So it’s been about 2 years on the Low Vitamin A diet now.
Since the last update about a half a year ago, things are about the same, except for one major change.
Thanks Grant’s post about detox setback and the related forum post I went ahead and tried supplementing B vitamins, starting with B1 (thiamin) and B2 (riboflavin).
And well, they helped a lot. I have seen a dramatic change, in a matter of days, in terms of my tolerance level for various foods. I think it is safe to assume I was low in one or both of those two B vitamins, and based on my experimentation, I think it is mostly B2 (riboflavin) that is responsible for this change, probably for the reasons discussed in those posts. I intentionally chose to isolate the B vitamins so I could know which one was responsible and I’m glad I did that rather than take one combination B vitamin supplement.
There should have been at least some B vitamins in my diet, due to regular read meat and fish but I guess it wasn’t enough, and maybe the high refined carbs in my diet (white rice and white sugar), and the existing VA surplus really drained them. Based on some research, there seems to be a theory that your B vitamins produced by the gut could also be low if you have low Vitamin D and/or sunshine exposure. So, maybe that was a factor too. I don’t know exactly, I haven’t really had the time to form a super clear theory on it. Ideally, you wouldn’t have take any supplements, but I cannot deny the effects. Perhaps this is something that only because necessary when you are in a VA overload state, or general health recovery state.
For me, the main improvement has been that I have way less immediate sensitivity symptoms to VA foods. Before, I could get nasal congestion and stinging eyes just within minutes to hours of eating these foods. And if I ate to much I was more likely to get dry eyes and/or numb/tingling hands and arms while sleeping or the next morning.
But, even though I have much more tolerance for immediate and overnight symptoms, I seem to have about the same tolerance for “days after” symptoms. Like I could still get intestinal pain, or acne breakout, canker sores (moth ulcers) or feelings of malaise and anxiety. I know this because I tried adding back in more trigger foods I couldn’t usually tolerate, e.g. beef summer sausage or pork tenderloin or sardines. Those previously wood give me more immediate trouble like congestion, dry eyes overnight and numb hands/arms upon waking the next morning — but now, they are much more tolerable in the immediate but still, give me some of the longer term symptoms. And it sometimes seems to change day to day, so I can still get numbness / tingling from them sometimes too.
So it seems the B vitamins were mostly just effecting my short term symptoms, and I was getting hit with effects of retinoids because the metabolism from consumption to storage was being blocked.
Still, I’ll take it. I am very grateful for those who shared this discovery.
It has changed my previous view, because now I know it was probably possible to avoid the extreme sensitivity state that I got into over the last year or so — which is nice. Kind of a pain to deal with, but on the bright side this period of high VA sensitivity did show me which are the most tolerable meats: the leanest beef, tilapia & canned tuna being my staples. And I did learn from this, and I learned that you can’t just rely on the quantity of VA to tell you whether you can tolerate a food — and I have theories as to why, that I have fully written out yet, but have been intending to for some time and plan to in the future.
Other than this big increase in VA tolerance due to B vitamin supplementation, which is a huge benefit, things are about the same. I’m still at about at 6 or 7 health-wise. In my view, the experiment is still ongoing, still not concluded. I guess it will still take even more time. I have a feeling that there will be big changes over the next year though, but we will see.
Truth of Health 