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Viktor's progress
Quote from Jiří on April 15, 2024, 6:39 am@viktor I would use solarium if I didn't have sun exposure even in the spring and summer. Also like I said you don't talk about vit K2 at all. That is essential if you take D3. Which I wouldn't take anyways..
Vit K2 can cause heart palpitations in sensitive individuals, and I remember having some issues with it. I think I could experiment with switching from MK-7 to MK-4 and vice versa, but for now I'm content with the amount of K2 I'm getting from food. When my 25-OH vit D was at 65 ng/mL, my blood calcium was right in the middle range, so I wasn't even close to hypercalcemia.
I don't see anything wrong with taking D3 supplements in order to keep 25-OH in the higher range, and solariums can increase the risk of melanoma. I do get deficient without D3 supplementation, and the recommended normal levels of 30-40 ng/mL were established long before the role of vitamin D in immunity, metabolism, gut health, sleep had been taken into account. 30 ng only means a person would probably not get severe bone issues. Only one of all the traditional docs I've seen suggested I aim for 80+ mg/mL, which I currently do.
Updated labs from April 19th 2024:
Vitamin D - 76.6 ng/mL
Calcium - 2.39 mmol/L
B12 - 420 pg/mL
Iron - 25.62 micromol/L
It turned out I had been getting much more D3 from a water-based supplement than I intended to, as the drops I counted were larger probably due to my tampering with the lid. In any case, when the bottle was half-empty by week 3, I realized I'd been taking around 80-90k IU a week, which is not an extremely high dose by any means but a lot more than my planned 30-35k IU. That explains why I sometimes felt crappy and then better within 30 minutes of taking a magnesium supplement. As I have zero desire to induce severe magnesium deficiency on myself, I'll be careful to monitor my D3 intake more closely.
As for my vitamin A sensitivity after finally fixing vitamin D deficiency, I can eat around 200-300 grams of liver patte over 2 days and feel great, then things start to get worse, but that's probably down to my iron sensitivity as well, or just retinol, or both things combined. Anyway, I'm not going to make liver my weekly or even monthly staple.
Despite near-awesome vitamin D status and very nice tolerance to moderate amounts of retinol in food, I still seem to have issues with b-carotene, which is strange as my beta-carotene blood test from some months ago showed normal levels even closer to low range. I experience low thyroid symptoms (numb arms and legs, brain fog, sluggishness, feeling cold) after eating foods high in carotene and pastry with added b-carotete as a colorant. My worse symptoms in the past began after overdosing on carotene from carrots and salads, alhough those were preceded by eating too much liver.
I don't really know what causes such a reaction still - my blood carotene levels are fine (they were much higher several years ago), my skin color is normal and I'm not fat but kinda ripped.
Here are some options for vitamin-d from uv-b:
Broad band uv-b Tanning based option:
Narrowband uv-b meant for treating psoriasis.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2332490.m570.l1313&_nkw=Narrowband+uvb&_sacat=0
I wonder if there could be an allergy going on, or if the detox triggers a low in a vitamin, such as B1.
Have you ever had poison ivy? Grant talked about how the allergen in it is so similar to beta carotene. I am extremely allergic to poison ivy (now). I spend my childhood outside and never got poison ivy, though. It seems like my poison ivy allergy arrived later in life.
I've upped my B1 foods and I do think it is a positive change.
Quote from kularity on May 3, 2024, 3:55 amHere are some options for vitamin-d from uv-b:
Broad band uv-b Tanning based option:
https://www.sperti.com/product/sperti-vitamin-d-light-box/
Narrowband uv-b meant for treating psoriasis.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2332490.m570.l1313&_nkw=Narrowband+uvb&_sacat=0
Thanks but I don't think I really need it as I have high-quality oral vit D drops certified as medicine (not supplement) in my country which raise serum 25-OH very decently and I'm planning on spending some time out in the sun this summer.
My main issue is b-carotene and strange symptoms from ingesting too much of it (which isn't much in my case lol). Vitamin D3 has really helped me with retinol sensitivity to the point where I was able to eat liver a couple days in a row.
Quote from lil chick on May 3, 2024, 4:36 amI wonder if there could be an allergy going on, or if the detox triggers a low in a vitamin, such as B1.
Have you ever had poison ivy? Grant talked about how the allergen in it is so similar to beta carotene. I am extremely allergic to poison ivy (now). I spend my childhood outside and never got poison ivy, though. It seems like my poison ivy allergy arrived later in life.
I've upped my B1 foods and I do think it is a positive change.
Do you mind sharing which B1 foods you're eating?
Edit:
I don't believe I've ever had contact with poison ivy. Are you reacting to beta-carotene as well? My symptoms are not allergy-type like but rather metabolic/thyroid.
Hi @viktor I'm eating pork! I'm going where no VA'er has gone before! Pork is always up at the top of B1 food lists. And it is a trad food for my ancestry. My centenarian grandmother grew up on pork and in her old age I bought ham cold cuts for her every week. Besides pork I also am giving in to my peanut addiction whenever the feeling moves me, LOL.
Those symptoms you describe (numb arms and legs, brain fog, sluggishness, feeling cold) are not too distant from things I also feel --but then again, most menopausal women feel some of those symptoms (at least the last 3)! (lol). What happens to me is that areas on my feet go pure white (raynauds). And also foot cramps that seem related to the cold. Very early to say but I really don't think I've had a foot cramp since starting the pork.
I'm pretty sure Ourania (another poster here) told me I was deficient in B1 and she was probably right. I think that I began to overcome my B1 deficiency earlier this year when I dropped alcohol, which is known to deplete it. I'm trying to do other things to not deplete it, such as backing off on caffeine usage and sugar.
Any particular reason your avoiding B1 supplements? seems like there are quite a few people who rave about the benefits of B1.
Eliot Overtone is one of the main champions of its supposed benefits.
Why am I anti-supplement?
1. Supplements are a good part of the reason I'm so goofed up. When I look at my long life I think that probably their net effect has been negative (from the fluoride tablets my mother gave me as a little child to the Fermented Cod Liver Oil I guzzled as a fifty-year old and many things in-between). Each time it seemed like such a good idea!
2. Maybe the whole idea of single nutrients is bad. Even if we could get single nutrients that were pure and the same as foods (which they probably aren't), I'm not sure they'd do the same thing as the foods that carry them because of co-factors.
3. Anything that is strong enough to heal is strong enough to harm... And we don't know when we've crossed that line
4. I think that supplementation of animal feeds is one of the reasons we, as a society, are getting goofed up
5. I suppose it is the same reason that I am on "the slow boat". I feel like we don't need to diverge very far from our traditional roots to find health.
I'm well aware that there are important exceptions to being anti-supp such as pernicious anemia and I'm flexible.