Okay ya'll. Enough research has come down the pipeline in front of me that I'm starting question vitamin A's status as a nutrition superstar, but instead a necessary evil in which excess accumulation should be avoided (mostly in the form of supplements). And since I want to keep you up to date on the latest and the greatest information that comes before me, enter the vitamin A detox diet. The vitamin A detox diet is for people who may be sensitive to vitamin A or suspect vitamin A toxicity. This diet may be therapeutic for a short period of time, but only for those who need it. Here's why...
Vitamin A excess in the body is much a problem of developed countries due to:
- Prescription drugs containing vitamin A (think acne drugs)
- Carotenoids in essential oils (taken orally or applied topically to the skin)
- Birth control pill use (increases vitamin A in the body) [11,13]
- Vitamin A fortified foods (dairy + processed foods)
- Multivitamins
- Other supplements: cod liver oil, etc.
- Anti-aging and beauty creams containing vitamin A
- Sunscreens
- "Healthy" diets containing lots of high vitamin A foods that are available "on demand" and not seasonally as intended
- Overdosing on milk and cheese
- Increase in liver consumption
If enough of those apply to you, take a look at the following list and see if you can check any more off symptoms that are connected to overexposure to vitamin A:
- Leaky gut [1,11]
- Hair loss [9,11]
- Thyroid issues [2,11]
- Low vitamin D [3,11]
- Low vitamin B12 + folate [6,7,11]
- Fatigue
- Eczema/skin issues [4,12]
- Inflammation
- Anxiety/depression [14,11]
- Iron overload
Alright, if I have your attention by now, go ahead and hop over and read my post all about vitamin A toxicity here or go the lazy route and read my summary below...
Vitamin A Toxicity
There is a very interesting and compelling theory circling the internet that vitamin A and it’s plant precursor, carotenoids, may not be a vitamin after all, but instead a toxin that is harmless at low levels but has a tipping point when it’s storage in the liver is exhausted. The theory originates from Grant Genereux, who contends that vitamin A toxicity happens at far, far lower levels than documented in the literature and is a cause of body-wide poisoning and perhaps the real cause of autoimmune disease.
You see, 90% of vitamin A is stored in your liver, and released into the bloodstream on a as-needed basis. But what happens when your liver’s storage capacity is full? The theory assumes that when the liver is already overwhelmed by vitamin A, it accumulates in tissues and fat storage leading to systematic inflammation, most specifically noted in changes to the skin, bones, and vision (read more here).
The Vitamin A Detox Diet Specifics
Now let's get into the vitamin A detox diet. The goal here is to take in less vitamin A than your body is actually using, so over time vitamin A storage levels in the body drop to a healthier level. The ideal diet time frame is going to widely vary based on how high your levels are.
Here's the big "no list" in the vitamin A world, but I'm a bigger fan of a moderate approach or 'eat less of these things' if possible:
- Dairy
- Liver
- Egg yolks (whites are okay)
- Most colorful vegetables (think orange + red specifically and dark green for their high carotenoid, or pro-vitamin A content)
- Multivitamins
- Vitamin A containing supplements (liver, cod liver oil, multivitamins, etc.)
- Any skin product or essential oil that is high in vitamin A or carotenoids
The basics of the low vitamin A diet is pretty easy. You're not restricting anything too important (ie. calories, carbs, proteins, or fats), instead you're just strategically weeding out foods that are naturally or synthetically engineered to have high levels of vitamin A. Because vitamin A carotenoids tend to give food their color, foods without vitamin A tend to be on the whiter side.
Even better perhaps, is this diet is NOT geared at weight loss. Instead it's targeting at increasing health (by reducing toxicity in the body). But, as you know, weight loss can be a natural byproduct of getting healthy....
Here's the basics of the vitamin A detox diet or what I'm calling the "white diet" due to white foods naturally being the lowest in vitamin A.
