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Rachel's log
Background:
It’s quite long so feel free to skip this and go straight to my low VA log which follows further down.
Generally healthy childhood. Usual childhood illnesses but not a frequently ill child. Only problem that might relate is what was termed “allergic to the sun”. (I think it is polymorphic light eruption). I was prescribed sun cream as a child. Beach holidays were out. Long sleeves and wide brimmed sun hats were in. No other skin problems apart from being a bit sensitive to various products eg biological washing powder makes me itch.
Nothing else that stands out as being a VA problem.
Late teens onwards struggled with depression, anxiety, eating disorders and mood swings. 10+ yrs high doses of antidepressants with various drugs for anxiety and mood stabilisation. Many of these known to impede detoxification of VA.
Vegetarian for about 20 years, 10 of these vegan.
From 30’s suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome. Severe worsening in 2008 when became virtually bed bound for a couple of years. Slow improvement after working with functional medicine doctor using supplements and a stoneage diet. This is when I realised that a vegan diet was not helping me and reintroduced meat and other animal products. I had mitochondrial function tests carried out that showed that my mitochondria were functioning at a very low level. Improved to point where could move about house with ease but little else.
This is when was introduced to alternative healing modalities and began trying to heal myself with dietary and supplementary methods. It is at this point that my dietary VA intake shot up. At times I have eaten liver weekly and taken cod liver oil. I consumed 2 – 3 bottles of CLO in total.
My gut function gradually got worse. I started getting pain and bloating from eating certain foods. I would cut them out, try a new healing diet and end up worse than I started off. I was obviously missing something so I would try a new diet and so on. I was familiar with WAPF and loosely followed this. I did GAPS for about 18 months but got stuck on the very early stages. It eased my symptoms but I never saw any healing of my digestive issues. Increasing problems with constipation.
Other problems: Diagnosed with genetic haemochromatosis in 2015. POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) and low blood pressure. Probably others but they are the main ones.
The things that have the biggest negative impact on my life are the chronic fatigue and my gut. Over the last few years, the CFS has improved slowly but reached a plateau. I fluctuate between being restricted to the house, pretty tired but able to get drinks, simple meals, read, go online etc to being able to do small trips out such as go to a coffee shop, potter around the house and garden and do occasional small bits of shopping. I have very few foods that I can eat without pain and inflammation. I am highly reactive to most supplements.
My first awareness of Grants work came from Matt Stones post on 180 degrees. To be honest by this time I had pretty much sworn off all dietary interventions and had promised myself that I would not go down any more rabbit holes. Basically I had a brief scan of the article, shuddered at the thought of another restrictive diet and pushed it out of my mind. Not going there. Fast forward to Feb 2019 when over a period of about a week I felt increasingly ill. I had so little energy I could barely move. My limbs felt as if I had flu. My increasingly frequent headaches became permanent and severe. My head felt like it would explode when I moved or lowered my head. I had nausea that got worse with every meal until it got to the point where I vomited on eating. My appetite was low. The dry eye problem that had slowly deteriorated over recent months now felt like I had grit in my eyes. Jaw pain was much worse and my neck and spine felt stiff. This all either came on very rapidly or drastically worsened. It got my attention. (I believe I flipped from chronic to acute VA toxicity)
I don’t know why but the VA toxicity theory had been niggling at me and I went onto cronometer and put in my usual foods and was horrified to see how much VA I was consuming. I was eating a lot of dairy and this alone put me over the RDA. I had noticed that the awful nausea was worse when I consumed dairy. I cut out dairy immediately (I made further changes as I learned more) and over the next few days the new acute symptoms subsided. I then read Grants books and committed to following a low VA diet. I am taking 1st March 2019 as being the start of my low VA diet.
Those are the main highlights that come to mind.
Log of low vitamin A diet.
Month 1: (Mar 2019)
Acute symptoms subsided. No major changes. Some pressure headaches still. V tired – varies from feeling a bit better to needing 3 naps a day just to survive. Bit sneezy with runny nose at times.
Positives:
less headaches,
eyes no longer gritty but still very dry.
Moving bowels more easily (eating lots of oats at this point – about 150g dry weight).
slight improvement in eyes – mental arithmetic puzzle in paper: could tell difference between subtraction and division symbols. Previously couldn’t do this. Also could read clock radio in bed room without either putting glasses on or squinting. Still blurry but could make out numbers.
Possible lessening in stiffness to spine. Not sure.
Mood improved at times. Seemed less stressed and edgy.
