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What do you think of the iheal.me blog?
Quote from Josh on November 6, 2019, 7:42 amI am very doubtful of Anika's claims. She said that although they went off the diet a little shy of 1 year on it, that she and people in her circle started to develop signs of vitamin A "deficiency" at about 6 months into the diet. And yet apparently nobody had any blood tests to determine their serum retinol levels. Although I don't believe the the serum retinol test is good for assessing toxicity, I do think if it's exceptionally low that it can indicate when your liver/body has a low level of retinol. Or if you want "deficient." So in my opinion they were experiencing detox symptoms. But the symptoms were scary because they didn't just come and go. They persisted. It was like they hit a wall and things just started getting worse. Based on Grant's survey results, I think they are not the only ones who experienced a huge improvement at the beginning (which she does attribute to the vitamin A detox), only to hit a wall at some point. I don't think any of us can know for sure what is going on. But based on research about how long it takes the liver to empty its retinol stores and in the absence of any clinical markers of deficiency (by that I mean blood or liver tests), I would guess that at some point the detox process just gets overwhelmed.
In a recent podcast that Garrett did, he said that for people whose detox symptoms are too difficult to deal with, he recommends that they consume small amounts of vitamin A to help slow things down. I think the reason Annika et al. started feeling better was because they slowed down their body's attempt to detox. I think that Garret's new insights about the ADH/ALDH enzyme systems could have helped them and could be helpful to others who are hitting a similar wall. I certainly hope so. As Garrett put it somewhere: we built a race car with regular tires. Get the body to go into detox mode (releasing retinol) but with a detox apparatus that was not up to the task; at least not for the long haul.
Long story short: I think Annika et al. panicked and jumped ship. It seems that they are still consuming a relatively small amount of retinol, so I assume they will continue to detox, just more slowly. It may be that that turns out to be the best way for some people to detox. If that's true, then I don't really see a problem with it.
But Anika feels realy very well and healthy not only "feeling better" - and I think she knows her body best... If I eat some carotenoids, the detox process slows down a bit but I definitely don't feel much better... still sick and toxic. How can anyone feels good as she describes and be toxic? Maybe some people have VA toxicity only in some tissues - skin and otherwise they feel good? Or she wasn't really seriously ill and toxic and the whole low VA diet did not play a big role in her health (befor low VA diet I think she was vegan and maybe her diet now with meat, eggs, dairy is better for her and also has other benefits), her body got rid of excess VA relatively quickly - she took some time 25 000 IU VA daily.
Some people have benefits on this low VA diet from the beginning (I remember some people on Ray peat forum, e.g. "Vinero"), they had no detox symptoms and after some time they feel no progress and can eat small amounts of VA foods without problems - these people weren't so toxic, they feel very well without "hitting the wall".
"I think that Garret's new insights about the ADH/ALDH enzyme systems could have helped them and could be helpful to others who are hitting a similar wall." - for me personally it wasn't much helpful, only to understand why I am so VA toxic now - mercury, copper toxicity in the past. But I am not eating cauliflower and cruciferous vegetables, not eating garlic, onion (but for other reasons), not eating radishes, rutabagas, turnips, not drinking coffee, not taking drugs, hormonal pills, eating mostly organic and still have all the VA detox symptoms.
I don't know if you know the "dump phase" from Cutler protocol...."The dump phase is a time period during mercury chelation when there is either no improvement or even a worsening of symptoms. It sets in around 2 to 4 months after starting chelation (or after amalgam removal). It shows its peak at around 6 to 9 months into chelation and can last several months."
... and this is exactly my feeling now with low VA diet, at the beginning I felt the greatest progress and now I am in this "dump phase".
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Hello,
I was also on the low Vitamin A diet for about 12 months and also stopped it.
Why? Because it sucks to think all the time what you are allowed to eat and what not.
I think it is helpful for many people who took supplements and other shit.
But for someone who never took supplements and had a balanced diet before there is no reason to do this.
These days I am avoiding the super high vit a foods but not that strict like on the diet.
I started to eat pasta again and I only can say: mmmmmh!
I also reintroduced a bit of milk products.
And guess how I am feeling? I feel ALIVE
And guys please stop taking all this super wonder supplements, no one should need that to feel great.