To oversimplify, a low vitamin A or a vitamin A detox diet is going to include a lot of "white foods", but not exclusively:
Proteins
- beef
- chicken
- turkey
- bison
- select seafood (pink seafood like salmon and shrimp contain the most vitamin A)
Fats
- butter
- olive oil
- coconut oil
- coconut milk
- dark chocolate (not milk chocolate)
Vegetables (remove peels if they are colorful)
- cauliflower
- parsnips
- white potatoes
- zucchini
- cucumber
- onions
- garlic
- white carrots
Fruits (peeled is preferred)
- apples
- pears
- bananas
- raisins
- dried cranberries
- pineapple
- blueberries
- raspberries
- kiwi
- strawberries
- lemons/limes
Grains (organic ONLY, glyphosate found in inorganic grains may exacerbate the vitamin A issue) [11]
- oats
- white rice
- slow fermented sourdough bread (organic only!)
- quinoa
- amaranth
- other gluten-free organic grains
Legumes
- all beans except green beans, peas and mung beans
Nuts
- most nuts (although high in copper if you have overload issues there too)
Beyond that, it's pretty easy to lookup a food and get a general feel for how much vitamin A it contains.
That's the very oversimplified basics of the vitamin A detox diet. According to Genereux, the originator of the most strict form of the diet, three months is a good time frame to detox vitamin A. But of course check with your doctor or healthcare practitioner before trying anything you read here (or anywhere on the internet) on yourself, because that would be just plain risky.
And one last reminder — this is only meant for people who have documented hypervitaminosis A or have overdosed in the form of supplements. Excluding a wide variety of foods from your diet is not something one should do without a very good reason.
Have you ever tried a vitamin A detox diet? Please share in the comments!
PIN IT:
References:
- Retinoic acid-primed human dendritic cells inhibit Th9 cells and induce Th1/Th17 cell differentiation. 2016. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26980802
- Retinoic acid effects on thyroid function of female rats. 2009. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19233213
- All-trans retinoic acid antagonizes the action of calciferol and its active metabolite, 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol, in rats." 2005. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15987844
- Psoriasis and vitamin A. Plasma transport and skin content of retinol, dehydroretinol and carotenoids in adult patients versus healthy controls. 1985. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4096526
- Epigenetic changes
- Decreased Vitamin B12 and Folic Acid Concentrations in Acne Patients After Isotretinoin Therapy: A Controlled Study. 2014. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4248518/
- Effect of isotretinoin treatment on plasma holotranscobalamin, vitamin B12, folic acid, and homocysteine levels: non-controlled study. 2011. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22098008
- The Adverse Effects of Alcohol on Vitamin A Metabolism. 2012 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3367262/
- Diet and hair loss: effects of nutrient deficiency and supplement use. 2017. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5315033/
- Co-adjuvant effects of retinoic acid and IL-15 induce inflammatory immunity to dietary antigens. 2011. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3076739/
- nutritionrestored.com
- https://ggenereux.blog/
- Vitamin A, Pregnancy, and Oral Contraceptives. 1974. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1632878/
- The neurotoxic effects of vitamin A and retinoids. 2015. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/0001-3765201520140677
Sophie
Thanks for this post. I've been having increase joint pain and fatigue lately while trying to eat more healthy (more fruit and vegetables) I have other symptoms as well that line up with vitamin a toxicity so Im considering trying this diet.
I've read that sunshine, exercise and antioxidants such as found in turmeric, pineapple and grapes help with detoxing as well as vitamin c and zinc.
I'm thinking herbs such as burdock might be helpful too? Are there other things that help the detox process and reduce potential detox symptoms?
Arie
Sophie— I started on this diet about 3 weeks ago. One thing I had to cut out was the supplement recommended and sold by my doctor which includes turmeric. It’s supposed to be anti inflammatory but turmeric is a form a carotene. Check into it.
Rich
I had this same suspicion about turmeric because it is an orange root, but it turns out turmeric contains no vitamin A at all:
http://whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=78#nutritionalprofile
When I was on vitamin A elimination diet I could not tolerate any vitamin A food at all. Even a teaspoon of olive oil, or a few pieces of broccoli caused 4 hours of bad nausea. But I could take an extremely high dose curcumin supplement (Curcum-evail) with no problem.
Marcia
Olive oil doesn't have any vitamin A. Ahh, the power of the mind.
Bonnie
No, not because there is Vitamin A in olive oil. Copying from his public book, "Extinguishing the Fires of Hell" ...However, it is
critically important not to overdo it on the olive oil or almonds. Both are
quite high in vitamin E, and this too can become toxic at too high a level.
Vitamin E is also documented to cause an increase in serum
vitamin A levels too.
