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My 11 years pro(re)gress story... [chart]
Quote from Jiří on August 6, 2020, 11:49 am@tropico what is your diet last 2 years?
Meat (cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry), Potatoes, Rice, White Beans, Pasta(rice-corn)... sorry i'm italian 🙂 , mushrooms, cauliflower, banana, apple, pear, pineapple, grapes, olive oil, onion, coffee, coke
rarely: figs, fennels, lean tuna, corn, wheat (bread - pasta- flat bread)
some period: Milk 0% fat (milk+coffee = cappuccino) @ breakfast... sorry i'm italian 🙂
Only once: shrimp to test if allergy was healed (YES), cortisone and antihistamine on hand 😉
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After 1 year my Retinol level was 27,00 µg/100ml - range 20 to 60 .
27 µg/100ml---> 0.96 µmol/L.
https://ggenereux.blog/discussion/topic/1-year-overall-blood-test/
Quote from Arena on August 8, 2020, 11:29 am@tropico could you elaborate on your healed allergy? Only food allergy?
The last months (of the 5 years) on Ray Peat diet, in addition to many health issue, I became allergic to shellfish, the first time I went to hospital, body skin itchy and full of wheals, face and especially eyelids were puffy!
Later, even a small hidden piece of shellfish gave me this allergic reaction...
Now, after 2 years, I tolerate shellfish again!
According Grant's book, vitamin A leads my immune system go crazy!
However, the metabolic concept of Ray Peat, for me, is correct, starting by supplying energy to cell, which make tissues and then organs.
The wrong things are all about vitamin A, and I have proof of it. Also, instead of the thyroid, to stimulate deranged metabolism I prefer the Lonsdale way, with megadoses B vitamins, it is safer and more "natural".
My metabolism was destroyed by the lack of animal protein in Arnold Ehret's diet, and then continued by the lack of carbohydrates in paleo diet.
Carnivorous diet is not healthy for me! Carbohydrates are essential for my health, so Grant's diet, mainly meat and rice, is also the right one for me.
The advice on zinc and taurine is also right, especially the first year on a low vitamin A diet helped a lot.
2023 Update
Hello everyone, almost 5 years on low/zero vitamin A.
Over the years i was able to figure out what works and what doesn't, B vitamins gave only a momentary boost, no miracle, indeed, as a side effect pain and nerve hypersensitivity, now I do not recommend them.
Unfortunately, if I don't take regularly skim milk, over time I become slightly hypocalcemic.
In the past, with vegan diet and with paleo diet I had same issues, dry skin, blurred vision and myopia, muscle spasms, low energy, weak teeth.
So I immediately drank skim milk every day and supplemented calcium carbonate, in a few days I felt sky high again. So, in the long run, I want to warn everyone that you can often be calcium deficient with low vitamin A diet, especially if you take magnesium and alter 2:1 ratio!
Ahhh so important! A couple of other people doing this have said they needed a calcium supplement, too. Thank you for the warning and the update, @tropico! I am glad you are feeling well again. 🙂
The important thing is that "Grant's theory" is right, i.e. I didn't go blind in 5 years without vitamin A.
Each person must learn to know themselves and understand their weaknesses, for example I suffer from low levels dietary calcium, and the blame is not directly related to vitamin A.
Skimmed dairy still contains a small amount of vitamin A in casein, but I think it is negligible, small amounts can be handled and cleared by body, in contrast skimmed dairy provides a significant amount of beneficial calcium which balances meat/grains/fruit phosphorus and magnesium. Calcium from beans,potato... is poorly absorbable due to oxalates.
Dietary calcium can be a real problem and can be cause of many setbacks, without people realizing it!
p.s. high-calcium mineral water also help https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7696826/
Quote from Tropico on August 6, 2020, 4:10 amImpressive progress! Grant Genereux save my life! Today 2 years zero vitamin A diet and Vit. B megadoses (especially B1) boost my performance to the sky!
I haven't updated since, but it's only right to summarize the last few years.
Vitamin B megadoses ruined my progress. I had regained my health, but in my quest for superpowers, I made a mistake.
Only later did I realize that I had almost certainly depleted my calcium reserves, already low due to previous diets and supplements.
Many things are only now being understood, but I'm still here, with ups and downs due to my mistakes. The only thing that's certain is that avoiding vitamin A works and continues to work.
Nice. Good on you. Interesting that a few folk have similar related experience.
I made much better progress with nerve pain after getting into understandingb6toxicity.com
I did not bother with their supplements.
Quite a few of us low vA, especially child bearing and or breastfeeding women, bumped up against calcium issues and are figuring them out now on The Calcium Connection
https://the-calcium-connection.mn.co/feed
Hope Tipton was one of the first to work a path out of the corner many got painted into.
https://nothingbuthope.substack.com/p/my-healing-journey-part-1
My Healing Journey Part 1 - Hope
I started low vA 34 months ago. Over last 45 years worked within the diets you laid out and a few others. Surprised you made it a year with Ehret. Says much about your resolve. Although I did love eating grapes all day. A year of it? Tough.
I am guessing the main reason I suffered low calcium so much less than most on low vA is that I ignored the advice to stop eating my home made chicken broth. I doubt I got much calcium from cooking whole birds in a gallon of water with lemon and salt. Apparently I got enough. Noticing more improvements now as I work in more calcium sources besides the broth.
Glad to see your improvements.
To be completely honest, I've always been very determined about my diets, never cheated; it was the only way to know if a diet was working and sustainable in the long term. And to be even more honest, in the last two years, after supplementing with calcium, I felt so good that I loosened my grip on a strict diet without vitamin A. I carefully avoided foods rich in vitamin A like liver, carrots, sweet potatoes, orange melons, etc., but it wasn't enough. The old symptoms slowly began to reappear, and above all, I started gaining weight. I started experiencing the same symptoms I had before I stopped the Ray Peat diet: panic attack-like discomfort, the same symptom I had when I started taking a vitamin A acetate supplement. So, with the new experience—that is, supplementing with enough calcium—I went back to a zero-vitamin A diet, and everything is improving. Unfortunately, I'm weak, and my body suffers immediately with an unhealthy diet (for me). Toxic Vitamin A tolerance is genetic, and I obviously have low tolerance.
Ah, yes, a year of the Erhet diet devastated me, but I had a determined and stupid mental strength to continue hurting myself until a year when looking at myself in the mirror I looked so disgusted, that suddenly I became aware.
Which calcium supplement are you taking and how much? We are also doing well with calcium d glucarate, which has little calcium and I think after nearly five years on zer vitamin a we might need it.