Rambling about B12 price and dairy

[Galixie]

I got my prescription filled though a compounding pharmacy. (I posted about the insane prices of B12 in my area awhile back.) When I got my prescription there was an itemized list of the costs. The actual ingredients only totaled $14.50 (for a 10ml vial) but the compounding fee was $85.39. The compounding fee is why it cost so much. But it does show that it isn't the price of the ingredients that skyrocketed. In a way, that's kind of a relief.

The other weird thing I discovered recently was that dairy makes me tired. About a month ago I inadvertently went off of dairy for a couple of days. On the second day I came down with a horrible sinus headache and I realized dairy might be a problem for me. I came to this realization partially because I know I have been ignoring results from some elisa testing that I'd had done in 2011 which said I was sensitive to both casein and whey. (I had been ignoring those results because my gp had said that elisa testing wasn't very reliable and didn't necessarily mean anything. It isn't the same as allergy testing.) I'd also been having tummy troubles for awhile and they had recently become worse than ever. After the sinus headache realization, I immediately decided to stay off of dairy and see what would happen.

What happened was that the sinus headache cleared, I had a mildly annoying tummy-ache for almost a week that eventually went away, my gut problems got much better, and I had so much more energy than usual that my friends could tell the difference.

It's only been a month so I don't know if this improvement is just a fluke or not. I'm also wondering if I will eventually be able to cut down on the B12 I need. (Maybe I won't need as much if I'm not as tired?) But I am pretty sure my B12 issue is a completely separate problem from the dairy intolerance, so I don't expect giving up dairy to cure my B12 deficiency. I had never realized that having dairy might contribute to my fatigue.

[Poppet11]

Lactose intolerance. Lactase drops work for me but it does depend on the type. All lactase drops are not the same.

It's not a 'dairy' intolerance as such - it's a dairy sugar intolerance. And it's in everything.

[Galixie in reply to Poppet11]

Well it's specifically a casein intolerance primarily, with whey being secondary. It's not really a lactose issue as far as I know.

[Poppet11 in reply to Galixie]

Fair enough.

[Secondchance]

That charge is scandalous! Yes I changed my diet as well and feel all the better for it. I would recommend the Paleo diet. I don't miss my old diet at all, which I thought I would.

[Gambit62 Administrator]

I don't know if it is related or not but I have a friend who has problems digesting fat and oil from her diet - she was recently told that she has a problem with methylisation (or something like that) and has been put on a course of B12 and zinc to try and boost her systems ability to process the fats properly.

She doesn't have an absorption problem with B12 as far as we are aware