Quote from Dr. Garrett Smith on November 7, 2018, 4:38 pm

I’m doing some examples here, so people can see that the problem can ABSOLUTELY come from these ASSumed “healthy diets”…it is NOT just supplements or pharmaceuticals that cause this problem!  The following are the high Poison/”Vitamin A” sources in each of these approaches, and can easily explain why none of them have proved to be the “Holy Grail” of long-term health:

Weston A. Price world:

• Encourage organ meat consumption, particularly liver
• Eat tons of all types of dairy (dairy, except butter and ghee), dairy is the “perfect storm” for causing Poison/”Vitamin A” toxicity
• Cod liver oil
• Might Poison/”Vitamin A” play into the deaths of some of the biggest names in the WAPF world? Hint:  it’s not just the fermentation (aka rancidization) of the cod liver oil that is doing it.

Ray Peat world (I have a client who specifically had his health go DOWNHILL for the first time on a diet of the below things):

• Eating liver
• Daily carrot salads
• Tons of milk (one person I know was suggested to drink TWO GALLONS of milk a day by a “Ray Peat inspired practitioner”, this caused rapid fat gain)
• Excessive calcium intake from ground-up eggshells (excess calcium exacerbates the problems caused by excess Poison/"Vitamin A"
• Some are taking additional Vitamin A on top of the above things

The hair mineral analysis world:

• Recommending the use of moderate-to-higher doses of Poison/”Vitamin A” as retinol or retinyl palmitate as a tool to bring down elevated hair calcium levels. This is not necessary and may actually be counterproductive.
  • I used to be one of these folks.  I still use hair mineral analysis, as it is very useful for SOME (not all) of the minerals, and is extremely misleading on iron, copper, and zinc analysis.  I absolutely do NOT use any form of Poison/”Vitamin A” any longer with ANYONE.
• Some practitioners use carotenoids instead of Vitamin A supplements, as they mistakenly think it is "better".
• Multiple big-name hair mineral analysis folks recommend the liberal ingestion of animal liver of many different types.

The Walsh Institute world:

• Recommending the use of moderate-to-higher doses of Poison/”Vitamin A” as retinol or retinyl palmitate as a tool to theoretically increase ceruloplasmin and therefore reduce high free copper ratios. This is not necessary and may actually be counterproductive.
  • I used to be one of these folks as well.  I still use SOME (not all) of the Walsh Institute’s approaches to working on copper and zinc through bloodwork with my clients.  As I mentioned above, I absolutely do NOT use any form of Poison/”Vitamin A” any longer with ANYONE.

The “Primal Diet” as per Aajonus Vonderplanitz world:

• Organ meats (raw, along with raw muscle meats)
• Tons of dairy
• Tons of egg yolks
• I actually did this diet in medical school, and my classmates always like to remind me of this (we all make mistakes, that’s how we learn).  I do remember gaining a fair amount of bodyfat on it, and my energy levels did decrease.  With what I know now, I know why.  Women on this diet tended to gain UNBELIEVABLE amounts of bodyfat.

General folks just trying to be healthy:

• Trying to “eat the rainbow”…yellow and orange fruits and vegetables are full of carotenoids (plant form of Poison/”Vitamin A”), while red fruits and veggies that are that way because of carotenoids are the worst of the bunch (some fruits and veggies are red due to cyanidins/anthocyanins/OPCs, they are definite exceptions)
• Multivitamins with Vitamin A and/or carotenoids (lutein, lycopene, etc.), this is only the start of the problems with multivitamins, I NEVER RECOMMEND THEM
• Vitamin A (retinol) infused skin creams, anti-aging creams, sunscreens, etc.
• Fortified foods, including cereals and low-fat dairy

Look…if you are not getting the results you want or feel you were promised from any health approach…well, the definition of insanity would be to keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result.  I’m here to offer a different solution, the opposite of “insanity”.