New here and so relieved to find you all. B12 help, advice and reassurance needed, please!!

Hi goldlion,

Sorry you have been feeling so ill. I too started on Jarrows sublingual lozenges. It did work for me but wore off so I was taking up to 10x5000 mcg day! Expensive as well as annoying, so started self injecting several weeks ago. My symptoms are continuing to improve as I rarely have a lozenge now as well. I was at first but now I inject weekly with 5mg of methylcobalamin into my thigh muscle. Having said that I injected twice last week as had a return of symptoms. Think that's the way it goes, never be perfect, but I hope it can get even better.

There are you tube videos on how to inject, I use the z track method. Loads of members here have been doing it themselves for longer than me, years in fact, so can give you better information. If you decide to do it there will be lots of advice on here where to buy it. I get mine from a charity and fixed needles from medisave.co.uk it really is a lot easier than you think and not as scary! I would imagine that taking 3x5000mcg a day is not a huge dose for you. Try taking more if you want to avoid injections right now. I took 10 a day for a long time and you can't overdose on it. There is a mouth spray too which I used as well. I hope you feel better soon.

Hi goldlion welcome to this community.

I'm not a medically trained person but given that you are a vegetarian/vegan have you considered asking your local doctor to prescribe a course of B12 injections to be administered by the practice nurse. These should be given until your symptoms have gone.

Any GP worth his salt would know the dangers of B12 deficiency with your choice of diet and should be amenable to helping you. I'm assuming you are in the U.K.

I wish you well.

Am on B1, B12. Supplements, (along with D, as there was none, & Folic Acid, anemia). What I've first noticed is terrible stomach pains and continued diarrhea, I cannot be far from a bathroom, and it's horrible as I cannot figure out which is doing it. Iron, folic acid, normally constipates, but not here, and the D is 50,000 IU ONCE a Week, so I've not figured that one out yet. Hope you get to feeling better, my tinnitus has lessened and the shakiness has gotten worse, fatigue is a little better, not alot, and I've noticed I don't get GOOD sleep. I hope this one report on supplements helps & that others answer, too.

It makes me so angry when I hear of money spent on tests due to doctors inadequate knowledge. I had loads of tests and finished up with a private blood test of 253 and expected to treat myself. I took loads of research from Internet and showed it to my GP who looked embarrassed and immediately offered injections and I have never looked back........I would say take the evidence and try your doctor again

I tried the sublingual and also the patches. The sublingual didn't last and the patches caused severe skin irritation. I have been using Vita Sciences Vitamin B12 Methylcobalamin skin cream for about 7 months. comes in a pump and is applies to the inside of the wrist. Sometimes more than once a day in the beginning. Each dose delivers 320 mcgs of vitamin B12, 120 mcgs of vitamin B3 (niacin), plus 10 mcgs of folate in one pump. It helped a lot. But I did some research and found therapeutic dose of B6 (folate) is 1-4 mg not mcg. So I added Life Extension Optimized Folate L-Methylfola 1000 Mcg Vegetarian Tablets.Both available from Amazon. I noticed major improvement the next day, My mind begin to function, tingling decreased. Slept thru the night. ankle swelling diminished. No longer felt like I was running in sand (great deal of effort for minimum results). I have decreased the injections to 2-3 weeks. Still have some off days but not so many.