Quote from BodeFofinho on May 27, 2021, 4:36 am

Hello to everyone,

My name is Tiago and I want to share my experience on the NO VA "diet”, and how it has helped me on my "recovery / cure" of a Diabetes Type I / LADA. I will try to be the most detailed and accurate as possible, but I can only rely on my memory to do so. Unfortunately, I did not keep written records on the subject.  

I am a Portuguese male, 44 years old, and I was raised in a very traditional and "Mediterranean” diet. As a baby I was bottle fed and during my first 16 years of life my main staple was wheat bread, milk, potatoes, meat (poultry, beef, pork), eggs, fish (at least 3-4 times a week) and, of course, a lot of vegetable soup. In Portugal it is a tradition to eat at least one meal with a big bowl of vegetable soup (it is usually made of onions, potatoes, carrots, and greens like spinach or cabbage). I was always sick with flu every winter. I had measles and all the common diseases that kids normally catch. My mother took me to the doctor every 6 months for periodic checks (she was and still is a hypochondriac). I took all the vaccines, and a huge amount of antibiotics and all kind of medicine prescribed by the doctors. I suffered a considerable number of dental cavities and digestive problems. I was also prescribed glasses, for my vision was not good. Things got worse when I started to suffer skin breakouts. I had a serious case of acne by the age of 13/14. At 16 I was prescribed a drug which I believe it was Accutane. I was also advised by my doctor to take the hepatitis B vaccine and I believe those two events explain some major health events I experienced years later.

I started to have a small pain in the liver area, that until today no doctor or exam has been able to explain. At 18, my doctor diagnosed me with idiopathic hypertension with values of 13-14 over 8-9. I have lived with that BP without any side effect that I am aware of.

Until the age of 23, I can say that I was a lean and an athletic young man. Then, I started to eat frequently at restaurants due my profession and the weight kept creeping up and my digestive problems became worse.

By 2005, 28 years old, I was on a busy schedule between work, a post-graduation, self-defence practice of 3 hours/day 4 days/week and with long trips on weekends, schedule that continued busy until 2018, when I got married. During those years, 2005-2008 my diet was basically restaurant/junk food and prior to my marriage I achieved 96 kgs with 25-30% body fat.

My wife cooked “healthy” meals: vegetables and all type of “healthy” food. Indeed, I lost some weight, but it was not enough. The weight issue as well my wife’s health problems led us to the decision to try the PALEO diet in 2011 (no carbs and plenty of meat, fat, and vegetables). I will not disclose much about my wife’s health, but it was a driver for the "diet decisions" on our life. Maybe one day my wife can share her story.

The first paleo 6 months were amazing. We were experiencing all the extraordinary things that are advertised by the paleo/keto “priests”. Unfortunately, the honeymoon did not last long, and it went downhill. We were suffering from mood swings, low stamina, fatigue, extreme cold … We lost a huge amount of weight, probably too much.

Then, in 2012, in a trip to Brazil, I decided to take full on CARBS and what a change. At the same time, my wife did the same back home and after my return we left behind the PALEO. On the next 2,5 years my wife put on 70 kgs until she reached 110 kgs (due an unknown gluten intolerance) and my weight was around 86 kgs. I must stress we were eating “healthy”, home made food. I was feeling better, but my wife was having health complications due to the excessive weight gain.

In 2012 I was diagnosed with a "perineal fistula" that had to be surgical solved on late 2013. Maybe the “fistula” was a consequence of high retinol/vitamin A?

Middle 2014:  I started to develop some strange symptoms, excessive thirst, and frequent urination. I started to lose weight although I was always hungry. Since I was exercising, I thought it was related to it. My wife was urging me to go to the doctor and warned me those were diabetes symptoms. Despite the warnings I carried on with my life and refused to go to the doctor.

Things changed on 14th of January 2015. After dinner, in three hours, I pee three kgs of weight and drank four litres of water. I looked like a cadaver. I called the doctor, and I was sent to the hospital after his glucometer achieve the maximum reading possible:600 mg/dL.

In the hospital, the glucose reading was 961 mg/dL and with that reading I won the bronze medal at that hospital for the 3^rd worst glucose reading ever.

Diagnosis - type I diabetes, or the so called the "lada type III" diabetes. On the hospital bed, with needles on my arm, receiving electrolytes and insulin I only asked to myself “why?”. Two days later, I was instructed on the self-administration of insulin (two types, the "fast" and "slow") and they gave me a "nutritional plan" so devoid of calories that it seemed like a PALEO diet. On the dismiss day I asked one of the doctors the "why" of my "condition" and he only said to me “You won the lottery without gambling". Then I questioned why I had to eat a diet void of calories when my problem was “only” a lack of insulin “production” and not the typical diabetes type II problem induced by insulin intolerance. He was unable to answer the "casualty" of calories and "diabetes" and the reason for that “diet protocol”. For me was the beginning of the end regarding my trust/faith in conventional medicine.

