B12 Deficiency : A Silent Epidemic with Serious Consequences

Polaris

Registered User
Feb 5, 2015
17
0
Maybe I should get some of these for the CH to give to my mother each day - I have LPA for health and welfare after all - but they would probably object and raise a safeguarding! But if she's been B12 deficient all these years it's probably too late to reverse any damage, and the iron and folic acid has probably masked it as well. Don't we have some useless doctors! Can't see beyond the symptoms and identify the cause . They could be saving the NHS millions by diagnosing people properly. Why is there so much resistance to addressing people's valid concerns?

You are so right there ! This is an excellent film which explains everything quite well I thought.

http://www.b12deficiency.info/films/
 

Lawson58

Registered User
Aug 1, 2014
4,333
0
Victoria, Australia
After reading this thread, I am somewhat flabbergasted to say the least.

About twenty-eight years ago, my then husband was showing some rather disturbing signs and I took him to our GP who immediately had him tested for vitamin B levels. And of course, he required and still does two-monthly injections and he soon switched back to being his normal self. He is now 82 years old and his prostate bothers him more than the odd senior moments.

The GP told us that many of the people who ended up in the old style lunatic asylums were vitamin B deficient and that their lives could have been very different if they had been treated correctly.

When OH was diagnosed with AD three years ago, the geriatrician recommended that he take vitamin B 12 and he has done so ever since. The geriatrician checks at every review that he is still taking it and I would have to suppose that most of his patients would be using it.

OH has had several general anaesthetics since his diagnosis and I don't think he experienced too much increased confusion afterwards so maybe it helped.

Apparently some people cannot absorb these vitamins from food so require the injections. I am unable to take vitamin B in tablet form as it messes with my liver so I eat Vegemite on a regular basis.

I am a little surprised as it seems to be a fairly commonplace thing to look for here.
 

Igofal

New member
Jun 4, 2022
1
0
I realise this is an old thread but would like to add my tuppence.

B12 deficiency is not as simple as ’just‘ getting a blood test & being treated - or not.

Unfortunately, the serum blood test only measures the total in the blood. It does not determine how much is ‘active’ or ‘inactive’. There are two inactive forms, Cyanocobalamin & Hydroxocobalamin & two active forms, Methylcobalamin & Adenosylcobalamin. Only the active forms work at cellular level.

If your body can convert the inactive to the active, you are ok as long as you are getting enough in your diet & can absorb it digestively. If it can’t convert it very well, it doesn’t matter how much B12 you get, most of what is in your bloodstream will be inactive & unavailable, despite the numbers looking good on paper. Even those who get IV shots - if they are as inactive forms - may still struggle.

Because doctors put far more faith in test results than in symptoms, if they deem the test results to indicate that you have ‘adequate’ B12 in your blood (regardless of whether you can actually use it or not), then B12 deficiency will be dismissed and attention will be directed at everything but the real issue.

Dr. Joseph Chandy was mentioned in a previous comment. He noticed the same symptoms in many of his patients as he had witnessed in Vegans he treated in the Punjab prior to moving to the U.K. Hooray for that man! Here was a genuine, old-school doctor who knew & understood the importance of knowing & recognising symptoms! He found that at least 50% of his patients were actually B12 deficient!

if you translate that to the Western population, that is a huge amount of people! Between grossly ignored B12 & Thiamine (B1) deficiencies (& probably other B vitamins too, as they are all important & support each other), there is another very insidious pandemic going on.

Why should this be such an issue? I don’t know, but I have my suspicions that the use of antibiotics over the last 70 years may well have decimated & destroyed our B vitamin-producing & metabolising gut microbe populations, so many of us are unable to utilise them effectively.

Personally, I use sublingual liquid B12 drops with BOTH active forms & they work very well & very quickly - better than any other types I’ve tried. So many people have gut & digestive issues these days, metabolic syndrome, etc, & take B12-inhibiting medications, & have other issues that affect absorption & utilisation, it is actually a much bigger issue than is recognised.