Quote from ggenereux on September 17, 2026, 10:25 am

This is my update for being twelve years on my ultra low vitamin A diet. As I wrote about in my last update, last year I went through a prolonged period of increased stress. That absolutely and very negatively affected my health. I knew that elevated cortisol levels can be very damaging to health, but there’s nothing like experiencing it firsthand to really understand just how profound the negative effects can be.  It was by far the biggest setback in my health in the last twelve years. 

One of the most direct and immediate effects for me was that I quickly lost 10 lbs. Since I was already quite lean and much of that weight loss was muscle mass, that was 10 lbs that I couldn't really afford to lose. Other negative consequences were months of very poor sleep and therefore poor energy levels during the day. When I finally overcame the stress, I made a reasonably good recovery. I gained back some weight and my sleep quality significantly improved.  For the most part, this setback had nothing to do with my low vA diet. At least not directly in the sense of any so-called deficiency.  However, what follows does highlight the potential pitfalls of following a restrictive diet for too long.

By mid summer (of 2026) I had also not fully recovered. Earlier in the year I had developed a weird inflammation on my fingertips that very, very closely resembled the eczema I had struggled with 10-12 years ago.  The reason I say the inflammation was weird is that it was almost exclusively confined to the fingertips on my working hand.  Basically, the fingernail cuticles on my right hand were swollen (inflamed) and rashy. This was also very different from the eczema I had experienced 12 years ago. Back then I had the eczema condition on the backs of my hands, my face, neck, back, under-arms etc. Whereas this new condition was much more localized and actually quite tolerable. 

However, the new inflammation condition was waxing and waning but wasn’t making the progressive improvement I thought it should. That’s because I had assumed this was just a tail end consequence of dealing with elevated cortisol levels.  However, with more time it became clear there was more to it and something else was wrong. 

Sorry, MIA for much of 2026

Although I wanted to get back involved with this low vitamin A project earlier this year, I felt it just wasn’t appropriate for me to comment on health topics if I wasn’t doing so great myself.  Also, as before, I had a bunch of other projects that kept me very busy over the summer. At the same time, I was patiently waiting for my newly acquired inflamed fingers condition to resolve on its own. Although it did for a while, that didn’t last for long. I then decided I needed to find the real root cause of it. Quite fortunately it didn’t take me very long to figure it out.  

Too Much Red Meat? - Nah, no way!

Is there such a thing as eating too much red meat?  Well, yes, there is, at least for some people. Over the years I’ve heard from several people reporting that they have a very low tolerance to red meat. However, since I had quite successfully been consuming red meat nearly three meals a day for the last 10+ years I had assumed that it didn’t apply to me.  But now I had to consider that my prolonged and moderately excessive red meat consumption had finally caught up to me. Here’s one of the reasons that I suspected the red meat consumption was a big factor in my new condition. Within 10 days of being on vacation in South America my inflammation condition completely resolved. What changed while on vacation? Well, several things changed. I was getting more sun exposure, swimming in the ocean (I think the salt water helped my skin to heal very quickly), and a lot less red meat consumption.  It’s just not normal to have a steak or burger for breakfast when travelling.  Then a few weeks after returning home to Canada, the inflammation started slowly creeping back. What also immediately came back upon my return home was my regular red meat heavy diet.

But was it really the resumed red meat consumption causing it or was I just seeing a correlation?  It was easy enough to test it. I simply cut out the red meat and kept most of the other 2-3 foods in my expansive diet the same.  I changed to chicken breast one meal per day and added more sourdough bread and rice for the other meals.  Sure enough, once again, within a week I noticed a big improvement. Within three or four more weeks the weird inflammation on my fingertips had once again completely resolved.  As I refined my hypothesis I added another smaller intervention.  I stopped the honey that I was previously adding to the sourdough bread I was eating and stopped adding it to my coffee as well.

Now, what exactly was it about my excessive red meat consumption that was at the root cause of my newly acquired inflammation condition? Well, there are a bunch of possibilities; some candidates are the over bioaccumulation of:

• Iron
• Selenium
• Niacin
• Zinc

I didn’t think it was iron overload because with every blood donation I’ve made in the last 10 years I’ve had my hemoglobin checked. The result has been reasonably consistent. Although the result was in the higher end of the normal range, it was still in the normal range. 

