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What do you think of the iheal.me blog?
You are absolutely right, there is much to read in a hair test and I wish I would be able to read more.
I'm curious what you actually experienced when you 1. supplemented Vitamin A; 2. did a low A diet; and 3. began eating whole foods with no A restriction.
I went on a nutritional restoration with a German practitioner, and she was the first supplementing me with Vitamin A. That was 2017. I got 10.000IU VA a day. She was really "careful" about the dose, but because of my high hair calcium and copper she said it was necessary. I got some other supplements too and the first thing I noticed was that my digestion was getting excellent and really regular. The communication with her was very difficult. That is why I found me a new practitioner. She learned all this from Dr. Smith and that's how I found him.
He started to supplement me with 25.000IU of Vitamin A and some different supplements. It wasn't an easy time, because a body starting to work as it should also start to eliminate things. But over the time I got better and felt like a real person for the first time in years. My hair test started to look better and in August 2018 my hair calcium and copper came close to normal ranges.
It would have been best to take me off my Vitamin A supplement by then. I was still getting 25.000IU and the first thing I noticed was periods not sleeping at all. I had weeks with almost no sleep. Interestingly the same happened to me on the low Vitamin A diet and now that I eat just a normal amount of Vitamin A with no restrictions at all and I sleep the best sleep in years. I want to mention that I am not taking care of a constant Vitamin A intake. Some days it is more, some it is less, some days it is close to the recommended intake. I am not concentrating on eating it. It just happens due to my hunger.
The next thing that happened was that my hair started to fall out. When washing my hair, or brushing it, I lost an unusual amount of hair. Again, very interesting that too little of Vitamin A is doing this too. My mom went through all this with me. She had thinning of the hair before the nutritional restoration. She got supplemented with 10.000IU per week and hair started to grow back. Including her hair color. On the detox, her hair thinned out again. She also was able to cut down on her thyroid medications while supplemented with Vitamin A. On the detox her blood values worsened again. I am now waiting for her new labs with "normal" amounts of Vitamin A in her diet to see if the values got better again.
The third thing happened to me was that I got vertigo. This stopped a week after I discontinued the Vitamin A supplementation.
Also, my hair stopped falling out shorty after not taking Vitamin A anymore.
I remembered that I got the mail from Matt Stone and it totally freaked me out. It was announcing Grant's e-books and talking about Vitamin A as a toxin. I got so scared and contacted Dr. Smith. He said I don't need to panic and that he is not the same opinion. Just to tell me a few days later to stop Vitamin A because it seems to be a poison. Very distressing time.
We jumped into it with Dr. Smith from the start. We went through all the phases he went through with his new approach.
The first time we felt pretty good and a lot of things got better too. In my case it was probably because I stopped taking my supplement. I also think I had pretty good levels by then and could live of that. In my blog "Vitamin A - for we have sinned" you can read about what benefits we had.
Around half a year on the diet, we started to develop odd issues. At that time we always got told that it is detox, but by now we think it was signs of several deficiencies. Nevertheless, we continued to detox. I developed some skin issues I never had before. I started to become irrational fears. This was one of the hardest parts. I became anxious about so many things. I was sleeping poor. I developed pain around my gallbladder (which was finally gone before) and around the spleen area. The most concerning one was that my eyesight went very bad. Same happened to my mom, my boyfriend and his mom. We are all fine again now. I was getting problems with night sight and my boyfriend needed to wear his contact lenses, glasses and also needed to zoom in on the computer. It is all gone, he just uses his contact lenses now.
So we developed a lot of symptoms after half a year on the detox. You don't really recognize all of them. Many things we just see now, as we feel much better.
In the end of almost a year of restriction we gave in. I think we just did so, because we all started to crave foods. We craved fish, peas, tomato sauce and many other foods. Interestingly we had the same cravings around the same time. With all these symptoms and hungers for food, we finally gave in. That's when we also started to realize how many symptoms were bothering us, because we saw many symptoms vanishing.
We started really slow reintroducing foods. My feeling of not getting enough air to breath was one of the first things that dissolved. I just realized how tired I had been all the time and that there was no motivation to do things. I can endure long work shifts again, I am not out of breath when running or walking stairs, I started climbing again with great improvements after short times. Today I will call a horse farm to start riding again. I am about learning the piano, and I am meeting a lot of friends and family again. All this I had not been doing anymore.
Eating like we do now has better results than the nutritional restoration program we did.
One part I want to mention is my mental health. I had a lot of trouble with it. I am doing absolutely fantastic. I feel so happy and focused and calm. I have a lot of moments of gratitude and overall well-being. The world is good again. I am not depressed as I used to be. It is the small things that make me feel so happy. We sing in the car, on the street with street musicians. Being easy around people...
