I believe a Canadian engineer named Grant Genereux has discovered the primary cause of auto-immune disease. He used his discovery to cure himself of eczema, kidney disease and some other problems simply by changing his diet. He tried to narrow down the possible list of chemicals that could be causing auto-immune disease by asking a simple question: of the chemicals that are we more exposed to now than in the past (and more in the 1st world than the 3rd world), which ones are known to cause symptoms that are similar to auto-immune diseases. He hit upon a very simple answer: retinol, otherwise known as vitamin A.
The fact that vitamin A is toxic has been known since the early 1900's. (Just google hypervitaminosis A.) And if you look into the established symptoms of acute and chronic hypervitaminosis A, they overlap almost exactly with all the symptoms of known auto-immune diseases. That is not controversial. The only thing controversial is that hypervitaminosis A is only thought to occur at extremeley high doses of vitamin A consumption — although there are plenty of studies that have shown that it can occur even at much lower doses than thought to be toxic. Since vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin, it accumulates in the body (mainly the liver and fat tissue). So even if you don’t consume a massive amount on any given day, it can easily build up over time.
Our exposure to vitamin A has gone up considerably since the 1970s, when Western governments started supplementing many foods with vitamin A: low-fat milk, white flour, cereals, and many other processed foods. Most people take multi-vitamins that have vitamin A and beta-carotene (a form of vitamin A). And/or cod liver oil. Vitamin A (in the form of retinyl esters or retinoic acid) is the main ingredient in acne medications and can be found in many sunscreens, cosmetics, and other types of lotions and skin-care products. Not to mention we are eating a diet that is much richer in vitamin A than in the past (eat the rainbow).
But the other key to the puzzle is that some of the chemicals and medications we are exposed to either exacerbate the toxic effects of vitamin A or they block the body’s natural capacity to break down vitamin A into non-toxic chemicals. The biggest culprit seems to be glyphosate (Round-Up), which has been shown to interfere with a key cellular pathway for breaking down vitamin A. Stress comes into the equation because it can cause the liver to release retinol into the blood stream, leading to toxic reactions that people experience as auto-immune disorders.
This is not just a pie-in-the-sky claim. People have actually been healing their auto-immune disorders (including hashimoto’s) by severely restricting their vitamin A intake. The most high-profile example is Jordan Peterson and his daughter who both cured themselves of auto-immune diseases by adopting a carnivore diet. They haven’t realized it yet, but the reason their diet works is that it’s a low vitamin A diet. There is a naturopath named Garrett Smith (nutritionrestored-dot-com) who has been having great success curing people’s auto-immune diseases (and other health problems) with a detox diet.
Here are some useful links if anyone here wants to learn more:
