I needed to disable self sign-ups because I’ve been getting too many spam-type accounts. Thanks.
lil chick's log
I've always felt I had Larry Bird coloring-- he seems to be a bit yellow nose and forehead and cheek, and has some rosacea in the upper lip, cheek, chin.
As I've said I'm trying to have a more inclusive diet, rather than a zero VA diet. And so I've been doing raw, SKIM cow milk.
Just to review: I believe the stories about the (skim) raw milk cure, and so I'm not convinced of the idea that VA is hiding in casein. (ETA: I might have to rethink that. this study https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5436857/ said " in cow milk it (carotene) is stored in fat globules surrounded by protein cluster." )
However, I've got some (longstanding) issues with stiffening in my joints including carpal tunnel (which are probably eventually going to be gouty). Displaced calcium I suppose from years of being too high in VA.
I've been using raw dairy fats to combat this and actually it works quite well. (google "the Wulzen factor") (Also the B6 might be important) I think my joints are stiffening from the 2.5 months off of raw dairy fats.
I want to go as low as I can with carotenes, and so I've switched to raw, whole goat dairy.
Yesterday I read that molasses also contains the Wulzen factor...
I suppose that over time my joints might clear up on lower VA? But will I live that long hahah?
The Wulzen factor has been named "Stigmasterol"
https://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-sun-protection-and-stigmasterol-stability/
QUOTE:
Stigmasterol is a plant sterol, a compound similar to cholesterol with benefits for joint health. It’s also called the Wulzen anti-stiffness factor after Rosalind Wulzen, who discovered a mysterious component in butter oil that restored the health (particularly of connective tissue) of ailing animals (PDF). Though it’s the most famous source of stigmasterol, dairy isn’t the only place to get it. The only reason it’s present in grass-fed dairy is because the animals obtain it from the vegetation they eat. It’s also found in neem (a medicinal herb used in India), blackstrap molasses, and sunflower fat, just to name a few.
I’m not even sure stigmasterol is destroyed by pasteurization. The Weston A. Price folks have always claimed it does, but I haven’t seen any real references. One recent study subjected sunflower oil-bound stigmasterol to 180 °C for up to 3 hours. By the end, some but not all of the stigmasterol had been destroyed. Pasteurization subjects milk to 71.1 °C for just 15 seconds, far gentler than what the sunflower oil stigmasterol was subjected to. You could argue that oil-bound stigmasterol is uniquely resilient, but dairy-bound stigmasterol is fat-bound, too. I don’t see why it’d be any different.
Fermentation? A survey of various goat and sheep dairy products, including fluid milk, fermented cheeses, cream, and butter found that stigmasterol was present in nearly every product studied (PDF). It’s safe to assume your fermented raw cheese will have some stigmasterol remaining.
Overall, what I found suggests that stigmasterol probably isn’t destroyed by pasteurization, let alone fermentation. Even if it is, there are plenty of other places to get stigmasterol. I’ve spoken highly of blackstrap molasses in the past, so go for that.
Don’t get me wrong: I still prefer raw dairy, provided it’s safe, grass-fed, and from a quality source. But I’m not sure stigmasterol is a reason to focus on it. END QUOTE
QUOTE (from the comments)
If stigmasterol can survive boiling in molasses I don’t see how heating during pasteurization could destroy it. END QUOTE
My carpal tunnel is fixed (due to a bit of full-fat goat milk), and my next bottle of goat milk from the farmer is low fat again.
A new friend said that she had the exact same facial rash as me, and that it was lupus (just as I suspect that mine is), and that the doc treated it with a steroid med (prescription) (for a short time) and told her to use neutrogena 100 spf sunscreen and wear a hat and it cleared up. (and has remained clear for several years) She still has a rash on her neck and has not tried the med on her neck.
My face looks pretty crap. And I'm itching a lot in the torso. God knows if it is detox or retox or ? I probably got about 500 IU of VA from the goat milk each day for the last 2 weeks.
I wonder if I should try some sort of OTC steriod cream on my face just to get some relief or to kick the immune system down a notch in the facial area. Grant said that looking back he probably didn't need to go cold turkey on the steriod creams...
My mother also had a skin-lupus diagnosis (on her back) and it also went into remission with steroids and sun avoidance. Perhaps I should stop the sun baths.
I'm sick of wearing this problem across my face. :'(
From Self: 1 cup goat milk. Strangely, this source seems to say there is beta carotene(!) while other sources say that goat milk doesn't have it.
Who to believe... Traditionally, people have always said that the carotenes were converted in goat milk, hence the higher vitamin A level in goat milk, and the whiter color. I wonder if the Self carotene statistic is wrong.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/goat-milk
"Goats' milk contains a higher level of vitamin A than cows' milk due to the fact that goats convert all carotenes into vitamin A, which gives the milk a whitish color."
https://drinc.ucdavis.edu/goat-dairy-foods/dairy-goat-milk-composition
"It is remarkable that caprine milk derives its vitamin A potency entirely from the vitamin itself and entirely lacks the precursor carotenoid pigments characteristic of bovine milk, which also causes goat's milk and milkfat to be much whiter in color than the milk of the cow."
At about 4 months.
I occasionally experience giddiness lately and wonder if anyone else does too. Higher highs?
And lower lows.
Neither lasts
I wonder almost if I'm waking up, emotionally.
Of course, at the same time I'm going low VA... I'm deep in the menopausal change time... Hard to parse apart what is changing what, sometimes.
Well, I just lined up another picture in my monthly comparison and I'm not happy. Barely any facial progress.
I'm sure you are all sick of hearing about my relaxed version of low A diet. I don't really want to be much more strict.
hmm. It's not like I'm eating so much A that I'm not in detox. My particular "pennance" seems to be itching and flaking.
Am I wrong to expect progress to stall sometimes, or even stop? Especially after a vacation in which a lot of diet cheating happened.
Can some things not really be fixed, or extremely slow fixes?
Well, in case some of you have been wondering, it may be true that my progress is slower due to my non-strict diet.
Took me about 8-9 months for the flakiness to subside, with 5 of the months hardcore low/zero VA. It a slow moving journey.
If stigmasterol can survive boiling in molasses I don’t see how heating during pasteurization could destroy it. END QUOTE