There are some issues we work on still, but I think we are doing pretty good. We are talking about it on Facebook. We don't want to hold back on issues we still need to fix and want to share it.
I hope this answered your question. If you want to know anything else, please don't hesitate to ask.
Anika 🙂
One of the statements that Anika makes in her post is:
Vitamin A is in everything, how could nature make this mistake?
Yes, I said
"What a mistake it would be by nature to place a molecule like Vitamin A in almost every living thing on earth, if it really would be a toxin."
I am sorry if this might cause confusion. I like to use words and let people read between the lines.
I do not think nature makes mistakes. I do think natures evolves and living things adjust.
I know the video you shared. It is very interesting. Still I think we need to look at all on a bigger context. Everything on earth can be toxic. It is a dose dependent matter and the state of a previous condition. Some animals even thrive on the toxic parts of plants.
We also shouldn't forget inherited and cultural differences. I do think that one might be more susceptible to Retinol than others. Might be due to genetics or simply epi-genetics.
Although my daily food intake is significantly lower (by ~40%) than compared to when I first started this diet, I don’t see it as an adverse reaction. Rather, I think it’s probably just due to my body now being more efficient in extracting and utilizing the calories and nutrients that I do take in.
I am in awe about how good you are doing on the diet. I love to hear when people find their way to health. In the end that is the only thing that matters. I am very happy for everyone who is doing well on the diet. As you said, you might found the diet that fits your body perfectly.
It is from great importance that we are aware of the fact that Vitamin A can be problematic. But because we seem to have to different outcomes with the diet (one who thrives, one who doesn't) it is from great importance to talk and find the mechanisms behind this all together. We too had been to quick with the conclusion that it is only a toxin. And then we failed.
Thank you for the welcoming words Grant. That means a lot to us. As I mentioned not everyone is treating us nice in the past months. We do not want to become it a religion. We want to be able to talk about it in a scientific way.
I am looking forward for more insights and more learning.
Have a great week
Anika 🙂
Do you have a source for the statement in bold above, Anika? That is a serious accusation to make, as it would harm Dr. Smith’s professional reputation.
It was his opinion for a very long time, and he talked about it many times in his private Facebook group (Inner circle).
It must be quite new, that he changed his mind.
No offend to his work, but we saw him changing supplements and "ground breaking" almost every month. This is going like this since we worked with him in 2017. We couldn't trust him any longer. This was just experimenting. Doing best without supplements now.
Yeah, I did see that Dr. Smith posted about this in his Mighty Network. It didn’t alarm me, though, because Dr. Smith wasn’t (and isn’t) advocating caloric restriction to his clients or followers.
They’re going into uncharted waters with this experiment. Sharing the observations they make along the way is helpful to everyone, regardless of the differences of opinion that arise about it all.
I can certainly understand why you find that particular observation concerning. A lowered appetite can be caused by as many negative reasons as positive ones. Without enough evidence one way or the other, all we can do is guess.
For now, I’m going to guess that Grant and Dr. Smith have super awesome digestion now, so they can absorb and utilize nutrients more effectively! 😝 (At least I hope that’s the case, because obviously I want them to continue to have good health.)
Agree on every single word you say! Also, that everyone is doing fine and healthy is the most important.
Anyway, I want join @lil-chick in welcoming you here, @anika 🙂 I’m susceptible to falling for dogmatic ideas, so I appreciate healthy skepticism, differences of opinion, and arguments.
Thank you 🙂 a lot! Yes, let us not become religious about anything here.
While it is wonderful to have many discussions around vitamin A toxicity & I am all in favour of free speech & many opinions. I also want to say that no one I know believes in vitamin A toxicity so I also see this discussion forum as a place of sanctuary to discuss it - not as a place to have to defend its existence.
On Grant’s excellent blog about the survey results he discussed 5 possible reasons for the downturn in the graph at around 7 months. Three of these suggestions fit with my experiences : 1. The body runs out of something due to the detox enzymes working extra hard 2. Something builds up in the body that blocks the flow/competes 3. Amount coming out of liver gets nastier & it’s ‘more tox’.
At the time when I got stuck in a detox cycle I’d had a recent vA serum blood test that was 70 (2.5 in UK units). This is very high - off the top of some Labs levels. This does not correlate with deficiency. When I removed certain ‘blocking’ foods - my symptoms got a lot better. At the time I got detox cycle symptoms I had improvement in symptoms that correlate with improved liver function - this fits with the ‘more tox’ idea. More in the blood but less in the liver. I’d never gone very low vA but instead chosen the slow route of going moderately low vA which seems to work for me. Not into extreme anything. None of my observations fit with a vA deficiency.
