Orion
Member
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2015
- Messages
- 858
It's been a little over a week since I began reducing A. Perhaps I overdid it, going down too quickly.
The first day I cut A from 250,000 IU to 225,000 IU; the second day, I cut it to 110,000; the third to 55,000; the fourth to 25,000. At the same time, the taurine I ordered hadn't arrived, but I I increased zinc to over 50 mg, increased D to 10,000/12,500 IU, E to 400 IU, K to 15 mg--taking these, along with the A, sublingually, in divided doses with meals.
Results: A few pimples in odd scattered places (shoulder, thigh), a verge of facial zit breakout--which never quite progressed. Instead my cheeks became covered with tiny bumps. And I became on the verge of getting sick with a cold. Indeed, after the fourth day, with only 25,000 IU, I actually got a full-blown cold.
So on the fifth day, I increased the A to 55,000 IU--no change in symptoms; on the sixth to 60,000, on the seventh and eighth to 80,000; with each increase the cold symptoms become less and less severe. At the same time, those weird facial bumps have decreased.
A symptom I had not expected--which I can attribute only to the reduction in A: the quality of my sleep, which has never been great, really deteriorated on a lower dose of A.
I'm not sure what to make of all this. It seems that I did not need all 250,000 IU of A; my optimal current dose seems to be 80,000--but that still seems high for someone with hypothyroid symptoms, and I'm still concerned that this amount may be lowering my thyroid function.
I did not really test each hypothesis in isolation. While I increased zinc and other fat-soluble vitamins in order to determine whether the A was compensating for a deficiency in other vitamins (hypothesis 3), for the first five days I also took these supplements sublingually, to test the hypothesis that I was "wasting" the A and so needed extra to compensate for inadequate digestion (hypothesis 2). The fact that my current optimal dose is now a mere third of what it used to be, suggests that one or both of these hypotheses is correct.
I should note that on the sixth day, I began to reconsider the wisdom of taking these supplements sublingually. I assume there's some benefit to digesting them and transporting them to the liver? In any case, for the past few days I began taking all of these supplements (except zinc) orally, instead. So this seems to support hypothesis 3. On the other hand, perhaps were I to have continued taking all of these supplements sublingually, my optimal dose would be 65,000 IU, not 80,000.
Well, I hope this long account helps someone (other than me!). And, of course, if anyone has other hypotheses about what may be going on, do tell.
How are things going with you vitamin A dosage and acne?