Ben
I read his book. you have a lot more foods allowed than him. Wouldnt the fruit and butter have vitamin a or precursors?
Catherine
Hi Ben,
Grant takes a strict no-vitamin A diet approach, which is different from the more practical low vitamin A diet I'm discussing here. Some of the color in fruits come from carotenoids (ie. mango), but some of it also comes from Polyphenols/cyanidins/anthocyanins.
Abundantly,
Catherine
Ben
Thank you for responding Catherine
Kristina
Low fat dairy should be ok.. Isn't vitamin A removed with the fat?
Catherine
No - synthetic vitamin A + D is typically added to low fat dairy products.
When you remove the fat, it is required by law to add synthetic nutrients in.
“We are required by law to add vitamins to all of our fluid skim / fat free / nonfat milk, fluid lowfat (1%) milks, and fluid reduced-fat (2%) milks. These vitamins are fat soluble and a certain amount of them are lost when the fat levels in milk are reduced.” -Organic Valley
Kristina
I think they don't do it in Europe. It seems it's country specific. Here in UK low fat milk is just that. Nothing is added to it.. Not even vitamin D. As far as I know.
Ben
We don't fortify milk with vitamins in Australia.. Does that mean our low fat milk would be ok?
Susan
Thank you for writing about this! I’’ve been following Dr. Peat for 7 years and fibromyalgia had finally become unbearable. I read Grant’s books and am on my 4th day of A detox. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how quickly many of my symptoms are improving. Sharing your article with family and posting on FB.
Catherine
You are very welcome. Keep us posted.
Abundantly,
Catherine
Amanda Rode
Hi Susan!
I have fibromyalgia and been on peat for a few years now and not improving.... lately i feel worse but its also winter. Can you share if you have cured your fibro with a no A diet and what do u eat now?
A
Vitamin A is in dairy fat, isn't it? And butter is basically dairy fat, why is it allowed?
Catherine
From the research that I've seen, butter has other protective qualities that helps mitigate the vitamin A it contains.
Cari Poindexter
So do you no longer support Ray Peats dietary recommendations? Vitamin A is essential for hormonal balance.
Catherine
My views on some things are changing based on new information I've seen.
Xisca
So glad! Advise to Peat followers: try to find white carrots! Then think about the % of the liver to the rest of the animal, and ask Peat about this!
About sweet potatoes: they are not all orange. Some varieties are white.
Are there caroten analysis about this? I could not find... What a pity again...
We can also find white tomatoes with no carotens/lycopens.
Nathan
I would also like to know about the white flesh sweet potato. is that okay?
Jess
How much carotenoids are in essential oils? I understand this varies depending on the oil, but do you have any examples?
Catherine
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find that kind of data. The best guess would be to look up the plant that it oil came from and go from there.
Abundantly,
Catherine
Xisca
I could not find either.... What a pity! So the question is: How do we know that there are carotenoids in E.O.? Is this so sure?
Abe
Isn't strawberries high in vitamins A?
Catherine
Not from my research: 18iu (0% daily value) per one cup serving. https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/2064/2
Simon Templar
Interesting article:
Those Ticking Time Bombs Going Off Are WAPF People Dying Too Young
http://davidgumpert.com/those-ticking-time-bombs-going-off-are-wapf-people-dying-too-young
Comment by Dr. Garrett Smith:
http://davidgumpert.com/those-ticking-time-bombs-going-off-are-wapf-people-dying-too-young#comment-64648
Lindsay
I can’t find his no vitamin A diet - do you know what it is?
Charles
If a food label says "Vit A - 0%", would it be ok to include in the diet even though it could still contain a small amount of Vitamin A? White tuna in water for example - would help make the diet easier for me to do...
Ian
It really depends upon your response to vitamin A (and other retinoids) - I get IBS gut pain if I have the tiniest amount of retinoids. I generally recommend a short (3-5 week) strict zero VA diet (like Grant Genereux's) and then start testing to see what works and doesn't for you. I keep going back to beef and white rice as my core food, with occasional, careful, excursions into other foods.
0% sometimes means almost 1%, which can be too much for me.
Dayna
Thank you for this more definitive list. Grant's diet seemed too hard for me to follow, so I've been looking for a few more low VitA things for variety and nutrition.