The over bioaccumulation of selenium, and or niacin and or zinc are also definite possibilities. However, there’s another one, and that is excessive uric acid levels. The purines in meat (and they are higher in red meat) break down into uric acid. And so too does fructose (in my case via honey). Therefore, I thought excessive uric acid was the most likely of the candidates.  Although elevated uric acid levels are most commonly associated with gout, I have absolutely no signs of classic gout. My feet and toes are perfect. I have no joint pain in my feet, knees or anywhere else. However, uric acid is indeed known to deposit in the skin and can cause inflammation. Uric acid crystals usually deposit in the toes and fingers first because of their slightly cooler temperatures than the rest of the body. But it usually deposits more so in the toes just due to their location at the bottom of the body where the uric acid can effectively pool. Somewhat likewise they are more prone to deposit in points of higher physical stress. Thus, I reasoned that’s probably why I had the issue almost exclusively in my right (dominant) hand and not the left.

Okay, I had a theory, but I needed to do some direct testing.  I ordered an in-home uric acid test kit, and the result was pretty much immediate confirmation: 405 μmol/L or 6.8 mg/dL.

That is just below the standard clinical threshold of 7.0 mg/dL (416 μmol/L) where hyperuricemia begins. More specifically, that 6.8 mg/dL (405 µmol/L) is the concentration that is right about the urate-crystal saturation point, but it depends slightly on temperature and other factors. The “normal range” for uric acid levels varies a bit between labs. Oddly, here in Alberta the normal range is 3.4–8.4 mg/dL (200–500 µmol/L). Of course, that 500 µmol/L is well above the 405 µmol/L concentration where uric acid crystals can start to form. Why the overlap? I don’t know, but it sure doesn’t make sense to me.

But, importantly, my 405 μmol/L test result was also about a month after I had already cut out most of my red meat consumption. Therefore, it is very likely that my uric acid levels were above the crystal saturation threshold for a good long time before that.

The good news is that I’m very confident that I determined the root cause of the issue. The other good news is that it seems that resolving the issue can happen very quickly, at least it did for me. Like in weeks, and not in months or years.

Why Now?

Why had I been okay with moderately high red meat consumption for like the last 10+ years and now it suddenly became a problem? My best guess is that it was just a combination of factors stacking up on top of each other that tipped the scales on it.

First, it was the increased cortisol levels caused by prolonged excessive stress, and the resulting catabolism of my own muscle mass releasing purines. That would have significantly increased my own endogenous uric acid production.  Second was just my base-line red meat heavy diet. Then, to push it over the top was the honey I was regularly having with the sourdough bread and coffee. The bottom-line lesson re-learned: too much of a good thing can turn into a bad thing given enough time. However, in no way am I now saying red meat is a bad choice. I think it can still be a great part of a low vitamin A (or any) diet. We (I) just need to be more careful with not overdoing it.  Just to be clear, I probably would have been fine if I hadn’t included honey in my diet for the last few years.

My Diet Plan Going Forward

What I plan to do now is continue with being very low on red meat while monitoring my uric acid levels. Once I get it down into say the mid 200 µmol/L range I’ll probably start adding red meat back into my diet. I’ll stay away from honey (and of course other high fructose foods) for a good long time.   

Overall health

If anyone is curious, I’ll share more about my current overall state of health. 

Generally, I feel really quite good and my overall sense of wellbeing (mood, calmness, energy levels, clear thinking, etc.) is very good. My vision remains very good to excellent.  Earlier in the year I had a few labs done by my GP and my eGFR is now in the normal range at 63. Albeit that’s at the low end of the normal range (60-80), but it’s still within the normal. So, I think that means that I’ve officially had my CKD reversed. And that should be really interesting to the ~ 37 million North American adults dealing with some stage of CKD.

Some other markers:

• Resting blood pressure is usually 120 / 64 and BPM ~ 50.
• HbA1c = 5.1
• C-Reactive Protein (CRP) <0.6 mg/L
• Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT) = 18 U/L
• Calcium = 2.24 mmol/L

With the weight loss I experienced earlier this year I lost quite a bit of strength. So, I’ll be working on rebuilding that.

More info on Uric Acid

Here’s a good conversation about the risk of uric acid accumulation.

Surprising New Science of Uric Acid – Drop Acid by Dr. David Perlmutter 

And here’s a good presentation by Dr. Ben Bickman stating that fructose might be a bigger driver of uric acid production than is red meat consumption.

55: Uric Acid with Dr. Ben Bikman

If uric acid overload has happened to me, it could be happening to others. People coming over into a low vitamin A diet from a liver-eating carnivore diet could obviously be far more likely to already have high uric acid levels.

Wishing you all the best with your health journey and staying proactive!