I returned home to my wife and daughter, with an insulin protocol to follow, full of doubts and devoid of hope. How can medicine treat something that does not understand? Was I really with my pancreas shut down for good? Would the glucometer and the insulin shot become my best friends? But my main concern was the health of my wife, with 110 kgs.

My insulin protocol was something like that:

• 12 units of "slow" at each 12 hours, total of 24 units by day
• 4-8 units of "fast" at each meal, depending on the glucose reading.

The aim was to increase the "slow" and reduce the "fast".

One month later, middle February I was taking 22+22 units of slow and 18-20 units of "fast" distributed by each meal.

One month later, middle March I was taking 30+30 units of slow and 6 units of "fast" distributed by each meal (2 at each meal).

On the same year, by May, my wife was feeling desperate due to all the weight complications and she decided to stop eating gluten. Although her mother and her sister suffer from celiac disease the doctors never assumed it was important for her to make the tests since she did not display major symptoms. She was suffering from an early age with some of the symptoms but those were minor in comparison to those displayed by her mother and her sister.

I agreed with her and everyone in our household stopped eating wheat/gluten. And thank God to that because from that point our health improved. My wife started to lose 2 kgs/month with mathematical precision, and I started a "honeymoon diabetic phase" that lasted forever. In January 2016 I was only on 8+8 units of "slow" with readings prior meals below 120 mg/dL and with no need for “fast insulin”. In September same dosage, same readings. At that time, I stopped to log my readings, but continued to control the glucose at least 5-6 times a day.

In the meantime, my wife continued to lose weight, and in the beginning of 2018, we were almost in the same spot prior to the Paleo diet. My diabetes was controlled, my wife was with a normal weight, but the same issues that made us try the Paleo diet continued to persist:

- My wife was constantly with oedema, osteo-muscular problems regarding posture, pain in several places, emotional distress, cognitive problems, and brain fog.

- I continued to suffer from digestive problems. The minor pain on the "liver" persisted. I kept getting some discomfort in the head. The glucose readings started to slowly rise without apparent reason. My weight remained stable.

- Our daughter had skin problems, like acne and was always with respiratory problems. She also complained of brain fog.

One day, I read a Matt Stone post talking about the work of mr. Genereux. Being an engineer myself, I was sold to his excellent thesis on "root cause and failure mode analysis" on the vitamin A toxicity. It was excellent explained in plain English for laymen people like me.  I started to consider the crazy hypothesis that the healthy food I was eating was damaging my health. Vegetables? Carrots? Pumpkin? Sweet potatoes? It was exactly what I and my family ate every single day!

I spoke to my wife, and we decided to try a low vitamin A diet. She was very sceptical but after reading the book she agreed, but she was not very enthusiastic about it. We started in December 2018.

We ate rice, meat, and everything we could find that contained no vitamin A or gluten. Bellow I present our daily diet:

• White rice (last week we changed to parboiled rice).
• Beef with no problems unless when the cut has a lot of fat.
• No Pork because:
  • does not agree well with my wife,
  • it seems to aggravate my “pain in the liver area”.
  • my daughter reacts with pimples on the face.:
• In the beginning poultry was ok, but with the time passing it became impossible to eat. Nowadays, poultry give us intestinal issues – maybe it is the lutein?
• Apples, bananas, pears, pineapple, strawberries, onions, garlic
  • For me, everything with fructose seems to aggravate my digestion.
• Almost no fish, mainly because it is not a favourite in our home. Although the Portuguese love fish we do not appreciate it very much.
• Olive oil for beef stirring.
• Finally, a lot of home made gluten free, dairy free and sugar loaded cookies. Yup, sugar. Maybe this consumption of sugar together with white rice explain my possible “b1 deficiency”.

As odd as it can be, rice and beef for me is more than enough. The only cravings I have are French fries and roasted pork ribs.

One year later, October/November 2019 I stopped to use insulin. I stabilized my weight on 76-77 kgs with 13% body fat. And believe me when I say that I eat a lot.  I do some exercise but not as much as in my late twenties and my performance is above average for a man of my age. I walk 2 hours a day and I have a steady regime of callisthenics.

In May 2020 I tried to introduce pork and for some months we ate it without any issues until the day I discovered that my blood pressure started to become more erratic with spikes of 15-16 over 10-12. Without pork, I normally have 9-10 / 14-15. But this changes as soon I eat pork.

In the last summer I found out about "oxalates poisoning" and we started to pay attention to the oxalate content of the food we ate. It is interesting to point that the Grant protocol is “oxalate free”.

My blood tests and liver, kidneys, heart exams are all ok:

• My vitamin A levels on Nov 2020 were 0.75 mg/L and Vit D was 16,20 ng/mol.
• My vitamin A levels on April 2021 were 0.41mg/L and Vit D was 7,6 ng/mol.
• No change in diet occurred between those two dates.

Last April my A1C [NGSP] was 5.2% and A1C [FCC] was 34mmol/mol and average glucose was 103mg/dl.