I have had intracranial hypertension since October 2016 and after a lot of reading, have decided to do a low vitamin A diet for a few months to see if chronic vitamin A toxicity is the cause. This is my last ditch effort to avoid having a shunt inserted in my brain to try and relieve the constant pressure and pain. I have light sensitivity, difficulty thinking, eye and sinus pressure, an all over body ache in my bones (not joints) and constant pain like my brain is being squashed like a stress ball.
I took a multivitamin for years, but when my symptoms got worse, I stopped it. At my worst last year, I was so nauseous that I ate a a pretty much white diet (potato hash browns, banana and coconut smoothies). This wasn' t by design. These were what I could tolerate and also high in potassium to offset the potassium that the diuretics were taking out. After four months I had a reprieve and felt amazing: clear head, fading pain and no aches. Then I immediately started a "better" multivitamin (which had 700ui of Vitamin A) and eating coloured vegetables etc. to 'nourish' my body. Good times only lasted for three weeks and old symptoms resumed.
So I've started today. I'm tracking my Vit A intake with myFitnessPal. I'll let you know how it goes.
Catherine
Thank you for sharing this! And please keep us posted.
Abundantly,
Catherine
Greg Taylor
Have you looked into Serrapeptase in conjunction with vit K2 MK7?
Steven
As someone who is currently trying to reduce the amount of vitamin A intake, I appreciate this article. I also appreciate Catherine's non-dogmatic approach to slowly reducing vitamin A stores rather than trying to eliminate every single iota of vitamin A. I just want to caution people that by eliminating liver and egg intake you are putting yourself at risk for NAFLD due to low choline intake. Please ensure that you're including enough animal sources of choline. Some can be found in beef, fish, and shellfish, however long-term I don't think avoiding eggs is the best strategy. Avoiding excess intake of synthetic vitamin A such as from commercial milk and avoiding excess liver consumption is probably ideal, and for good reasons. Traditional cultures did eat liver, but people have to keep in mind that this was extremely infrequent and just because some liver consumption is healthy doesn't mean we should be eating large amounts of it all the time. This wouldn't fit with any type of tradition. So certainly short term vitamin A depletion is fine (i.e. 3-6 months), however I think in the long-term having a small amount of liver once in a while and regularly eating eggs is healthy and certainly we want to be maximizing our choline status to avoid or reduce our chances of getting NAFLD, especially with the high amount of PUFA in modern diets, which put us at risk for this.
Steven Smith, RDN LDN
Xisca
Grant's list of V.A. content is not complete. For example nothing is said about goat milk products! I live in a goat place, and here our cheese is called white cheese, and imported cow cheese is called yellow cheese!
And goat butter is ...white.
Also, sweet potatoes are not all orange. Some have white flesh. I cannot find any specific analysis according to the variety. Some can also be violet. Same as blueberries, it should mean that they are safe...
I had instinctively been using the right colors as a gardener, what a surprise when I read Grant last year! White and violet are my best colors... As white roots, you can add after parsnip: white carrot, celeriac and even parsley root! Gobo is a white root too (bardane). Another white fruit is chirimoya. Another violet one is strawberry guava.
Something is not clear in what Grant said, and I would appreciate some insight about palmitic acid, and not vitamine A palmitate.
Palmitic acid should be safe with a VA depleted diet!
Thus I am scratching my head about his mentioning of emulsions... He also mentions the recycling of VA through bile, and bile is an emulsifier, so where is the link there? If we eat emulsified fats like home made mayo, our body should need less bile... Many people tolerate mayo better than oil, even olive oil!
I had success with the animal-based diet and I am now starting to introduce white plant food... Trials are only starting!
Courtney Cooke
These are very interesting questions that I also have, curious if you’ve come across anything regarding them? I do know that goat dairy is high in converted vitamin A, just not carotenes, which is why it is white, but I can’t seem to figure out whether that makes it better or worse or just as bad as cow dairy when trying to bring vitamin A levels down. We survive on raw goat dairy so I’m really trying to find this out!
Xisca
Courtney, thanks for this new information about the difference!
I have thought a bit more about vitamin A, and i think his job though long is not complete. I have done some muscle testing, and for me the problem is only carotene, and even lycopene was testing ok! So for this, I concluded it had to be individual.