Basic diet of beef, potato, oats. Small amounts of stewed apple, gelatine, olive oil, parsnip, mushrooms, honey, banana.
During the last week I started taking Niacin. I have a lot of emotional issues (PTSD) and the stress and anger was extreme. Niacin really helps me with this. I react to the cheaper nicotinic acid form so take inositol hexanicotinate. This was a game changer for me. I went from worrying about my sanity to feeling like the old me was resurfacing. It’s not a miracle cure but makes a real quality of life difference to me.
Month 2: ( Apr 2019)
Neck pain that has been present for over a year now hasn’t been apparent for several days. Do get occasional occurrences.
Night vision improved – driving at night noticed that the brighter white car headlights and street lights weren’t bothering me. Previously I found them dazzling and painful to look at.
Spine less stiff at beginning of month. Woke up with my spine twisted in a way I wouldn’t have been able to do before (like a yoga spinal twist). Towards end of month neck and back stiffness returned.
Tried both cannellini beans and short grain rice. Both caused gut pain.
Had a venesection (phlebotomy) for my haemochromatosis and recovered from it faster than is usual. They typically knock me out for a week.
Persistent gut problems remain.
Slight vision improvement has stayed. Vision still blurry and this varies.
Basic diet unchanged.
Month 3: (May 2019)
Experienced more pronounced detox symptoms at start of month (ascribed to reducing oats): Headache, increased dry eye.
Worried about salt intake (I use salt to improve my blood volume and blood pressure) and tried decreasing it. Also lowered the tilt on my bed slightly after it fell off the blocks in the night. Led to decreased blood pressure and increased fatigue. Increased both salt and bed incline to previous levels. Have about 10g salt daily in meals and drinks.
No real changes this month.
Basic diet: beef, potato. Reduced oats to approx. 45g. Swapped olive oil for beef tallow. Having small amount of strawberry jam (tsp). Rest unchanged.
Month 4: (June 2019)
Nothing to report.
Month 5: (July2019)
No obvious improvements. Seem to get mild symptom flare every few days. Presume due to body releasing VA from stores. Typically this manifests as jaw pain, eyes more blurry, irritability, anger and stress, mild headaches.
Increased constipation – back to pre-diet levels. On low VA diet I initially had quite a lot of oats which helped my BM’s, but I have been cutting these back due to concern over lutein.
Energy a bit better. I had had a relapse in my CFS earlier in the year and I have regained a bit of ground. This is within usual parameters. Although I may need several naps a day when doing more, they seem to be more restorative. I’m not needing several days to recover from a mild exertion.
Less meltdowns – this is due to the niacin. My PTSD therapist has noticed the improvement. I often dissociate in sessions when triggered and this is happening less.
More motivated to do things.
Gut pretty sore at moment. I suspect that my gut tissues are dumping VA and this is causing an increase in symptoms.
Basic diet: Mostly beef and potato. Chicken once a week. Small amounts of: Oats - reduced oats further to approx. 20g. stewed apple, beef tallow (increased now having 10 g with each meal), parsnip, mushroom, onion, garlic, refined coconut oil, strawberry jam, honey, banana (1/2 most days), a little sugar.
Month 6: (Aug 2019)
Vision same. Apart from some slight improvements early on this has not changed yet.
Have noticed over last month or two that eyes seem to tear more especially apparent when yawning. Assume glands producing more fluid. Also sometimes wake with sleep in my eyes which hasn’t happened for a long time.
Haven’t thought about my neck pain for a while so can’t have been bothering me.
Starting to recall dreams especially just prior to waking. This has been happening gradually for a while but forgot to record when first noticed.
Stool starting to improve. Was previously small dry pellets that were very difficult to pass. Has now changed to softer more formed stool. Still struggle to pass, mostly due to what feels like lack of lubrication but possibly also due to deconditioning of the bowel. This improvement has persisted the whole month and is v exciting for me. This is not due to a sudden dietary change but feels like the first sign that my gut is starting to heal.
I have been able to introduce vitamin E. It does cause a slight gut reaction but it is mild and I can manage a dose twice a week.
Energy has improved some more. Have managed a weekend visit to my mum. I generally am able to do this once or twice a year at the most so it is a big deal. I often suffer several weeks or even months of increased fatigue afterwards. That hasn’t happened this time. I needed extra rest and sleep for a few days but have bounced back pretty well. I am at the top end of my typical energy envelope now.
This has felt like a really positive month. Seems ridiculous to get so excited over a BM but after 3 -4 years of increasing constipation this is a significant change for me.