Mary found that after 6 months on the diet she started to go downhill and that continued for the remaining 6 months she was on the diet. That doesn't sound like detox to me.
She thinks its that the diet lead to other nutritional deficiencies like B vitamins and should only be done for 6 months. Annika also thinks she got deficient in b vitamins.
Annika overdid the vitamin a supplements by taking them as recommended by Dr Smith at the time. She said she knows what being vitamin a toxic feels like and no longer feels that way.
Everyone comes into this diet with a different starting point and different needs. The low vitamin a foods they choose to eat may also have an effect. Some people have amazing results from a beef and water only diet. Others do not.
I don't know why Grant does so well on a meat and rice diet but I suspect there are other factors involved and its not solely from avoiding vitamin A.
Not everything is known about the process of getting rid of vitamin A. And of course there are other toxicities. I think what should be kept in mind is that vitamin A is not essential.
Reading through the best textbook I could find on the subject the only proven symptom of VAD is xerophthalmia and its associated symptoms. Any symptoms claimed to be caused by VAD that aren't connected to the eye are unproven.
Xerophthalmia is not a symptom of Hypervitaminosis A. You can suffer dry eyes when you are toxic in VA but you won't get Bitot's spots or keratomalacia.
It may take longer than 5 years to develop VAD when one has an otherwise nutritionally adequate diet. For people in poor countries where they eat very little meat a lack of zinc, protein and other nutrients can shorten the time before VAD occurs.
Grant has not proven that VA is not essential. What he has shown though is how hard it is to develop VAD.
Quote from Sophie on November 6, 2019, 3:45 pmMary found that after 6 months on the diet she started to go downhill and that continued for the remaining 6 months she was on the diet. That doesn't sound like detox to me.
She thinks its that the diet lead to other nutritional deficiencies like B vitamins and should only be done for 6 months. Annika also thinks she got deficient in b vitamins.
Annika overdid the vitamin a supplements by taking them as recommended by Dr Smith at the time. She said she knows what being vitamin a toxic feels like and no longer feels that way.
Everyone comes into this diet with a different starting point and different needs. The low vitamin a foods they choose to eat may also have an effect. Some people have amazing results from a beef and water only diet. Others do not.
I don't know why Grant does so well on a meat and rice diet but I suspect there are other factors involved and its not solely from avoiding vitamin A.
"the diet"
Is this Garrett Smith's recommended diet? Because if so that isn't The Diet that is just his version.
A science based low VA diet actually includes seafood, pork, animal fat and chicken but excludes butter and cheese. Excluding seafood from one's diet is the best way to put oneself at risk for micro nutrient deficiencies.
A low VA diet doesn't need to be low in any other micro nutrients, Vitamin K1 is probably the vitamin most likely to take a hit if one is avoiding greens. High VA foods are definitely not the main source of B vitamins in the diet.
Often problems will occur is someone is consuming an out of wack macronutrient profile. Not eating a balanced amount of carbs, fats and proteins will cause big setbacks. Also many just don't eat enough calories, often because they think fats, refined grain and/or sugar is unhealthy. If we don't enjoy what we are consuming we are probably doing it wrong.
Lastly, supplements cause a plethora of imbalances and issues and are unwise and unnatural. Let's use Vitamin C as an example. One of Vitamin C's effects is to stimulate production of endogenous oxalate and to increase the absorption of dietary oxalate. Vitamin C also dramatically increases iron absorption unless taken in between meals which I doubt anyone is doing. It will likely have other negative effects too. Chinese Vitamin C also contains an enantiomer that likely has negative effects.
Hi Tim, (or anyone else)
So, if someone is on a low or zero VA diet, how would you get enough vitamin C or vitamin K1 without taking supplements? I was on a low VA diet. I recently went on a zero VA diet.
Another note on Mary's diet, she continually posted that she had a hard time remembering to eat meat. She even said in one of her posts that that is what she felt me might be missing and was going to try to eat more, but then at least in the posts of what her kids were eating and their meal.plans there was very little meat. That would get you deficient in B vitamins.
Mary also has some major pelvic issues she's posted about now trying to get fixed, that alone could have some major effect on digestion and healing.
Of course both her and Annika are to doing what's best for them, I just feel that there may be other factors leading to their current Viamin A deficiency thoery.
