wonder: does this help you live longer? My grandmother who had a similar nausea problem lived a very long time.
10. Light Sensitive/Sound Sensitive/Smell Sensitive. Over-active nerves? These are still issues, and I complain, but I know I'm not as bad off as some are.
11. Hot Flashes. Much fewer after a year of more fiber, and still think they are worse when weight loss is going on.
12. Raynaud's Phenomenon, Foot Cramps. Less than last year. I strangely had an arm cramp last week, and again, I often find that cramping is related to potatoes.
13. Skin Orange-ing. I find that I'm now becoming "paler" than my children. I sat in the sun and looked at my hands and feet and they are very white now.
14. The Prayer Sign. Still the same, not worse, which is I suppose something.
15. Still Not Normal. Who is? I may not ever be totally normal... but glad to not be dead or heading that way. I do sometimes wonder if my vitamin A overload will put me in the grave earlier. It makes me sad that I haven't been better at convincing others.
This weekend a family relative made an off-hand comment about my fear of tomatoes and though I know they were just poking fun, it sometimes surprises me how people's minds will just NOT GO THERE when it comes to vitamin A overload. I often say that I'd like for people to at least look up hypervitaminosis A to realize it is A KNOWN THING, before they debate me on it. Like dudes can you at least do the basic google lookup? Or they look it up and see it says "Rare". Ok, but rare doesn't mean non-existent. Big Veg and Big Salad sure must have good PR men hahaha
Alcohol. I'm drinking very little and liking the me I am without it. Sleep better, more energy, gut feels better. Feel more "normal".
Chocolate. I went through a short time when it was bothering me, (after a stomach bug) but now I'm ok with small amounts.
Tomato Sauce. I get urges sometimes, and I eat a little. Don't know what that is about! I call a meatball sub "the forbidden fruit" and it is my current vice.
QWOP:
here is an artist rendering of hunter's eyes (second one) and an antique photo of a woman giving a strong steady look with chin level
Uploaded files:
Detailed progress report! Me too, I'm now seven years in following a low vitamin A diet. It includes eggs. Usually two a day. I find it really hard to pinpoint any progress. Following a low vitamin A diet is a very humbling experience. You call it progress, like moving glaciers at some place. Nice expression which I've used myself to describe how tedious the change is.
One thing that I forgot to mention is my armpit nerve pain. It comes and goes, it triggered several times this year. I think this is somewhat like sciatica, which I also get now and then. Probably about pinched nerves and crusty spine and/or nerve damage OR PERHAPS even nerves trying to heal! (which no one mentions, but can be painful, I've read). No one thinks about that, do they? "Hey, my sciatica is hurting today must be my nerves HEALING." I think good posture helps.
I asked the google machine why people get "over-active nerves" and low and behold, this can be a Lupus thing. And of course I do believe that a doc would call me a Lupus patient if I had a doc and went to him. hahaha... As anyone who has read my musings knows, I theorize that the so-general and so-mysterious and ancient disease "Lupus" is just vitamin A toxicity. But there may also be a component of Lyme disease in my case, since I've been bitten so many times as a homesteader. Still, I would say my symptoms seem more Lupus than Lyme.