I am hopeful that I will break new ground with my CFS soon. Previously when I have got to the point I’m at now, I have relapsed. The next couple of months will show which way it is going to go.
Basic diet: unchanged from last month. My day pretty much goes like this in respect of food:
Breakfast: Beef and potato, tallow, meat cooking liquid, salt
Decaf coffee with tsp sugar.
Lunch: beef and potato, tallow, meat cooking liquid. Salt
Snack: stewed apple with refined coconut oil and ½ tsp sugar
Tea: Beef and potato, tallow, parsnip, salt, meat cooking liquid.
Snack: 2 oatcakes with coconut oil. One with honey, the other with strawberry jam. ½ banana
Throughout day drink water with added salt.
Once a week have roast chicken with roasted potato, parsnip, onion, mushroom, garlic.
I am one of those people that can eat a repetitive diet and not go insane. It serves my energy levels to keep it simple and my husband helps a lot in preparing my food. The beef is cooked in bulk in the slow cooker and frozen in usable portions. Cooking liquid saved and likewise portioned and frozen. Fat saved from meat cooking liquid and additional tallow purchased. Potatoes are boiled fresh for each meal. Parsnips roasted in bulk and stored in fridge. I have 40g most days. There will be some resistant starch from the parsnips but it is a compromise I am ok with for such a small amount. I am happy with the small amount of lutein and zeaxanthin I am getting from the oatcakes. In the context of my daily diet about 25% of the total comes from the oats. The apples are stewed en-masse and both frozen and refrigerated.
I could tighten up my diet more, eliminate the oats and banana, but in reality the foods I am currently eating are pretty much all I can eat VA or not. I do tolerate carrot and squash and a couple of other things (or I did when I last tried them) but they are off the menu. I feel as if I have backed myself into quite a dietary corner with all my failed dietary interventions in the past and I don’t want to risk losing the tolerance to the few foods I have left in my repertoire. I have therefore chosen to keep small amounts of these foods in.
And that is pretty much it for now. Thank you if you have made it to the end.
I have greatly appreciated and benefited from reading other peoples logs and contributions so many thanks also to all those who participate. I was a lurker for a long time so also appreciate that not everyone feels able to post.
My gratitude particularly extends to Grant who has not only worked all this out but had the courage to go public with his theory.
Rachel, thank you for the detailed diet and symptoms log. I agree that a limited diet that causes no intestinal problems is the best. It may seem overly restrictive but people I know who complain of intestinal distress eat all kinds of things in all kinds of combinations at all times of the day.
I don’t do well with high fiber and have mostly solved my constipation with avoiding excess fiber. Perhaps you would benefit from not eating the oats as much. I also supplement magnesium.
I hope your eyes and everything continue to improve.
I've read that refined coconut oil is not healthy because it includes a process that involves bleaching and deodorizing of the oil. Organic extra virgin coconut oil a better choice. See the attached website on coconut oil.
https://draxe.com/nutrition/fats-and-oils/coconut-oil-benefits/
Hi Rachel
Very interested to hear about your progress- am in very similar situation with very low adrenal function, chronic fatigue and candida- I had great success with liver flushing and was forced to stop after finding out my liver ducts are clogged with old candida fungus. Am hoping to get better energy and strength so I can resume hot yoga which was the only thing to help me pass the fungus out from my liver into the stool (I have actually seen this- I think the combination of heat and movement was a great stimulus to the lymphatic system, which runs through the liver). Then I will resume flushes again (I've done 55)- I am convinced this is the best and fastest way to eliminate vitamin A. I am only on the first month of this diet and still have horrendous fatigue and low cortisol but my facial acne has completely gone and my digestion is loads better- and my mood is good- so I am very impressed so far.
One year update
In some ways the last six months have been disappointing in that I have no major improvements. However, on looking back on the first six months I can see that things have improved in small but hopefully significant ways and that I have hopefully made some adjustments that will help me going forwards.
Headaches: rarer now. I still get these but they tend to be milder and shorter. If I try something new that mobilises toxins too rapidly, I still get severe headaches. It is no longer something I am constantly aware of.
Eyes: Dry eye much improved. Vision has worsened. I saw some improvement initially. This has reversed and I am now worse than pre low VA. I am longsighted so it is my close vision that has worsened. I can’t read without reading glasses at all and find I am wearing them most of the time around the house whereas I only used to wear them reading smaller print.
I have a persistent irritating floater in my right eye at the moment. I keep thinking I need to clean my glasses.
Improvements in night vision and around bright lights has persisted.