Then let's ask why we do not use our vitA? Some people say that we lack microbes to fight... and I think that except in our guts and a bad microbiome, this is not true. We are "ill" only when we actually fight microbes, and I think most of us have chronic invasions and microbes feeding on us.
So we do not use our vitamin A and do not deplete it.... What blocks fighting infections? the immune system, which itself depends on the autonomic nervous system! And this ANS is overlooked. Why is it known that many people "wait for holidays" to get ill? Because they start to rest and sigh of relief, "oof I made it", and the immune system comes on board, and start to fight what was already there.
My personal conclusion is to first stop supplemented foods and all supp with added vitamin A, and to remove PLANT provitamin A.
Then it is up to each person to decide what to do about animal vitamin A, because of what else is contained in those foods. They are rich in nutrients. I have no eczema for example and no auto-immune as far as I know. Maybe my SIBO is enough to consume my vit A?
Also, let's not let vitamin A hide other issues. A low vitA plant can contain other bad stuff for you. I avoid liver though I need copper, but I have too much iron in my htma, though blood levels and ferritin are ok... A mystery... And my issue with goat milk might no be vitamin A but casein or lactose, so I am trying to take some with lactase enzyme. Let's see the result and if it does not constipate me when I take the lactase...
Cherylin
I am about to do a trial of a low or no Vit.-A diet to see how my body responds. When I eat a lot of greens, I notice an increase of joint pain. In my research, I came upon a good resource which seems quite comprehensive - http://dietgrail.com/no-vitamin-a-foods/
Natasha
Are you still on the diet? Have you noticed any changes?
Marcia
The pain from greens may be due to high oxalate content in some of them, but curious how your trial went?
Rod
Hi
I read about a lot of people starting this diet but I never read any follow up as to their symptom reduction. I’m starting this diet now but would be nice to know if it worked for others. Could anyone share?
Thanks
Natasha
Hi Katherine! Are you still on a low vitamin A Diet? What sort of Health improvements or changes have you noticed?
Jackeline
ezekiel 4:9 sesame bread has 0% "vitamin A" 🙂
hillcountry
Thanks for passing this on Catherine. I've been zero to very-low A for a year with numerous improvements. I wanted to respond to Cherylin and the link to DietGrail. Grant Genereux describes in Poisoning for Profits how the rendering of lard leaves retinoic acid in the finished product. It would be dangerous to rely on a food list that shows zero A for lard. A short story to make that point. I had a close friend who managed restaurants that served fried foods exclusively - shrimp, chicken, and fish. He ate at them for most of his meals. I was a frycook at one of them. We used pure lard in the fryers, not vegetable shortening. It made the batter-dipped foods taste better. My friend had the worst case of eczema I've ever seen. It didn't wax and wane, it was constant for years. I walked into the kitchen one morning and he was scratching his back with a coat hanger, drunk and bloody. He drank himself to sleep most nights and died of alcohol poisoning after 15 years of misery. I always wondered what the heck that was about. When I read Grant's books it was obvious that my friend had chronically poisoned himself.
Xisca Nicolas
If retinoic acid is the culprit, it would be nice to know which forms of Vit A are tolerable or not… As I said I did some muscle tests and both egg yolk and red tomato passed the test! Orange carrot and leaves and chlorella did not….
Lard has been heated, so does it change the form of vitamine A it has? Is pork fat ok or at least better when it comes from ham or prosciutto, as they are raw and fermented?
hillcountry
Hi Xisca Nicolas - only thing I can think of that should help answer those questions is to go zero-a for as long as it takes to improve symptoms, then add things one at a time. In chapter 11 of Grant's second book (free online) he describes being in recovery and adding a lutein + zeaxanthin supplement, which set him way back, contrary to medical science saying they had no vit a activity.
Christine Hoeflich
I would like to think that muscle testing is 100% correct, but I am no longer sure about that.
Lucie Robazza
Hi Catherine,
Thank you so much for this article. Do you think that someone could suffer Vitamin A toxicity at 40 from taking Accutane when they were teenagers?
Could Vitamin A cause liver enzyme levels to go up?
Thank yo so much!
Mark
I followed a “Ray Peat inspired” diet for the last 8 years. I was brainwashed by Peat for some reason. My health got progressively worse and worse over those years. Peat is such a huge dairy fan, and it always causes symptoms in me. Even with my infamous daily carrot salad and bamboo shoots.
