Pseudo-jaundice (Pseudo-icterus) and vitamine A metabolism

[pattismith]

I don't know if some other are concerned by this condition but I am and I only got the key of it today!

You may be carriers for polymorphism at "rs12934922 and rs7501331 , two snp that control a person’s conversion rate of beta carotene into retinol. People who have the T allele on both rs12934922 and rs7501331 convert beta-carotene to retinol 69% less efficiently than those without the T allele. For people with only a single T in the rs7501331 SNP, the conversion is decreased by 32%." (this is my case)

The more you eat carots and tomatoes, the more carotene will increase in your blood, dying it and your skin with a nice yellow color (xanthoderma)!
I like very much both of them, so you figure my good looking for so long (although my bilirubins levels were always low).
Hopefully caroten is not toxic, but the lack of conversion from carotene to retinol may be associated with retinol deficiency in some cases (especially vegan people)

apart from genetic polymorphism, some conditions may increase hypercarotenemia:

hyperlipidemia, diabetes mellitus, hypothyroidism, porphyria, hepatic disorders, anorexia nervosa, and renal disease

And vitamine A is important for so many things, steroid hormons metabolism and so on!

https://www.geneticlifehacks.com/beta-carotene-conversion-to-vitamin-a/
http://www.healthfrom.com/Symptoms/view-4849.html
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1104368-overview
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMicm950425#t=article
https://selfhacked.com/blog/importance-real-vitamin-retinol/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19103647?dopt=Abstract

 

[pattismith]

Maybe another key for the mystery of my yellow plasma/serum, but it's an old study, I'd like to find a more recent one...
Low T3 may be associated with more carotene in the blood...


Effects of 3:5:3′-Triiodo-D-Thyronine on Serum Vitamin A and Carotenoids in Hypothyroidism (in rats)
Agnes Horvat Joseph M. Merrill
01 July 1961


Summary
D-Triiodothyronine lowered serum carotenoids and cholesterol but did not change serum vitamin A consistently. Increased oxygen consumption occurred when D-T3 was given. No evidence was obtained that D-T3 enhanced conversion of β-carotene to vitamin A.

The study with the thyroidectomized rats suggests that D-triiodothyronine did not increase the amount of liver vitamin A formed from carotene nor alter appreciably the excretion of carotene.

 

[pattismith]

So it is confirmed by this 1999 study! My pseudo-jaundice may have been worsened by my low/normal T3 level..


The status of retinoids in women suffering from hyper- and hypothyroidism: interrelationship between vitamin A, beta-carotene and thyroid hormones.

Abstract

Retinoid status with reference to beta-carotene and retinol has been studied in women suffering from hyper- and hypothyroid conditions.

The interrelationship between the retinoids and triiodothyronine and thyroxine hormones has been established from the cases mentioned after estimation of the respective compounds from the blood serum.

It has been found that there is an increase in beta-carotene and retinol in the hypothyroid and a decrease of the same in the hyperthyroid conditions respectively.

 

[pattismith]

mecanisms of carotenemia

 

[pamojja]

I must be one of that up to 50% of carriers of those polymorphisms.

Though I started high-dose of all essential nutrients recommended by Linus Pauling 9 years ago due to PAD, his high recommendation of 25.000 IU/d preformed vitamin A I only reached recently by gradually increasing and measuring serum levels. Due to widespread warnings of vitamin A.

And suddenly my infrequent psoriasis-outbreaks have completely ceased.

 

[pattismith]

I must be one of that up to 50% of carriers of those polymorphisms.

Though I started high-dose of all essential nutrients recommended by Linus Pauling 9 years ago due to PAD, his high recommendation of 25.000 IU/d preformed vitamin A I only reached recently by gradually increasing and measuring serum levels. Due to widespread warnings of vitamin A.

And suddenly my infrequent psoriasis-outbreaks have completely ceased.

Yes, therapeutic dose of vitamine A is effective for several pathologies, but it has shown some toxicity (mitochondrial toxicity, cancer...)

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/omcl/2015/140267/

 

[pamojja]

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/omcl/2015/140267/

As always, the dose makes the poison. Though carefulness is usually always better, in the case of vitamin A I hope now I would have been a bit more bold:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_A#Side_effects

In general, acute toxicity occurs at doses of 25,000IU/kg of body weight, with chronic toxicity occurring at 4,000IU/kg of body weight daily for 6–15 months.[38] However, liver toxicities can occur at levels as low as 15,000IU (4500micrograms) per day to 1.4 million IU per day, with an average daily toxic dose of 120,000IU, particularly with excessive consumption of alcohol.[citation needed] In people with renal failure, 4000IU can cause substantial damage. Signs of toxicity may occur with long-term consumption of vitamin A at doses of 25,000–33,000IU per day.[1]

Just wouldn't do it without monitoring also serum levels, liver and kidney function. Which by the way, all improved in my case till now (had fatty liver and CKD stage 1 before supplementing).

 

[pattismith]

One more potential cause of carotenosis that I wish to add, although not mentioned much in scientific papers, would be iron deficiency.
Carotenoids are metabolized by BCO2 and BCMO1, and iron is a co-factor for these 2 enzymes, so iron deficiency leads theorically to carotenemia. In facts, it seems that this was noticed at less when iron deficiency induced anemia occured:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2756408

 

[pattismith]

Orange discoloration of the skin in mother and newborn with SARS-CoV-2 infection: is hypercarotenosis a sign of COVID-19?

Dario Alario1, Giorgio Bracaglia2, Giulia Franceschini3, Fabio Arcangeli4, Federico Mecarini5,61UOC Pediatrics and Neonatology, San Paolo Hospital, Civitavecchia, Italy

View of Orange discoloration of the skin in mother and newborn with SARS-CoV-2 infection: is hypercarotenosis a sign of COVID-19? | Journal of Pediatric and Neonatal Individualized Medicine (JPNIM)

Abstract

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and represents a potentially fatal disease.

Recently, dermatological manifestations have been reported to be signs of COVID-19. We describe a case of a newborn and her mother affected by SARS-CoV-2, that developed hypercarotenosis (HC) about 5 weeks after delivery.

The aim of this report is to identify the pathological mechanism of this association and to underline the importance of investigating any dubious skin manifestation in case of contact with patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19, because it may be a clinical sign of infection.

Even if not previously described in the literature, this case report suggests a possible association between HC and SARS-CoV-2 infection.