I did part of my medical training in South Africa and I remember very clearly how one of my professors would discuss a case and he would start with the effect of the disease the patient had on the person’s anatomy, and how the disease affected him biochemically, physiologically and even genetically. That really impressed me! That is one of the reasons I have been studying the genetics of a number of diseases. Recently a lady came in to see me who was quickly losing her vision. She had no night vision at all. Her husband had to lead her to the bed. At night she had to be guided to her bedroom because she could not see. She did say her bed looked like a pile of leaves. During the day colors were drab, she had light flickers in her eyes and she was going blind quickly. She went to a number of specialists and no one could find out the cause of her blindness. Finally, one eye specialist did a test and saw she had little to no Vitamin A in her body. She was eating a healthy diet with plenty of vegetables rich in Vitamin A but to no avail.
Something was wrong and she was very worried she would be completely blind very quickly. So there she was in my office looking for help. So I decided to start with the anatomy and biochemistry of vision and had her bring in her 23 and ME genetic work up. I went through page after page of genetic code and there it was. The problem was she had a genetic defect at the BCMO, VDR-TAQ and the GC genes. These genes are all code for metabolism of fat soluble vitamins of which Vitamin A is one and for the ability to absorb specifically Vitamin A! So what we did was take large amounts of liquid Vitamin A and had her mix it in a Young Health Protein concentrate. We made an emulsion by hiding the Vitamin A in a protein (basic Bio-Chemistry). This way I could sneak Vitamin A around the intestinal wall and into the blood stream. I saw her the other day and after 4 weeks of doing this, colors were vivid and her night vision had returned. No need to lead her around her house as her sight had come back and the flashes of light in her eyes are gone. The rods and cones in the eye which detect color and provide night vision need Vitamin A to work. We were able to restore them and with that her vision!
That South African professor who taught me how to heal a disease down to its anatomical, physiological, biochemical, and genetic parts. I never thought I would need that to treat a patient. Yet, it was his teaching me those years ago gave me the ability to help a person in the U.S. restore her vision.It goes to show how things we think are not significant and just academic experience can really make a life time difference in a person.
Once she was blind, but now she can see!