I completely understand @charlie's passion with delivering the most up-to-date information, with the most scientific information possible, and with the added goal of protecting those that may have been injured from 'possible' past misinformation. I came to this forum through my own research, seeking answers for my own health concerns and goals. It is not my intention to mislead anyone on any topic of health, and I have given up on my own passion to help others by sharing what works for me, because I often found it almost never works for anyone else. We are all so different, and many things factor into health, such as the mysterious placebo/nocebo effects. I love listening to Bruce Lipton and Dr. Joe Dispenza to learn how to understand and make better use of those mysteries. But, there is only so much time available with joining and sorting through soooo many forums. I already spend an average time of 4 hours a day researching, so I had hopes this could be the best forum to at least get some guidance. I too have been injured in the past from doctors orders, and that experience taught me to research and verify for myself, so I tend to gravitate to the posts on this forum that, include links for sources/references for further research. I do like to think for myself.ALT is a blood lab measure of liver health. Dr. Attia says that ALT should be below 19 for optimum liver health. What I don't see on this Vit A forum is what was the ALT before and after minimizing Vit A. Anecdotal "I feel better" is not proof. Only blood lab measurements and RCT can be accepted **** proof.
I started VA (10/3/23), not even two weeks after joining this forum, and noticed only improvements in at least my eyesight. It was always on my mind to add it, since my DNA report said I can't convert to the appropriate VA. Maybe what I noticed for improvement was the placebo effect; maybe I'm not reading or understanding my lab tests correctly (very possible, because I never discussed the VA with my doc); or maybe I'm an anomaly (and not the first time labeled as such by doctors). However, just because I haven't noticed any ill effects with VA yet, I understand that doesn't mean I won't if it accumulates, so I greatly reduced my dosage, and will continue to take VA and test, because at least for me, placebo or not, my eyesight has improved. I did post a comment to that fact, and saw another comment the same day that seemed to give me some possible insight:
PEATFUL:
Beta-carotene is a precursor to Vitamin A (provitamin A) from plant sources that humans, especially low thyroid or hypothyroid humans, are VERY poor converters of beta-carotene and the more one eats, the less it is converted into retinol. Beta-carotene must be converted to retinol and research has shown this happens at a rate of about 3% AND requires thyroid hormone, copper, and vitamin C, to make this conversion.
Because of the interest in testing, I am providing my tests for both my micronutrient tests for VA (2019 and 2023), and I went into Quest Labs and did a snapshot history for the ALT, though I couldn't go back as far as 2019 for that (from 2021 to 2023). It just seems to me that, my VA levels dropped after taking VA, and my ALT levels improved as well. As a side note, the only red flag in that long CMP for the ALT levels, shows my fasting glucose shot up for the first time, and that was also when I tried to add fruits to my diet, which my body quickly protested. My apologies for the bad copies of the micronutrients tests. I was not successful with my requests to VibrantAmerica, nor my doctor for digital copies, so my notes on the hard copies are a bit messy for sure.
But long story short, I still want to keep up on Vitamin A info, as science is ALWAYS changing. I'm interested in any suggestions on where to go, but not a big deal I guess. I'll figure it out.
I can provide my CRP tests as well. 12/29/23 it was 0.3. The highest it has been is 0.9.