What's the Matter With Me?
Maybe It's
Too Much Vitamin A!

"Let food be your medicine". But can you get too much Vitamin A just by eating foods with too much Vitamin A? What happens if you get too much? Yes, it is possible too have too much of a good thing!

What's Wrong With Me, I Wondered?

I couldn't figure it out. I kept getting what I thought were skin infections on my face. I used Polysporin and/or essential oils, both of which should handle mild infections but they weren't helping. Then I'd get a space of time when it seemed better, and then there it was again! I'd have redness at the corners of my mouth and it would crack and be uncomfortable.

Before Christmas of 2015, I noticed that my skin was very dry and scaly around my hair line. It spread down the side of my face and around my eyes. Even my eye lids and under my eyebrows were itchy and it wouldn't go away! 

We were making a trip to Ontario for Christmas from PEI, and every time I go back home to Ontario, my hairdresser daughter does my hair. I was hoping my face wouldn't be too bad because I found it embarrassing. Thankfully, my face wasn't too bad while we were there. But my daughter did notice and commented on it ...

It's difficult to keep eating healthy while traveling, isn't it? And when you're staying in other people's home and eating what they serve. . . plus all the Christmas treats ... I realized later that this was significant, but I didn't understand why yet.

My daughter had noticed that some hair had fallen out at my hairline and was growing back in. I realized later that this also was significant, but again, I didn't understand this yet either.

So - I decided to do a juice fast, but then decided I could have healing soups, then thought - there's nothing wrong with good healthy protein - so I concentrated on everything being clean and healthy (by clean I mean no processed foods with food additives, preservatives or GMO)

And after the two batches of the detox soup? I woke up during the night (it always seemed to get worse at night) and my face was so swollen, it was ridiculous, and dark red like a dark red flower vase that I have. I looked at my face in the bathroom mirror and though, "Oh, no." I cried. I didn't know what to do. I've got God in my life and I prayed and said “I don't know what to do! I've done everything I know to do! I really, really need some help here!” After I stopped crying, I was sitting quietly, and a phrase came into my mind “spiritual infection of face”. I went with it and googled it, which led to an interesting website involving the mind/body aspect in health.

But even better, I saw a listing for "Are You Getting Too Much Vitamin A?" I read the page, and thought, “Oh my goodness, this is describing me! Is this the answer? I'm getting too much Vitamin A?”

Well, I did go see a naturopath. She wanted to see blood work, so I also went to the doctor. They both said, "I don't really think you can get too much Vitamin A just from your food", (I wasn't taking any vitamins). They both continued, "Have you changed your soap / lotion/ perfume / cleaning detergent" blah blah on and on. No, no,no and no. Neither of them had any answers for me, and I went with my God answer - too much Vitamin A. So I proceeded accordingly - meaning "Don't Eat Too Much Vitamin A!", and I got better.

It's hard to eat as healthy as I'd like while avoiding all Vitamin A. I googled every single food before I ate it. Brown food – like meat and bread – was fine. White food like white potatoes, cauliflower and onions were fine. Egg white was fine, but who wants an egg without the yoke? Not me. So I left that out. Peanut butter was fine. Rice and rice cakes were fine.

But "dark leafy greens" that we're all supposed to eat? No. Sweet potatoes? No. Carrots? No. Roasted red peppers? No. The pumpkin pie I made for Thanksgiving? Didn't touch it. Even watermelon in the summer? Not that either. Beans from the garden? No. Green peas? No. Even salsa? No. Sigh.

Almost every website I found says “just stop taking the supplements and you'll be fine”. Only one was a naturopath who said that her raw food clients were coming in with too much Vitamin A. She said that after a couple of months that you should be able to incorporate Vitamin A foods back into your diet again. However - I have spend this whole last year avoiding Vitamin A! I still have to be careful. We go to a restaurant and I order french fries instead of salad. I go to a coffee shop and think “I might as well have a donut, it won't hurt me”. How bad is that lol?

But I know I won't have a Vitamin A reaction. I have been eating peanut butter and rice cakes, and more peanut butter and rice cakes and still more peanut butter and rice cakes. And guess what, my weight isn't where it should be. No surprise there.

I realize now that I wasn't reacting quite so badly at Christmas, not because I was eating so healthy, but because I was eating unhealthy - go figure! I wasn't eating food with much Vitamin A in it.

I now know that a cup of kale has like 900 times more Vitamin A than you're supposed to have in a single day and I was having a kale smoothie 5 days out of 7!

I also realize now that sweet potatoes have like 700 or 800 times the Vitamin A we should have in a day. I had stopped eating white potatoes and had replaced them with sweet potatoes.

I realize now that the Dr. Sara detox soup with the kale, spinach and sweet potatoes has an amazing amount of Vitamin A. (I don't suppose she thought any normal person would make two batches in a row and eat it all by herself!)

So now I want to get my weight down to where it should be, and how do you do that when you can't eat what you need to eat to lose weight? I'm going to give it a try again, I'm going to work through the Skinny Gut Diet plan, but replace higher Vitamin A foods with lower ones. This is Feb. 2017. We'll see how I've done in a few months!

But this has been quite a trial.

Find out if you have symptoms of too much Vitamin A.

Teresa has left the city life and lives in Prince Edward Island, Canada with her husband
and is wondering if raising chickens will be her next project.
She has 4 grown up children and 5 grandkids who try to visit when they won't
have to spend too much time dodging mosquitoes and black flies.
Teresa is a certified Strategic Interventionist through Robbins Madanes training,
a certified StrengthsFinder adviser,
and a life coach with a life-long interest in nutrition.
Teresa has a passion for helping others to find and fulfill
their full potential and to live with abundance.
She sees optimum health as a necessary part of this,
and besides, isn't this what you want?