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One year on low VitA diet
My background:
My family ate a diet high in VitA for generations. Both my parents had to take their cod liver oil, drink their milk and eat their veggies during their childhood. I drank my multivitamin juice and ate my carrots and peas and sometimes even some liver pate sandwiches growing up.
My dad suffered from inflammatory conditions and heart disease for most of his life and his health declined in a very similar way Grant Genereux described it happening to himself (skin eczema, vasculitis, kidney failure, chronic infections).
Allergies, psoriasis, eczema and chronic fatigue hit me hard in my thirties. All attemps to improve my health failed.
Inspired by Grants ebooks I started out with a very strict diet mimicking Grants approach.
After about six weeks in I experienced an outbreak of symptoms:
Flu-like symptoms
Face looked like it was burned by sunlight
Blisters in my mouth
Headaches and nausea
joint pain
Possibly a massive dump of retinoids from storage.
After 2 months I switched from a strict to a more relaxed diet.
I ate some salmon, chocolate or oysters and lemon juice besides rice, beef, beans, applesauce and white button mushrooms.
After about 4 months on the diet I visited the dental hygienist and dentist.
They were very surprised that my gum health had incredibly improved in comparison to the visits in previous years.
My motivation increased and I went back on a stricter diet.
Over the following months I experienced repeated detox cycles.
I often felt fatigued. Yet it was visible that my skin and gum health continued to improve.
Several months into the diet my blood levels were still high even though my diet was very strict proving again that liver and adipose tissue storage can still be substantial after months on a very restricted diet.
I still have some typical retinol fluorescence in my skin on some parts of my body but less than a year ago.
Even about 12 months into applying the diet I experienced a mild outbreak of psoriasis and eczema on the front and back of my knees. I believe it was triggered by a heat wave and strong sunlight.
My most noticeable improvements are:
Very smooth skin
Healthier gums (I joked with the surprised dentists assistant that my gums will improve even more, she told me that's impossible from the state mine were in. Well, she'll be surprised again...)
Better sleep quality (worse sleep quality during early detox cycles)
Better mood
Incredibly improved low light vision (I ate carrots to improve my bad low light vision years ago, the advice is all over the net:-( )
The only supplements I used were cheap vitamin c plus zinc tablets and a little taurine every now and then.
I also applied a deep red and near infrared light and sometimes sunlight on different parts of my body.
I want to thank Grant for his incredible discovery and hope to motivate those who struggle with detox symptoms.
If you ingested a lot of retinol and carotenes over decades it will take some time to detox and heal.
thanks for posting this. always really like to read 1 year updates. I'm 3 weeks shy of being 1 year on this diet.
So you got eczema and psoriasis after one year? Not very encouraging
I experienced a little psoriasis/eczema like outbreak on my knees during a heat wave maybe 10-11 months into the diet. Some other factor, like some wine consumption might have contributed to liberating retinol or something else from the liver.
alcohol consumption, heat exposure and intense sunlight triggered typical VitA toxicity symptoms for me.
My overall health has improved a lot but there are indications that I still have decent amounts of retinol esters in storage.
I'm not vitamin A "deficient" yet. I still have blood serum levels in the "normal" range even though I have followed a lowA diet for about a year. My subcutaneous fat still glows a little blueish if excited with a UVA-Blacklight, but much less than a year ago.
I have never consumed specific Vitamin A supplements just multivitamins and small amounts of fish oil pills for some periods and a high retinol/carotenes diet for the first 40 years of my life.
I'm planning to continue, let's see what will happen when I finally turn VitA deficient.
You nailed it: heat (for me, sweating), sunlight and alcohol will instigate the baddies. For me, these are much more potent than any vit A ingestion.
And, I think these bouts are probably good for us, in the long run.
I think that loose, cotton clothing is ideal for sweating out toxins. Think of the dog mentioned in the pet thread. He was peeing out burning urine! That is how bad the toxic sweat can be.
Whatever you wear, after sweating I think it is gosh darn important to take those sweaty clothes right off and WASH THEM, this especially includes anything tight on the body. I wonder are you wearing, for instance, biking pants that are tight on the knee? And use plenty of soap and water on your body, but wash GENTLY.
I have spent many a night with up with itchy bra-band area after sweating. I've literally given up on bras for any sweating times.
If your plan includes a day of sweating, it might be good to have several changes of clothes, right down to skivvies.
Fascinating, @matt336! What crazy detox symptoms (if that’s indeed what was going on). I’m glad you’ve seen enough improvements to know low-VA is helping you, and I hope you continue to feel better! 🙂
I really appreciate you sharing your experiences here, as yes, it is motivating to hear that this can be a long and difficult process! I’m about 9 months in at this point, and have felt somewhat discouraged lately (fall allergies are just as bad as ever 😆🤧). So thanks a bunch, Matt! Looking forward to reading what changes occur when you become more deficient in the VA. Fingers crossed the fatigue completely lifts for you!
Thanks for sharing Matt. Glad to hear you are feeling better. Can you share your VA blood results. I suspect it takes 2-3 years to reduce the VA.
@matt336 I see from another comment you made that you were doing 3-4 eggs a day and you knew about choline and betaine way back in 2019. Be interesting to hear how you are doing now ? Or have you changed your login name since and now under another name ?
Seems that matt336 was spot on about choline and betaine in Dec 2019. I obviously read his comment because I comment straight after. Pity I didn’t give it more attention. I think I could have saved myself a whole load of hurt.