[email protected] wrote: > Couple of sites: > From: > http://www.cureamerica.net/medical_freedom.html#9 > MORE ON VITAMIN A > > When was the last time that you ate polar bear liver ?
That is irrelevant. The question is if too much vitamin A is toxic. My sister spent a week in the hospital before they discovered she had vitamin A poisoning a few decades ago. I do not know if she was taking natural or synthetic. > > > Americans should be told about vitamin-A and it's ridiculously low RDA > of 5000 I.U.. A person eating a modest meal of carrots and liver > consumes at least 100,000 I.U. of vitamin-A, and he does it without a > doctor's prescription, and each spoonful is in violation of the RDA's. I don't think you can violate an RDA, it is simply a recommendation. I believe most of the RDA's on vitamins are rediculously low, especially folic acid. > > > Spinach, sweet peas, potatoes, red peppers and dried apricots would > also be disallowed from the doctor's prescription if the FDA ever is > allowed to enforce the RDAs. I don't think these contain much vitamin A, they contain carotene, which the body converts to vitamin A as needed. A big difference, as it is virtually impossible to get vitamin A poisoning from carotene. > In February 2001, UNICEF reported that a > program that began in 1988 giving high-dose capsules of vitamin-A to > strengthen the body's immune system has averted one million child > deaths. If vitamin-A is so abundant in common food then how could the > medical authorities convince the doctors to warn the public about the > dangers of taking too much and that it could be poisonous ? The answer > most frequently cited is that eating polar bear livers, which contain > as much as 8,000,000 I.U. of vitamin-A, was fatal for the early arctic > explorers. > > My God ! When was the last time that you ate polar bear liver ? The > tragedy behind this ridiculous stance is that it is based on > misinformation. To begin with, the early explorers did not die from > eating the polar bear liver which was so delicious that they devoured > large amounts at each meal, but rather became sick, suffering from > dermatitis and defoliation. Then, ironically, in the late 1980's, a > team of Swedish scientists discovered that polar bear liver adsorbs > large amounts of cadmium metal found in the arctic water. The symptoms > of cadmium metal poisoning are dermatitis and defoliation. Thus, the > ailments of the early explorers were caused by the cadmium in the > polar bear liver, and not the large amount of vitamin-A. The tragedy > is that despite the scientific evidence, "too much" vitamin-A still > remains "toxic" in the doctors minds. I am perfectly willing to entertain this notion, but no one has been able to provide a unbiased reference that says this, and I googled for it and came up empty handed myself. The below reference is from a health food supported organization and thus cannot be trusted unless some other information is available from an independent source. I DO doubt this information though on scientific grounds. Polar Bear cadmium levels in the liver run from 0.120-1.98 micrograms/g ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10682354&dopt=Abstract ) For cadmium chloride (the form I believe cadmium would be in) the LLD50 is 88 mg/kg in rats and 8,000 mg/kg in women, and I would assume it will lie between those two for men. So using the lower figure for rats, for a human which weights 100 kg, that would be 8.8 grams. 8.8g/2X10^-6g/g = 4.4X10^6 grams of liver, which works out to be 4,400 kg, or about 10,000 pounds of liver. If you use the women's LLD 50, then the amount of liver that would need to be consumed would be 1,000,000 pounds each! I believe if they ate that much polar bear liver they would die from overindulgence and there would be no polar bears left! > > > And from: > http://www.westonaprice.org/healthissues/supplements.html > > The warnings against vitamin A usually include mention of Arctic > explorers who died from vitamin A overdose because they consumed polar > bear livers. Actually, the early explorers did not die from eating > polar bear liver. They did suffer from exfoliative dermatitis and hair > loss. In 1988, a team of Swedish scientists discovered that polar bear > and seal livers tend to accumulate the metal cadmium. The symptoms for > cadmium poisoning are exfoliative dermatitis and hair loss, but don't > expect to hear about this on the evening news. Rather, expect > continuing stories about the alleged dangers of vitamins A and D. The > media and the medical establishment work together to vilify the very > substances that can prevent suffering and disease. Why do you think they are being vilified? I read lots of things indicating how important vitamin A is, and the simple fact that it is a vitamin means that is is useful. But one cannot ignore that it IS toxic is high dosages, which makes it like just about everything else, even water is toxic in high enough dosages. That certainly does not mean one should not drink water. This is the norm, Apple seeds, that can cure cancer for many people, will kill you if you eat too many of them, and too much sugar will kill you as well. Marshall > > > Chuck > Success didn't spoil me--I've always been insufferable > > On 10/10/2005 1:31:33 PM, Marshall Dudley ([email protected]) > wrote: > > Vitamin A in Polar Bear Livers can kill: > > > > http://members.tripod.com/~Prof_Anil_Aggrawal/poiso032.html > > http://www.itk.ca/environment/wildlife-polar-bear.php > > http://www.hww.ca/hww2.asp?id=99 > > > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retinol > > > > Vitamin A overdose > > > > Too much Vitamin A can be harmful or fatal. The body converts the > > dimerized > > form, carotene, into vitamin A as it is needed, therefore high > > levels of > > carotene are not toxic compared to the ester (animal) forms. The livers > > of > > certain animals, especially those adapted to polar environments, often > > > > -- > The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. > > Instructions for unsubscribing are posted at: http://silverlist.org > > To post, address your message to: [email protected] > Silver List archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html > > Address Off-Topic messages to: [email protected] > OT Archive: http://escribe.com/health/silverofftopiclist/index.html > > List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
