Quote from pgomez on August 5, 2023, 7:10 pm

Hi Everyone,

I’ve recently come across Grant’s blog and books and I’m relatively new to the idea that Vit A is a toxin. I’ve been reading (as fast as I can) the blog, books, and this forum and I still have a lot to go. However, I thought it might be useful to share some thoughts at this point. (But, forgive me if these ideas have been covered already and I haven’t read it yet.) While I don’t have eczema or any other “auto-immune” syndrome (that I know of), I have someone close to me who has full-body psoriasis and has had it for over three decades; so, I’m looking to see if this person and I can run some test interventions.

First, let me say thank you to Grant for developing this theory associating vitamin A toxicity with what are commonly called “auto-immune” conditions. You have done a tremendous job cataloging lots of evidence and ideas in support of this concept.

Second, I’m not sure that the theory by itself is the whole story. Vitamin A is naturally present in a wide variety of foods. What if the problem is not so much vitamin A but rather something in the environment is poisoning our livers? Or, both too much vitamin A and liver poisoning?

The folks at the Slime Mold Time Mold blog (https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2021/08/02/a-chemical-hunger-part-vii-lithium/) make an interesting case that the obesity epidemic could be driven by increased lithium in the environment, particularly the water supply. Lithium is known to affect the liver (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1629393/). Lithium, aluminum, and mercury are all environmental toxins that have 1) been around since ancient times (unlike glyphosate); 2) are much more prevalent in our environment and food supply in recent times; and 3) have toxic affects at low doses.

Likewise, vitamin A has been around a long time; but something has happened in recent times to exacerbate the prevalence of vitamin A toxic (“auto-immune”) conditions. Certainly, something big happened around the 1980's.

Also, it was mentioned awhile ago on the forum that perhaps the problem is not so much vitamin A per se, but synthetic or denatured (I don’t know which term is right) vitamin A -- which I think is what's used for milk and flour fortification. (Side note: This food fortification with vitamin A is particularly insidious because there’s no way to know if store-bought or restaurant breads are made with fortified flours, thinking it is "healthier.")

All that said, it seems to me that what fits the picture best is the combination of an environmental agent (lithium or aluminum or both) poisoning our livers and synthetic vitamin A being added to our foods in abundance.

Some possible environmental changes:

• Fortification of most kinds of dairy and grain flours with vitamin A.
• Lithium released as part of battery production and oil/shale drilling operations.
• Increased use of amalgam dental fillings (mercury).
• The increased vaccine schedule (aluminum) for children along with changes to the formulary of vaccines.
• It probably doesn't help either that in recent times, we have lost the seasonal cycles of food availability. Perhaps in times past, we would build up a certain amount of vitamin A in our bodies during the summer and fall and that would drain away during the winter and spring?

If these conjectures are true, it would certainly explain a lot of otherwise weird phenomena.

It makes me think that under normal/natural conditions, our bodies can handle a certain amount of vitamin A just fine. And, in fact, it might be good for our bodies to be exposed to small amounts of natural vitamin A. But, if there's an environmental toxin that reduces our liver capacity for dealing with vitamin A or our livers have trouble processing different types of vitamin A or our environments start containing much more vitamin A than ever before throughout the year -- or, most likely, a combination of these factors – then, that all adds up to making us extra sensitive to vitamin A than we would otherwise be and strange problems start to appear.

What to do? If these conjectures might be true, it sounds like these are some things to try:

• I like Grant’s idea of using activated charcoal to try getting contaminants out of the liver specifically and body generally. That’s the "go-to" treatment used for poisoning and is probably very important.
• I like Grant’s ideas on the low vitamin A diet. Grant’s ebooks go into the diet in much more detail.
• However, it might be good to follow the low vitamin A diet more strictly for a few months and then add a little natural vitamin A sources for a few months. In other words, introduce a little seasonality.
• It might be good to eat some saturated fat. (I understand that the saturated fats encourage recycling of stored body fats, particularly poly-unsaturated fats.)
• It's probably wise to assiduously avoid synthetic vitamin A (fortified foods) at all times.
• It might be a good idea to use a reverse osmosis water filter or distilled water for water that you drink or cook with. This idea would help reduce lithium and aluminum.
• If using distilled/reverse osmosis water, it’s probably good to add a little salt. In fact, it might be better to add potassium (in the form of "No Salt") and salt (I prefer pink Himalayan salt) in a 2:1 ratio. In other words, you could fill a glass of water and add 2 shakes of potassium salt, 1 shake of regular salt.
• Avoid vegetable oils that are highly concentrated and processed (corn, canola, cottonseed/Crisco, soy, sunflower, safflower, rice bran, grape seed). This is a whole separate and big topic, but the most relevant aspect of it here is that I don't believe the concentration of such oils -- which occurs during processing -- is in any way natural or healthy for our bodies. I think the concentration is bad in itself; but is also bad because it concentrates any environmental toxins the underlying vegetable/seeds/beans have been exposed to – which is quite significant when you realize that corn and soybeans are prime crops in North America.

 

Thank you for reading this stream of consciousness. Do I sound way off base?

Now, I’ll get back to my readings…