Health and Environmental Illness

Resources about environmental illness and non-drug treatments

Vitamin A

Vitamin A Saga
by Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD

Cod Liver Oil Basics
Weston A. Price Foundation

Vitamin A on Trial: Does Vitamin A Cause Osteoporosis?
by Chris Masterjohn
Vitamin A will not work properly without vitamin D. Also, Vitamin D is necessary to prevent Vitamin A toxicity.


Environmental Illness

Vitamin A deficiency and disruption is an important element of environmental illness. Both articles mention pre-existing vitamin A defects as a risk factor.

Perilous Pathways: Environmental Chemicals and Environmental Illness: A Major Role for Vitamin A
by Frederick W. Plapp, Jr. PhD
Connects autoimmune illness and environmental illness with genetic difficulties in synthesizing vitamin A. Describes how pesticides, dioxins, and PCBs poison the enzymes that synthesize vitamin A and the carrier protein that transports it.

Is Autism a G-Alpha Protein Defect Reversible with Natural Vitamin A? (PDF)
by Mary N. Megson, MD
The combination of gluten damage to intestinal microvillae, measles virus, pertussis toxin, and synthetic vitamin A (palmitate) affects the metabolic pathways modulated by G alpha protein. This affects vision, sensory perception, language processing, and attention. In case studies, autistic children dramatically improved with cod liver oil (natural vitamin A), a gluten-free diet, and/or an additional neurological drug. The biochemistry is also relevant to chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, autoimmune disease, and gluten enteropathy (celiac disease), among others.


Open Questions

Can damage to vitamin A metabolism by environmental chemicals be reversed?


Updated 7/26/2010