Why I’m Raising Gerbils: A Scientific Experiment on Vitamin A Deficiency

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Why I’m Raising Gerbils: A Scientific Experiment on Vitamin A Deficiency explains a new scientific experiment I’m (excited to be) doing! that’s quite simple — but also one tiny important step in history.

For over 20 years, the work of epidemiologist (a health professional who identifies the cause of a disease) Dr. Anthony Mawson has shown the toxicity of vitamin A in humans.

If you have not yet been introduced to the work of Grant Genereux, he’s spent the last ten years proving in humans that vitamin A is a toxin, not a vitamin. (He has eaten almost zero vitamin A for 10 full years. He went from being told he would die from kidney disease and being covered in eczema, to cycling with men less than half his age and having his doctor say he didn’t need to see him again. His blood work and health are now excellent.)

Grant already succeeded

He also did a rodent study to begin proving that the original rat (and other animal) studies (from 1913 to 1960) on the compound

now called “Vitamin A” were fallacious (PFP 82-114). Those original experiments are very important because all of our modern beliefs about vitamin A rest on them alone.

His experiment consisted of two gerbils fed a zero vitamin A diet for the same duration as the original studies. At the end of his study, his gerbils were healthy and thriving, with shiny coats, clear eyes and lots of energy. (The animals in the study were all dead or extremely diseased because their diet was made up, unknowingly at the time, of primarily vitamin A precursors.  The animals all suffered from extreme vitamin A toxicity. The scientists concluded that humans require vitamin A for health and survival. These tests were repeated several times, but they always used the same diet.)

Grant is calling all of us to do rodent studies as well. Why?

Grant explains, “Only after hundreds of repeated experiments, yielding exactly, or very close to exactly the same results, and the experiments are conducted by many different scientists, and preferably from around the world, can a theory be regarded as a fact.” (PFP 21)

After reading Grant’s books six years ago, I immediately started the human experiment, on myself. Six years later, all of my health issues are gone or continuing to disappear (only two small issues remain that I barely notice anymore; they keep lessening). Rather than being severely ill or worse, every single symptom I had disappeared — including mental health challenges, skin issues, hormonal imbalances, autoimmune conditions, chronic pain and problems with organ function.

Following a diet extremely low in vitamin A has helped my body recover from several illnesses, while it continues to cleanse my liver and other tissues.

Don’t forget Part B: The Animal Experiment

While I followed Grant’s insights for my own body, I forgot, or didn’t yet understand, the importance of his call to also help him with the animal experiment: He needs many of us to do the experiment on rodents, too. Each time one of us successfully raises gerbils or rats on a zero vitamin A diet, we continue to overturn the erroneous conclusions drawn from the first false rat studies.

Eventually, we can hope and pray that more researchers, like Dr. Mawson, will take notice.

In the meantime, people’s health is damaged daily worldwide through vitamin A fortifications in baby formula, multivitamins and even in targeted and powerful vitamin A supplementation programs throughout sub-Saharan African countries.

The damage is far-reaching and tragic, affecting tens of millions of people or more. To have some small role in stopping the poisoning is a privilege.

So, will you do it, too? I never wanted to raise gerbils. But I do now. There’s a reason, you see? What originated solely for scientific and humanitarian reasons (and out of a love for the truth), can also be a fun pet experience for our family and yours.

Grab a cage, find out exactly how to raise your gerbils on a zero vitamin A diet on page 338 in Grant’s book, and let’s get started! (It’s very easy.)

Updates on the gerbils’ health

I’ll post videos here and on YouTube as we launch our process and proceed. Sign up for my newsletter for weekly updates, if you haven’t already (each Sunday), or follow me on YouTube here.

We’re raising two girls in the same cage. Their names are Maggie and Princess Z — named after my favorite minerals: Magnesium and Zinc.

I’ll share the girls soon!

In the meantime, if you’re interested in this diet for yourself, please see the work of Dr. Garrett Smith, the leading expert on vitamin A toxicity in humans and how to recover from it. He has an excellent support community of over 2,000 people, called Love Your Liver, which I highly recommend. If you join, I’ll see you inside!

Conclusion: Why I’m Raising Gerbils: A Scientific Experiment on Vitamin A Deficiency

Thousands of humans are now involved in the human study and have already shown that human health improves when vitamin A is removed from the diet. While it may take time for our movement to gain major exposure, it has exploded from just a handful of people six years ago!

More rodent experiments will help gain visibility for the topic.

And it will help people like you and me to be absolutely sure: Vitamin A is not required by the human body to thrive, not by starving children in Africa, not by pregnant women, not by anyone, not even animals, whose feed is always fortified with it.

As Grant says about the value of participating, “This is the fantastic thing about science. All the theoretical debates can’t hold a candle to the experiment. The experiment trumps the debate. The experiment is king! The experiment quietly cuts through even the loudest rhetoric, and regardless of who’s shouting it, and proves or disproves the theory. Obviously, this is not to say that critical and logical thinking isn’t just as important as the experiment. On the contrary, critical and logical thinking is extremely important. Thus, the experiment is in no way a replacement for critical and logical thinking; rather it complements it. With that, by conducting a fun little experiment, and applying your own critical thinking, you’ll get to verify and see the results with your own eyes … What matters is that you help prove it one way or the other … you get to participate in (potentially) overturning one of the most fundamental and longest held beliefs in modern medicine. I believe it also just happens to be the very root cause of most of the chronic diseases we are dealing with in the Western world … Come on; you can’t resist being part of that, can you?” (PFP 25-26)

After you do your experiment, come back here (or elsewhere) to share your results. They need to be published. Share before and after videos in any public forum. Comment below if you need any help!

I don’t expect many of you will take me up on this! But I’m doing it, and I’ll be thrilled if you join me!

As always, Blessings!! Megan