So, for my doctor I only have a blood pressure problem and low vitamin D. She is trying to put me on medication for the BP and to give me supplementation for vitamin D that I continue to refuse politely. I had to persist and keep asking questions for her to request more specific exams to see if I have any adrenal problems.  Unfortunately, the health practitioners keep prescribing medicine for the symptoms and they disregard completely the root cause, showing no will or interest in discovering the “why” of the symptoms.

Since I do not want to use medicine to mask my symptoms, I keep looking for the cause. The vitamin A detox was “one more step” of the journey and I believe some more “steps” need to be taken. I believe that the “b1 deficiency” has been a role in my condition.

At this moment I have more questions than answers and I will let them here as a reminder to myself and a “food for thought” for all of you:

1. Baby formula milk, wheat bread and tons of milk. How much damage has this made in my body? As Grant says, vitamin A has probably "transformed" the gluten in an "aggressor" to my immune system.
2. The ACUTANE has made something to my body? Probably! Or was it the Hepatitis B vaccine? Or the two combined? Or the sum of all vaccines? Or a sum of all small little things? Who knows? The “correlation” point is the beginning of the pain in the liver zone and the "idiopathic" BP.
3. Has my “idiopathic BP” started only then? I do not know; I have never measured it before.
4. The digestive problems were always there since I can remember. Gluten related? Probably but not only. Even 6 years later my digestive problems are not solved. Better, but not solved.
5. Due the 2+ years on rice + beef mainly, I have probably created some imbalances and aggravate some deficiencies:
   1. B1 deficiency that probably has started several years or decades ago.
   2. Unbalanced electrolytes like calcium, magnesium potassium?
   3. Those 2 combined can be an explanation for my BP, who knows?
6. What is a perfect diet? Unfortunately, we cannot use "cross references" of other people in different regions of the globe. I have followed a discussion on "calcium" / "milk" and in no way we can compare the milk of a cow grass fed in Mongolia with the cow grass fed in USA/Europe subjected to the "veterinary" scrutiny, antibiotics, regulations, etc.
7. Even using the "old way of our parents and grandparents" is problematic. How many of us can or are willing to grow the rice, the potatoes, the beef, and the goat? As soon we deliver the food to others and those others need to make a profit, we are "lost". How to solve this? Is the solution to become a farmer?
8. How much havoc vaccines, antibiotics and medicines in general make in our bodies?
9. How reliable are the RDA for nutrients specified by health organizations? Each person in its own personal context has different needs, so should we "panic" with the RDA? How reliable are the test protocols?
10. I have fillings on my teeth, the so called "lead fillings". Maybe some toxicity came from them and it is the cause of my blood pressure values?
11. Have I been clearly and correctly diagnosed with type I/III diabetes? Have my beta cells shut down production? And if so, how was my body capable of “regrow” new beta cells after the removal of the vitamin A?
12. When my doctor thinks that the only explanation for my “recovery” is an “exquisite virus”, should we start to doubt of the capability of actual medicine to make a good diagnosis?
13. Is vitamin A really a toxin devoid of any nutritional value?
    1. Or it has some value in small / balanced doses? If so, why I do not have any “deficiency symptoms” after 30 months with zero/negligible A?
    2. Maybe it is “tolerable” only in a healthy metabolism?

So, in TL: DR, I was able to reverse a diabetes (type I/III ?) with Grant Diet and after lurking in this forum from so long I felt the urge to share my story with you all. I will not call it a full and glorious success story, but it's a start and I believe it is a good "case study" to support Grant theory about vitamin A toxicity – we need more than n>1 case. My doctor thinks that my diabetes was caused by a virus and with time the body has solved the issue, but I know it was the A vit. Why? If I eat something with vitamin A or gluten, my glucose readings start to "swing". There is a direct cause-effect. My blood tests are normal as “possible” for a “diabetic patient”. My vision, against my ophthalmologist predictions is ok, and I noted an improvement in night vision. I have stabilized my weight for more than 18 months @ 11-13 % fat. So, in my case, I truly believe the A vit disturbs my immune system, my metabolism and I have no empiric proof that I require A vitamin.

Should we all avoid it completely? For mental sanity, probably not as I do believe that a healthy body can process and deal with vitamin A in “normal” conditions/quantities. The big question is what is the normal for “each” one of us.

Next steps for me?

• No vitamin A for life. At this moment I do not have any empiric evidence that I need it and therefore I will avoid it. But I will “test” sporadically my ability to deal with it in casual situations like eating a nice ice cream 😊.
• I will try the Dr. Londsale protocol on vitamin B1 + magnesium and work around the concept that “illness” is a manifestation of low energy/metabolism.
• I will try to incorporate potatoes and pork (a traditional staple in Portuguese diet). As I have started supplementation on Thiamine + magnesium and B complex, I noted that pork doesn’t aggravate my BP as before.
• I will continue to eat to live and not live to eat.

And that is all. Sorry for the long post and feel free to comment and ask questions. Most certainly I have forgotten a lot of useful information that I will only recall with your comments/questions. I am here to learn and to share whatever knowledge I may have acquired in this 2+ years journey.

All the best,