I started listening to my body more then following his advice blindly. Ditched dairy. And then naturally, I just stopped wanting food without any Vitamin A whatsoever. I didn’t really notice it, until I came across some research on Vitamin A toxicity. Then started reading a lot of testimonies and stories similar to mine.
I can say with assurity that human beings do not need any food whatever that has Vitamin A in it. Most plant foods are toxic, and I believe we don’t need plant food in our diets whatsoever. Some plants do taste wonderful so I still have a few here and there. But I naturally crave plants without much or any Vitamin A. My body just seems to know better.
Stanley
Mark,
Thanks, but your N=1 experiment doesn't prove anything. It doesn't prove vitamin A to be toxic and doesn't prove Dr. Peat's views to be wrong at all. Testimonials of people who went on an elimination diet doesn't prove anything either. The "research" you speak of about vitamin A toxicity is non-existent. The theory is laughed at in acedemia and the scientific community. And if you were truly confident in the research, you would have shared it here with the rest of us.
Mark
Honestly, replies like this one, “Stanley”, is why I don’t participate in online discussion forums. You are 100% a snowflake. Guaranteed. And a weirdo, at that. Not even worthy of a second of my time. I don’t need to “prove” shit to you, moron. Just telling my own personal story, you snowflake fuck.
Stanley
Notice how I didn't resort to ad-hominem attacks like you did to get my point across. I'm just calling a spade a spade. My points stand on their own without making it personal. You on the other hand know that you can't back up what your saying, so you insult me. Which just goes to show how truly stupid you really are. I agree with you- you shouldn't participate on online discussions, especially if you're commenting on a topic you know absolutely nothing about.
Marcia
Sounds like that 'zero' vitamin A diet has done wonders for your mental health Mark.
Keith
Well said, there's always one who talks about science but in reality knows nothing about it or it's corruption.
Marcia
I agree with your comment in general Stanley, but to say that research about vitamin A toxicity is 'non-existent' is absurd. There are many studies and reports...
Here's just one link:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-and-molecular-biology/hypervitaminosis-a
Janice A Beels
I am thinking about giving this detox diet a try due to some leaky gut issues, how long is it recommended to stay on it?
Catherine
Hi Janice,
This is only meant for people who have a documented overdose of vitamin A (Rx drugs, supplements, etc). I'm more of a fan of GI Map testing for gut issues instead of eliminating a wide variety of foods from the diet when it may not be needed.
You can find out more about the GI Map here: butternutrition.com/services
Testing is better than guessing in my opinion.
Abundantly,
Catherine
Joseph
My serum Vit A is in the low normal range but I have chronic eczema on my scalp and thinning hair. Doesn't it seem likely that I should give the Low Vit A diet a trial run? I'm encouraged to find this info. Nothing else has changed my eczema. Thank you.
Susan Stewart
I tested low vitamin A for years and supplemented vitamin A to prevent sinus infections. Well, it turns out that I needed Zinc and protein, rather than vitamin A. Protein is needed to transport vitamin A around the bloodstream attached to Serum Retinol Binding Protein (SRBP), and zinc is needed to activate vitamin A. There is a body of research from Africa and. India showing that increasing zinc and protein in the diet (muscle meat) is the best way to raise vitamin A levels. Here is the kicker .. the vitamin A "test" actually uses SRBP as a proxy for vitamin A levels. My SRBP went sky high after increasing protein and zinc. Only the picolinate form of zinc made a difference.
Tracy
I was just diagnosed with IIH (internal cranial hypertension) and I too read to stay away from evertthing Vitamin A related,(which is a lot) and anything with tyramine in it.
I will try this new life style change to feel better,
Christine
I’ve been battling a severe vitamin A toxicity for about two years now. This helped tremendously! Having terrible muscle and bone pain, anxiety, depression, leaky guy, tremors, etc., none of the doctors I visited were able to figure this out. I realized I felt worse after eating every time. I essentially stopped eating much. After trial and error and some research I realized it was Hypervitaminosis A. I felt symptoms 24/7 for months upon months. I’m now adding foods back in. Thank you so much for this article and guidance!
Catherine
So happy to hear that Christine!
Abundantly,
Catherine