Quote from bludicka on October 22, 2019, 12:46 am

Quote from Sarabeth on October 21, 2019, 9:43 pm

After 30 years of vegetarianism, I ate WAPF/GAPS for five years - very high in zinc, and surely enough time to correct a deficiency?

Except that five years ago I was suffering from the worst mental health of my life, and while I now think this was precipitated by Vitamin A toxicity (eating so much liver, CLO, dairy, eggs, etc. etc.), it was a few life-saving supplements that helped me make it through till now: zinc picolinate, B6/P5P, and a handful of other cofactors, plus a low-copper diet for a few years. I agree with the person who recommended plasma zinc, ceruluplasmin, and copper tests. The zinc/copper balance can be off in either direction, and symptoms mimic each other. It can be awful to guess and take the wrong thing! High copper foods were sending me off the deep end (literally).

In my case, I was severely zinc deficient, and severely overloaded with unbound copper. It's taken about five years of supplementing large doses of zinc plus cofactors for my blood test results to come into normal range.

I now think that Vitamin A overload was underlying all of this, but I have no idea how long it takes to correct, or if I can ever stop taking zinc, or what the "right" thing is to do re: supplementation.

William Walsh has done revolutionary research in terms of treating symptoms with simple and straightforward bloodwork and supps. (However, it was Walsh-trained physicians who put me on Vitamin A and calcium last March, which sent me into a horribly painful kidney "attack" and caused me to look up first intolerance to calcium and then Vitamin A toxicity...so choose your advisors well!)

I don't know much about pyroluria, but these people usually need supra-physiological amounts of zinc and B6. But this is not normal, there are many nutrient dysregulations, copper-calcium-iron-zinc, nutritional balancing therapy is trying to address this - but some of their advice didn't help me much.  I read Walsh in the past, was not so helpful for me too. The heavy metals chelation was the most important for me and then copper detox and healing adrenal fatigue. I hope that with VA detox I will resolve any remaining imbalances in my body.

And the greatest paradox is that vitamin A is recommended to increase ceruloplasmin (copper binding protein), high ceruloplasmin = smaller amount of free unbound copper. That was one of the reasons I was supplementing vitamin A - Morley Robbins and his protocol how to increase ceruloplasmin. And that's why I no longer trust any authority.