interesting reaction to vitamin A

[Guest guest]

Anybody want to unravel this interesting bit?

I have a 36 year old female patient who has a very thin and

sinewy " wood " body type and psyche. She presents an overall Yin and

blood Xu and has, " Scotopic Sensitivity. " When exposed to bright

light, she gets headaches and visual disturbances, losing the ability

to focus.

If she takes Vitamin A supplements, she gets incapacitating whole body

muscle cramps but they only come on in the evening.

Has anybody seen anything like this?

Zach

[Guest guest]

Zach,

I cannot speak for certain to why this patient reacts this way, but I have some

points to make about vitamin A and supplements in general, including magnesium

and others.

 

First of all, it's probably not vitamin A she's taking. It's probably

beta-carotene, even though the label probably says " Vitamin A as beta-carotene. "

Beta-carotene is not vitamin A. Real vitamin A only comes in appreciable amounts

from animal sources such as cod liver oil, organ meats in general, dairy, eggs,

etc. Plants don't contain vitamin A. Beta-carotene will turn into vitamin A in

the body--if the body is working optimally--but only maybe 5 percent of it does

so. Diabetics and low thyroids and such--and babies--can't even make that much.

 

Then there is the issue of synthetics. Vitamin A must come in its true form, and

like all vitamins it is really a complex set of molecules, and it comes in a

package with other things, such as " vitamin " D (which is actually a pro-hormone

and not a vitamin at all). It takes D and A together to metabolize properly. It

takes the fat-soluble vitamins received into the body in a natural form in a

natural package of the nutrients that nature puts with it for all this to work

right. Isolated chemicals are not natural ways to take anything in. There are no

vitamin C trees or magnesium citrate plants (so to me the whole magnesium

discussion was missing the point). Isolated chemicals are by definition drugs.

Combinations of sets of isolated chemicals are--practically speaking--drug

combinations. They are not natural and are in fact toxic to the system, just

like what we normally think of when we think of drugs.

 

It is common knowledge that too much vitamin A can be toxic, but what this is

talking about is synthetic vitamin A. It is actually not so easy to get too much

natural-form vitamin A. Same with D. There is the old story about explorers who

got sick after eating a polar bear liver, and the contention was that they got

vitamin A toxicity. Someone finally looked at the case and realized that the

symptoms were in fact those of vanadium poisoning. Vanadium concentrates in

seawater. Apparently polar bears can handle a lot of it. Besides, when are we

going to be eating polar bear livers?

 

Ascorbic acid is not vitamin C. It is only one small part of the vitamin C

complex. True vitamin C comes from food, not from chemical-isolate vitamin

manufacturers. According to experts, taking in relatively large amounts of

chemical-isolate vitamin parts actually causes the body to scavenge itself for

the rest of the complex to go with it, and we end up more depleted. Yes, we feel

the results of taking the chemical isolates, but we feel the results of

pharmaceutical drugs too. And then we pay the price--of robbing Peter to pay

Paul in the body.

 

Most of what is taken for granted as true about supplements--and food--is wrong.

More and more evidence is showing that taking chemical-isolate vitamin products

is causing people harm. It is not just because most of these products are

synthetic. It is also because--whatever their source--they are being taken into

the body in an unnatural way. Chinese medicine is one way of looking at nature

and its ways in terms of health, and not the only way to look at it, but any way

that does things naturally works. Any way that does things unnaturally doesn't

work.

Joseph Garner, L.Ac.

 

--- On Wed, 7/23/08, znelms <znelms wrote:

znelms <znelms

interesting reaction to vitamin A

 

Wednesday, July 23, 2008, 11:41 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anybody want to unravel this interesting bit?

 

I have a 36 year old female patient who has a very thin and

 

sinewy " wood " body type and psyche. She presents an overall Yin and

 

blood Xu and has, " Scotopic Sensitivity. " When exposed to bright

 

light, she gets headaches and visual disturbances, losing the ability

 

to focus.

 

If she takes Vitamin A supplements, she gets incapacitating whole body

 

muscle cramps but they only come on in the evening.

 

Has anybody seen anything like this?

 

Zach

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Folks,

One more post on this issue, and then I'm going to bow out. I don't have time.

I'm going to give you my main sources, and then you can check it all out for

yourselves and make up your own minds.

 

I suggest you go to one of Michael Gaeta's seminars on nutrition. He is an L.Ac.

in New York, a former state association head, and he has a lot of fabulous and

eye-opening information to impart. And read the works of Don Matesz, L.Ac., on

nutrition. And check out the Weston Price world and the Price-Pottenger

Foundation. Sally Fallon and Mary Enig's books. Ron Schmid, ND's books. Google

away and follow the trail wherever you are drawn to. I don't take what any of

these people say as gospel, and they don't all agree 100 percent, but they all

agree on the core issue. I continue to question it all, and I question myself.

(My problem with Western science is not that it is skeptical of our world view,

but that it is not also skeptical of its own.) So there. Enjoy, and beware--this

stuff might just change your life.

Joseph Garner, L.Ac.

 

--- On Wed, 7/23/08, znelms <znelms wrote:

znelms <znelms

interesting reaction to vitamin A

 

Wednesday, July 23, 2008, 11:41 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anybody want to unravel this interesting bit?

 

I have a 36 year old female patient who has a very thin and

 

sinewy " wood " body type and psyche. She presents an overall Yin and

 

blood Xu and has, " Scotopic Sensitivity. " When exposed to bright

 

light, she gets headaches and visual disturbances, losing the ability

 

to focus.

 

If she takes Vitamin A supplements, she gets incapacitating whole body

 

muscle cramps but they only come on in the evening.

 

Has anybody seen anything like this?

 

Zach

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Actually she is taking 61% Vit A Palmitate, and 39% Beta-carotene. She

does take Vit D too (along with 50+ other vits, mins, oils, etc.- MD

prescribed). What is the Vit D/A relationship?

Zach

 

> First of all, it's probably not vitamin A she's taking. It's probably

beta-carotene, even though the label probably says " Vitamin A as beta-

carotene. "

[Guest guest]

Zach,

I'm sorry, but if you google the sources you can read all about it. Thanks.

Joseph

 

--- On Thu, 7/24/08, znelms <znelms wrote:

znelms <znelms

Re: interesting reaction to vitamin A

 

Thursday, July 24, 2008, 11:38 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Actually she is taking 61% Vit A Palmitate, and 39% Beta-carotene.

She

 

does take Vit D too (along with 50+ other vits, mins, oils, etc.- MD

 

prescribed). What is the Vit D/A relationship?

 

Zach

 

 

 

> First of all, it's probably not vitamin A she's taking. It's probably

 

beta-carotene, even though the label probably says " Vitamin A as beta-

 

carotene. "