Vinero
Member
But what about people who have been avoiding all foods containing vitamin A and carotenoids for a long time? Do you think eating some liver is dangerous in this case? What about butter or milk? Korven found some people on Grants forum that complain about detox symptoms such as dry skin, dry eyes, depression, anxiety, low libido, low body temperature etc. But they have avoided vitamin A and carotenoids for 1 to 2 years. These detox symptoms are the same symptoms as hypothyroidism/slow metabolism. Some of these people are thinking about quitting the low vitamin A diet.I think this is where the insights we've learned about vitamin A in the past 2 years are important. Ray was saying those things before, and it was in textbooks in the 30s-40s but I don't think it was emphasized anough.
When people are experiencing those symptoms of acute low-metabolism, I don't think eating a lot of vitamin A is advisable. One meal of liver may have great benefits, because it comes with so many other beneficial compounds to metabolize the vitamin A, but it should be very occasional.
I've gone through the whole experience and it really seems like real pro-vitamin A needs increase in lockstep with metabolism. Small daily amounts of vitamin A, from good grass-fed butter, cream etc. are good but liver is really a food which is more beneficial when metabolism is rev'ed up and the stores of vitamin A are quickly metabolized into the steroid hormones.
Based on my current understanding, children and teenagers probably can benefit immensely from regular liver consumption. Any presence of persistent acne in teenagers is a good indication of the need for liver. Sunshine is also very important. I think optimizing those things in development is one of the most important things a parent can do for their children, because it sets them up for much greater metabolic health moving forward.
If you're cold all the time, and hypothyroid, the vitamin A just accumulates I think, and considering its role in cell division and skin shedding, it's no wonder the dry skin, eyes etc. and the other symptoms you mention are common. Anecdotally, I experienced dry eyes for a full year after eating a lot of liver while severely hypothyroid.
I think a careful approach of using vitamin E, C is better than focusing on depleting vitamin A. Vitamins E and C are the body's fat-soluble and water-soluble antioxidants and in the literature they're shown to be able to prevent the oxidation of vitamin A. My understanding is that taking extra thyroid for a time can help ''empty'' the stores of vitamin A. But in general, a simple active lifestyle with plenty of sun exposure in the summer will do the same. The vitamin A requirements seem to increase as vitamin D levels go up, and with light exposure in general.
So it's clearly an interaction of several elements, and context is very important as usual.
These ones stood out to me because I have had dry, red skin on my face the last few months:
" my face seemed more red, like low carbers...."
"My skin is do dry and inflammed it is crazy. I’ve never experienced this before. My cheeks are very red, and same with the skin on the sides of the eyes, and the forehead. It itches like a *****. A antifungal cream I tried alleviated things some, but not any longer. Unless anybody can give me a reason for why this is happening, I’m getting seriously concerned here. Is retinoic acid stored in the skin only getting released when going low VA or something? Does anybody have a scientific argument as to why this can be a good thing, and a symptom of healing? If not I seriously have to consider that something is very wrong here. My skin is basically totally ****88 here"
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