I am anemic, i do take B12 injection every month. Please can someone tell me whether i need to take iron tablets aswell.

[Viru09]

The Nurse at the pharmacy advised that i do not need to take iron tablets if i am taking B12 injections.

[Gambit62 Administrator]

Have you spoken to a doctor ... and how do you know that you are anaemic? Have you had test for iron anaemia?

One of the effects of B12 deficiency is to cause red blood cells to be deformed which can lead to iron based anaemia. You may need to take iron if you have iron based anaemia as well as a B12 deficiency. You may also find it useful to take B6 and B9 as they seem to interact to in the bodies ability to convert different forms of B12 and absorb it at a cellular level. I'm not an expert by any means but I do think that the nurse may have been wrong and that you should try to speak to a doctor and be clear about what type of anaemia you have.

B12 deficiency that occurs because you can't absorb B12 through the digestive system is called pernicious anaemia but that is a bit of a mis-nomer.