Stiffness in spine: I had forgotten about this so I think it’s fair to say this has gone.
Neck pain: Greatly reduced in both frequency and intensity. Only really notice in bed.
Jaw: Muscle pain seems to have lessened. This typically worsens during any detox flare. I also think the clicking, sideways movement in my jaw when opening my mouth may have improved.
Mood: Varied. I still cope horribly with stress. In between obvious stressors my mood is improved. Anxiety is a big issue but in between I feel calmer.
Bowels: For most of the time this was unchanged. I had some improvement at around 5 – 6 months which held. Over the last few weeks I have managed to introduce beans which has improved things further. Without getting too gross, I have more volume and better consistency. Still a bit soft and often tacky and harder to pass than it should be. Periodically I have almost normal BM’s. I have noticed a dark green tinge to my stool and wonder what this is. Hopefully it is a sign that I am excreting some nasties.
Tongue: I haven’t mentioned this before which was an oversight. I get a lot of white gunge on my tongue. I scrape it every night when I clean my teeth. I noticed during the latter part of last year that this has improved by about 50%.
Basic diet: Beef, Potato, beans (Pinto, aduki, butter/lima). Some tallow saved from cooking meat. Coconut oil (refined). In smaller amounts, chicken, stewed apple, banana, parsnip, mushroom, oats, honey. I have reintroduced a small amount of oats this last month. I have reduced the apple and I like to have an evening snack that doesn’t require much preparation. This is oatcakes or a small bowl of porridge.
Biggest changes to diet were firstly around Nov when I dropped my daily decaf coffee and onions and garlic per Garrett Smiths research around supporting the alcohol and aldehyde dehydrogenase systems. I also decreased the amount of stewed apples I have and swapped some tallow for coconut oil (purchased as tallow and not by-product of cooking meat).
Secondly around mid Feb I decided to try beans to support bile excretion. To my surprise I was able to do this. I have had some gut discomfort and a fair amount of wind but I have been able to reduce the wind to manageable amounts using activated charcoal. Usually with problematic foods, I get gut pain that increases with each successive day I consume that food until I can no longer tolerate it and I back off the food. That hasn’t happened with the beans. I think the pain has largely been due to wind putting pressure on sore gut tissues and by managing that the pain has improved. The wind is improving and I am needing less charcoal. I’m on my third week and eating a significant amount of beans. (90g / approx. ½ cup with each meal). This feels like a major breakthrough for me. It has concerned me for some time that I haven’t been able to incorporate anything that would interrupt the recirculation of bile. That it is also helping my bowels and constipation is a bonus. I wonder how much of my constipation has simply been due to there being insufficient substrate for my gut to act on. (Big thank you to @Bludica for bringing beans to my attention.)
I no longer remember why I eliminated beans from my diet in the first place. I suspect it was because I was put on a “stoneage diet” and when I started researching paleo diets, beans were largely discussed as problem foods best avoided. I’m not sure I eliminated them due to an actual problem digesting them so it may be that I would have been able to tolerate them all along had I tried them.
I have been able to reduce the amount of salt I take from 10g to 5g or so a day without a worsening of my POTS. I have tried to do this numerous times over the past few years but have always had to increase it back up again. I am happy to maintain this level of salt. I was prompted to do this when I started the homeopathic detox (see below). My first course included natrum muriaticum which is NaCl. Whether this is a direct result of that remedy or not I don’t know. Restoring B1 can also help POTS.
Supplements: I currently take magnesium as topical MgCl, B1, B2, B3, B7, DIM & I3C
I have gradually reduced the niacin. I am still taking a significant amount but much less than previously (1 x 640mg down from 5 x 640mg). I still struggle with B1. I need it but it aggravates my gut. I typically take it once a week, either 300mg Benfotiamine or 50mg allithiamine. The allithiamine tends to cause a detox headache so my decision which form to take is usually made based on how I’m feeling in myself.
I take 1/3 36.5mg capsule B2 daily. Biotin, I started taking small amounts daily but am currently taking a large amount (8mg) daily. I will only do this short term before dropping it back down. It has helped with some external healing and I am hoping it is also benefiting my gut.
Homeopathic Detox Therapy: I started this towards the end of last year. I still struggle with the idea of homeopathy but decided to give it a try. Many other food and supplements are problematic for me and I thought this might be the gentlest way forward to support and improve my detox capability. Each course takes 8 weeks. I am coming towards the end of my second course. The first course wasn’t specifically a detox px but a more general one to gauge how well I tolerate homeopathic remedies given my overall sensitivity and poor general health. The current remedy is for the Polio vaccine (I was surprised by the number of these I have had over the years) and there are some small signs of improvement. It is hard to pin things down to specific interventions though.
