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Rasheed's progress Report
Hey guys!
I am nearing two years on low-0 vitamin A diet . I am seeing significant changes . Grants @ggenereux2014 recently commented on detox setback etc on his new blog post . I personally believe , it takes a lot of time to lower vitamin A levels ( obviously bile reabsorption , bad food choices are part of it , deficiencies ) . I think the minimum time frame is 3+ years( on a strict -very low vitamin A diet ) . I have been trying to lower my vitamin A levels since 2016 , but its only until 2 years back I came on this forum and gained knowledge about what to eat and what not to . Having said that , I think one needs to go 0 vitamin A for at least a year to observe changes
Anyways I will give an update on my heath and some serious caveats people need to consider during detox
I started with 0 vitamin A diet on dec 2019 ( I was sick on seeing no changes on a very low vitamin A diet ) . beef /chicken /egg whites and rice
After 1.5 years of 0 - low vitamin A diet
1 : Mentally : 90% better ( focus , energy , 90% of anxiety , depression , mood swings gone ) , General well being . Able to handle emotions well
2 : physically ( leaner, high testosterone ( gf is happy 😛 ), hair growth , good energy)
3 : physiological : I am not pre-diabetic anymore ! Vitamin D- stable , Vitamin C is still needed ( i think because of carbs )
I am able to tolerate some vitamin A now , i only get mild symptoms if I do ( mostly mental )
Caveats :
While on a recovery , Stick to red meat only !! Do not eat a lot of chicken or eggs , I dont know the reason behind this but I highly believe these are inflammatory . You can eat chicken ( but only once a week , and eat only 1-2 eggs whites a day ( one yolk is probably fine )
The only type of beans permissible are the black mexican beans and cannellini beans , these beans are safe . rest other type of beans I are not safe to consume
Some food despite of google saying has 0 vitamin A , actually has a ton of Vitamin A derivatives , its not only retinol and beta-carotene you have to worry about . The worse reaction i ever got was from consuming Lutein + Zeaxanthin . Lentils have 0 Vitamin A as per google and but has a ton of Lutein + Zeaxanthin .
Lutein + Zeaxanthin be careful of this !!! never consume any food that has it .
Stay away from brown rice , only have it twice a week . White is best to consume
Depleting Vitamin A faster :
Fiber helps , but I can say a lot about it . Smoking maybe ? but I think it causes havoc in serum retinol , It will immediately give you symptoms . The best way and the fastest way I know of depleting vitamin A faster is sweating , sweat !!! High intensity exercise will help you sweat faster .
Supplements to consider :
1 : ZINC - This is the most essential , not possible to recover without this . This is the safest I have taken , probably you are very Zinc deficient if you are Vitamin A toxic . For starters take 50MG Zinc Gluconate for for a month initially to load up your zinc stores.
then 20 mg twice a week + red meat would keep your stores high. Will also help with depleting copper
2: Low dose B complex : Find a low dose B complex : or split the tablet in as per the RDA in one tablet . At max take 300% of RDA per B vitamin . 2-3 times a week only
3 : Vitamin D : Only take if you are really deficient ( if you have symptoms like joint pain and dry mouth ) . Once your vitamin A levels stabilize a bit , you body will be able to hold on to Vitamin D better . I didnt go out in sun during winters for about 5 months , my vitamin D levels were still sufficient .
4 : Vitamin C : If your gums are bleeding , you need it . Take 1000mg for a week to load up or until symptoms disappear . No need to take daily !
I believe now I am on a confident path of recovery , but only if I follow the diet and procedure strictly . Another two years of this diet , hopefully I will be able to recover 100% . Detox sets back happens only when people are not strict about their diet
Thank you for these tips!
Can you tell us more about how much rice, beef and eggwhites you eat in general?
Do you eat mainly beef and just a little bit of rice or the other way around? Also how fatty/lean is the beef you consume.
And you say fiber helps, but there is almost none in beef+rice. So do you supplement it?
Also did you take accutane?
Thanks for the report! Indeed yolks are best to be avoided imo, at least until the negative reactions slow down:
https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/136/10/2519/4746690
Serum lutein 26% (P < 0.001) and zeaxanthin 38% (P < 0.001) concentrations increased after 5-wk of 1 egg/d compared with the phase prior to consuming eggs.
