Re: Update! Eyesight improving, and general improvements with some side effects from Iodine and Borax protocols

The literature doesn't support this position. Retinol can only act as a terminator when it is properly delivered to cells by retinol binding protein. Retinol binding protein is a strong beta barrel protein that evolved to encompass the retinol molecule in order to protect everything else from the molecule. When free retinol is present, it haphazardly donates electrons to anything that will accept them in the vicinity, including oxygen, and oxidized metals. This creates the chain reaction that eventually ends up producing peroxynitrite and other reactive nitrogen species that then inappropriately signal apoptosis. Retinol is quite similar in structure to the polyunsaturated fats, another set of quite toxic molecules people consume too much of, in that they both contain a lot of electron-rich double bonds. These double bonds are easily peroxidized which produces a number of toxic byproducts. Retinol and the polyunsaturated fats are some of the most unstable molecules in existence.

Retinol is found in several foods disproportionately to its fat-soluble counterparts. Even grass-fed butter has markedly more retinol than it does vitamin K2 or vitamin D. Several studies have shown that it only takes a tiny amount of retinol to negate the benefits of moderately large doses of vitamin D.

Also, it is unlikely that humans evolved consuming much, if any, retinol in their diets as evidenced by the evolution of the beta carotene conversion pathway. Except for a few unlucky people who have genetic mutations, the majority of people convert beta carotene into retinol in a negative feedback loop that prevents the over-conversion of the beta carotene, thus preventing toxicity. The evolution of this conversion pathway suggests that humans evolved in retinol-poor conditions. Another piece of evidence suggesting this is the remarkably high absorption and storage rate (roughly 85-90 percent of retinol is absorbed and stored) and the extremely slow excretion rate. When I overdosed on retinol, I calculated a rough half-life that indicated that it would take about 4 years to excrete the 100,000 IU per day that I took for merely 5 weeks.

Retinol is dangerous and should not be supplemented with on a whim. Tweet