I had a severe reaction when I first started taking it which took me by surprise. Hopefully this means that it is working.
Reading all this back I can see that there have been some shifts. For me though the things I really want to see improvements in are my energy levels/CFS and the range of foods I can eat. Those haven’t changed with the possible exception of the introduction of beans. I do however think that some of the changes which are recent (beans and biotin) have the potential to move things forward for me.
I suspect that I have persisting damage from vaccines and pharmaceuticals impeding my ability to clear VA and other toxins so I am hoping the homeopathic detox can help in this area. It is early days with this and there are so many things that need addressing that it will likely take quite some time.
I am considering testing my hair as I would like to assess my mineral status, in particular Molydenum and Selenium. I might trial these cautiously first to see if I tolerate them since there is no point paying for tests if I can't act on the results.
@rachel I think incorporating beans will help, I avoided them for most of my detox in the last 16 months. I am able to eat larger amounts of them now without digestive distress and seems that this is giving a boost to healing. I also now do rice as 50% white 50% brown without issue.
@rachel , I cant tolerate even a small amount of beans , beans dont give me Detox symptoms per se, but they activate my colitis , and then it persists for at least a month even after completely stopping beans intake . I used to eat lots and lots of beans before I got vitamin toxicity .
I think both of them are somehow related . I would suggest to go without beans for a month and see how your track system feels . Moreover regarding potatoes , although they have very low vitamin A, but I still get symptoms from eating them , I think that has something to do with plant toxins and lectins or whatever they are .
@rachel good to hear that you have made progress in the last year.
I have a close family member (FM) with CFS. She developed it nearly 10 years ago & I’ve been looking to help her since then. After all this research my latest thinking is this (based on N=1 so I’m not claiming general applicability!):
1. It’s quite well understood that a number of different stresses & traumas can cause CFS. Stress (chronic & acute), chemical poisoning, bacteria & viruses, toxicity, physical injury particularly head injury, emotional trauma etc Often several are required to cause the illness. I think that one of the under appreciated elements is vitamin A toxicity. My FM was taking cod liver oil for 20 years.
2. These stresses/poisonings damage the mitochondria & cause limbic system damage in the brain. This alters the way the autonomic (automatic & unconscious) nervous system works.
3. For recovery the stresses/poisonings that caused the illness must be removed or it will reoccur. This is where removing stress, cleaning up lifestyle, eating a good diet comes in. Also reducing vitamin A toxicity.
4. However, this alone is not enough for full recovery (from what I’ve seen). Removing the cause of the limbic system damage does not correct it. For this you need to use neuroplasticity techniques. I know of 5 programmes but I’m sure there are more. DNRS, Gupta amygdala retraining, optimum health clinic 90 day programme, Dan Neuffer ANS rewire & the Lightening Process. They are all different but with the same aim: getting the body out of the maladaptive stress response, getting the body in the healing state & rewiring the brain for health.
That’s my understanding of the 2 elements for recovery.
I like a visual picture for everything. If you don’t think visually then ignore my weird analogy 🤣 I think of a dimmer switch. The light on represents health. The red hand (toxins, stress etc) turns the dimmer switch down. Can happen slowly or quickly. When it is down the red hand needs to be removed. However this does not put the light fully back on. A blue hand (one of the programmes) is required to turn it back on. The light should stay on unless the red hand comes back.
My FM is all about removing the red hand. She has small improvements in health but never recovery. Another family member is all about the blue hand. She has completely recovered but keeps crashing back as she goes back to her hectic, unhealthy lifestyle.
Hi,
Thanks for your reply. I think you have a good point that there is more to it than just the removal of toxins etc. I have worked with the OHC in the past and have the Gupta package but have had limited sucess with them. Perhaps for me I need to get more work done re removing stresses and toxins before addressing the neuroplasticity side of things.
There have also been some major stressors which I was unaware of until recently. I have had a great sense of unease but didn't know the cause. It's been like the elephant in the room so I've been trying to heal myself without all the relevant information. Now I have that information, perhaps I will be able to shift things along.
I have found EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) helpful. It is particularly helpful in trauma recovery but the technique can be used more widely. One aspect that particularly helps me is that you don't have to be able to verbalise or identify a thought or feeling which is something I struggle with. I can just focus on an uncomfortable feeling or body sensation and do the eye movements and it helps.