To me (for me) it seems clear that I had a situation of either 1. too much toxicity or 2. enzymes that couldn’t keep up due to cofactors deficiency, blocking foods or overwhelm. Or both. Basically too much for my body to cope with.
I don’t know if vA is a poison or not (although to me evidence points that way) or whether the body needs some as a weapon or other. This Project for me is all about vitamin A toxicity as being very dangerous and about it being very under recognised. Without the work of Grant & Garrett Smith I would be ill & getting sicker. However, I’m also aware that they are also learning & we enter this situation as an experimental diet. There are bound to be mistakes made & new discoveries that alter ideas - that is science. One needs to think about all the explanations for a problem. Look at them all before jumping on one idea and running with that - that is not science. I for one am very grateful for the realisation of chronic vitamin A toxicity as a common cause of human suffering. This is such an important message. So many people are suffering. This is my focus.
@jaj what foods did you consider blocking foods and why? How long were you detoxing before scoring 2.5?
I have been strict low VA for 2 months and haven't experienced any detox issues yet. On the plus side, my lips haven't peeled this winter and I haven't got sick this year despite having a 6 year old. I'm going to do a blood test at the 6 month mark to see where I am. I started at 3.0 so I've a long way to go.
After I had been on a hardcore lowA diet (rice and beef, oatmeal with raisins, rice with beans, zinc plus VitC) I felt I was getting worse again after about a year.
I am sure going LowA helped me initially, I was getting better with obvious detox cycles during the initial phase of going lowA.
I improved a lot after supplementing with sunflower lecithin and low dosage B-Vitamins.
Now after almost 1,5 years on a lowA diet I eat a less strict diet. I average about 1-2 whole eggs a day, eat some shellfish, had some pancakes with eggs and some hot chocolate the other day...
I also try to eat a good amount of betaine from quinoa and whole grains like spelt bran.
To me it seems that nutrients and behaviours that improve liver health/function are more important than going extremely low in retinol equivalents.
Too much Vitamin A or Accutane (and other causes) damage the liver as well as the epithelial tissues and healing them has to be a priority.
I am prone to eczema and psoriasis. If investigated properly about half (maybe more) of psoriasis sufferers have some form of liver damage or dysfunction. Moderate Lecithin supplementation (rich in choline and other phospholipids) over a longer period of time has helped many psoriasis sufferers. Some have gotten worse initially on lecithin supplementation.
To get the RDA of Choline/Betaine/B-Vitamins on an extreme lowA diet you have to eat more than a pound of lean beef a day. White rice and oatmeal are almost free of choline, betaine and low in some B-Vitamins.
3-4 egg yolks supply more choline than 80% of US citizens consume daily.
Choline deficiency alone causes fatty liver disease
If your liver and kidneys are healthy some retinol might even have a positive stimulative effect. Maybe a hormetic effect just like green tea can have. Green tea benefits are based on supplying tiny amounts of mild toxins. People have given themselves liver damage by taking large amounts of green tea extracts or drinking 6 cups of matcha tea powder a day.
So I too feel that I'm healing better on a more moderate diet that seemingly supplies more nutrients than a hardcore ZeroA diet.
@neilky sounds like things are going well for you. I’ve had problems with garlic which is high in disulphides (Dr Greg Nigh & Dr Garrett Smith). It can slow ALDH in people with sulphur metabolism problems. Cutting it out & then having a lot one evening showed me just what a negative effect it was having on me. So that’s probably my worse ‘blocker’ however it’s probably an individual thing. I did my blood serum retinol test after being low vA for 8 months. It was shortly after this that I got stuck in a detox setback cycle which is one of the reasons why vA deficiency does not seem to be relevant to me at this point.
@matt336 it sounds like you’ve found the right balance for your body after a year of detoxing. I totally agree about the liver problems. I think that nutrient deficiencies are really important to consider. I think that detoxing can use up things faster than normal.
My way of thinking about the detox diet is that it’s a therapeutic diet intended for a certain amount of time so that enough vA has left the body for things to work ok again. I’m not aiming to get rid of all my vitamin A but just enough so that I’m not in a ‘spilling over’ toxic state. I don’t see it as a way of life or the answer to everything (most problems with humans tend to be multifactorial & stress is usually in the mix). How much is enough I don’t know but I don’t think I’m there yet. I want my serum retinol down to lower in the range & certainly not up at the top. I’ve been over storing the stuff for 55 years I think so probably not going to get rid of it as quickly as younger people. I also put on 2 stone when supplementing with CLO at two different times so I have that to reverse. Lots to still understand but if one is in a toxic state getting rid (hopefully smoothly) of a large slug of vA seems to be a good start.