Quote from Max on June 23, 2021, 4:05 amThank you for these tips!
Can you tell us more about how much rice, beef and eggwhites you eat in general?
Do you eat mainly beef and just a little bit of rice or the other way around? Also how fatty/lean is the beef you consume.
And you say fiber helps, but there is almost none in beef+rice. So do you supplement it?
Also did you take accutane?
I don't eat chicken or eggs anymore , i get a bad reaction to them , I feel fatigued and pain in body . No matter how much read meat I eat , I do fine .
Now days I eat lamb instead of beef , not for any particular reason the place I live lamb is often consumed . Though I feel beef is better . I mostly eat lamb/beef , rice , beans , banana , sometimes a little bit of curd . once a month I will eat a cake or pastry .
Fiber is in brownrice and beans
No I didn't take accutane , but I overdosed with sweet potatoes , codliver oil and multivitamin .
Quote from rockarolla on June 23, 2021, 7:11 am@r-2 what's your macro for beef, i.e. how many grams you are typically consume per day?
Stick to red meat only
i agree - iron is essential
I stopped counting , I feel that's a wrong way looking at health . I eat as much as I feel like .. normally 300-400 gms of meat would be sufficient . Sometimes I don't feel like eating and I don't eat . Listen to your body
General Blood Test results . Vitamin D, CBC, liver and kidney test
All normal in range
Uploaded files:
Update 22 months:
I made a big blunder recently before 4 months ago , I started taking basil seeds ( dipped in water/milk( little bit) ) . I thought because of the fiber content it would help me detox faster ( theory of bile acid being reabsorbed in the stream in intestine ) . I took it for a month, initially I was fine , but eventually it lead me having a colitis flare up ( kidney beans were the only suspect I thought )
Now usually how I deal with my flare up is that I let it be and eventually after a 2-3 months it gets normal on its own . but this time I kept on taking the food that actually caused the flare up and it has only prolonged the recovery . I have stopped taking basil seeds last month and hopefully I will get better after a month or two .
But a positive thing I observed this time was that my colitis flare up symptoms weren't that bad . Which I assume is because I have reduced my Vitamin A status to a greater extent ( hopefully that's the case )
I will keep you guys updated on my recovery journey .
UPDATE : Feb 2022
Intestines are healing slowly , I have started to get well formed stools again though it does bleed a bit still , lost like 3 kgs during this bad flare up due to eating seeds . I will never touch them ever again . Though my intestines are still inflamed ( cramps and discomfort ) , but I am getting better slowly . Colitis is surely going in remission . I think 1-2 more months and I will be fully fine.
Regarding Vitamin A , I think colitis was a blessing in disguise , I believe it must have pushed a lot of bile out of my system . I feel good , Vitamin A toxicity symptoms are very mild . Once I heal completely from intestine issues I will be at a better place to judge my Vitamin A detox journey .
Other than that I will be planning to do a Vitamin A test sometime soon for the first time . Might as well do a Zinc and Copper test .
Will starting thinking of donating blood on a regular basis and get back to MMA exercise
Update april 15 2022:
Intestines healed completely , stools are well formed and solid . No bleeding . I will never eat seeds agains in myl ife . Seeds and red kidney beans trigger my colitis . I have been eating black and white beans with no issues at all .Actually digestion is much better with it . During this terrible bout of colitis due to basil seeds, I had lost around 4 Kgs . My weight went from 62 to 58 kgs . I am slowly gaining weight . Now its back to 60 kgs , I am still skinny , This year the plan is to gain 10 kgs .
Diet is bread, little but of butter . White rice , beans , lamb and bit of pickle for taste , olive oil . cookies . sometime ice creame .
I tend to tolerate more foods now . I know this could lead to bad health again , but F it , I want to enjoy food now for a while , its been 4 years of hell eating a restrictive diet .
My blood cooper level are in the bottom acceptable range , with low range i ( which seems to be ok as per @jiri). Zinc is pretty good . Thyroid levels are also fine ( tsh .092 ) with mid range t3 and t4
Sleep is better , energy is good . Hopefully I will completely fix my leaky guy one day , but that will take some years of intestinal healing . Overall fingers crossed , on a good path now