"getting rid of a large slug of VA seems to be a good start"-- JAJ, this made me lol!
I wonder if those parents (in the study with the VA-toxic boy) put two-and-two together and at LEAST limited the very baddies, like orange vegetables and liver! I'm not sure I'll ever touch those again.
If, instead of looking at this system (Earth) as a "designed" one, perhaps looking at it this way makes sense: (unless we have been lied to about our origins, which is quite possible) We Evolved In A VA Stew. So I DO think it is logical that most animals in earth have methods to cope. Still, maybe some of us are handed a strange combo of genes.
It does seem like many agri traditions have come up with (and elevate) "well behaved" veg foods (lower in many food chemicals, like rice) that don't appear naturally in nature -- and if they did they would be wiped out instantly because of their lack of defenses. People who haven't gardened don't realize how much you have to coddle/protect certain foods! Animals and insects will eat those first, before the "wilder" foods. They aren't dumb!
Propaganda has been over-selling the idea of "eat the rainbow"... It isn't how my ancestors ate, or how I ate when I was young just 50 years ago. White carbs were part of every meal. The blander fruits and veggies were always the heavily utilized ones (apples, bananas, cukes, celery, iceberg).
There is an old-fashioned New-England rhyme, it has many versions, but it goes something like this: "Pumpkins, pumpkins, morning, evening and noon. If it wasn't for pumpkins, I would be undoon!". The wistfulness of the narrator in the rhyme says it all: Pumpkins might be nice once a year in a pie, but NO ONE really wants them to be a staple of their diet! 🙂
I feel this way about many of the special foods that roll out of my garden. For instance, eggplant or peaches. I eat them for about a week, and then I don't want them again until next year.
We loose sight of our INSTINCTS whenever we listen to a guru, whenever we get onto a special diet. (and even the "eat the rainbow" propaganda is a special diet too!)
A detox isn't really the same as a special diet, is it? A detox is something temporary. I see myself as "on a detox".
Gurus, special diets and supplements are all now on my bad list. 🙂
I'm enjoying my lowish-VA detox. In fact, I feel like it has given me permission to eat in ways I wanted to eat, but the propaganda said was wrong. I will be listening hard to my intuition to tell me when I need more VA.
It may be a wrong idea to think that any VA-toxic person is going to feel well for QUITE A WHILE. The sicker you have gotten, the longer you will probably feel like crapola until things work out. I think it is a mistake to over-analyze how you feel after a serving of something. We need to be thinking more "long haul".
And of course, make sure there is enough happiness in your diet. 🙂
Well said, I've read that the central american civilizations had pumpkin/squash as a staple along with corn and beans, this would indicate it supplied something helpful, perhaps Vitamin C in the winter? It was part of their "Three Sisters" companion planting system too.
Quote from JAJ on December 2, 2019, 10:37 am@neilky sounds like things are going well for you. I’ve had problems with garlic which is high in disulphides (Dr Greg Nigh & Dr Garrett Smith). It can slow ALDH in people with sulphur metabolism problems. Cutting it out & then having a lot one evening showed me just what a negative effect it was having on me. So that’s probably my worse ‘blocker’ however it’s probably an individual thing. I did my blood serum retinol test after being low vA for 8 months. It was shortly after this that I got stuck in a detox setback cycle which is one of the reasons why vA deficiency does not seem to be relevant to me at this point.
@matt336 it sounds like you’ve found the right balance for your body after a year of detoxing. I totally agree about the liver problems. I think that nutrient deficiencies are really important to consider. I think that detoxing can use up things faster than normal.
My way of thinking about the detox diet is that it’s a therapeutic diet intended for a certain amount of time so that enough vA has left the body for things to work ok again. I’m not aiming to get rid of all my vitamin A but just enough so that I’m not in a ‘spilling over’ toxic state. I don’t see it as a way of life or the answer to everything (most problems with humans tend to be multifactorial & stress is usually in the mix). How much is enough I don’t know but I don’t think I’m there yet. I want my serum retinol down to lower in the range & certainly not up at the top. I’ve been over storing the stuff for 55 years I think so probably not going to get rid of it as quickly as younger people. I also put on 2 stone when supplementing with CLO at two different times so I have that to reverse. Lots to still understand but if one is in a toxic state getting rid (hopefully smoothly) of a large slug of vA seems to be a good start.
Cheers for the info, I might look at that myself as I eat a lot of garlic.
2.5 is still a bit high after 8 months, goes to show you how much was in your system! If I get down to 2 I'll maybe back off on the strict but more likely I'll wait till I feel the negative effects which some seem to feel.