Any advice on powered raw liver tablets?

[xyz011]

After frustration with not enough injections, I began wondrring about finding ways to "inject" raw or lighly cooked liver onto my diet (can't stand the taste). A friend found tablets composed of grass fed raw beef liver pills from cattle in Argentina. Thecome get deiliver tomorrowed! Any advice?

[Foggyme Administrator]

No idea about this but I would seriously wonder what exactly is in them!! Also - would there actually be any B12 in the powdered liver. Additives? Don't know.

Have you tried B12 sublingual lozenges, nose spray or patches - you can get these same day from any health food shop or next day from Amazon.

Personally, I wouldn't even entertain the idea of powdered liver capsules...but that's just me.

[Galixie]

Raw liver tablets seem like a bit of a step backwards.

Keep in mind that raw liver was the treatment for Pernicious Anemia *before* the discovery of vitamin B12 and before knowledge that PA was due to a deficiency of that vitamin.

The progression of treatment options for PA has gone from consuming roughly a pound of raw or lightly cooked liver a day, to injections of liver extract, to injections of vitamin B12.

Injections worked better than eating large quantities of liver because the injection bypasses the digestive system, where PA patients have trouble absorbing vitamin B12. It took eating a lot of liver and basically flooding the digestive system with B12 in order for the body to be able to absorb enough through the digestive tract to keep the patient alive. Injections are considered the best treatment option.

There are newer treatment options such as sublingual tablets and skin patches that some people have found to be effective. It is a bit of trial and error to find out what will work for you. I think we would all find it interesting to hear how you get on with the liver tablets if you decide to try them, but I suspect that other methods of getting B12 will end of being more effective.

[willijf]

I have PA and iron deficiency anemia and I've been taking liver tablets from Argentina for several months now. I would recommend them. The liver pills have really helped me with my energy level and keeping my hemoglobin at a good level. I also get a monthly injection of cyanocobalamin (I'm in the US) and take sublingual tablets as needed. I was diagnosed with PA a year ago this month and thank God this treatment has been working for me so far!! Good luck

[anetap4545 in reply to willijf]

Do you still take these? I'm about to try them

[MariLiz]

I would imagine they rely on absorption via the digestive system, and that is usually where we have a problem.

[maddog7 in reply to MariLiz]

I'm no expert by any means, I'm just regurgitating things I've read in Sally Pacholok and Martyn Hooper's books and drawing some of my own conclusions but it would appear that if the dose of B12 is high enough then some will be absorbed even without the presence of intrinsic factor.

I could be one reason why the eating of liver helped restore the health of PA patients back in the day?

Cheers

David

[xyz011 in reply to maddog7]

I have been wondering the same thing, why the raw liver (nearly raw) liver worke? What about the sympthoms of thise patients back then (still sick)?

[Galixie in reply to xyz011]

Yes, eating a massive amount of liver did allow patients to absorb a small amount of B12. For most patients it was enough to stop the progression of the deficiency effects for a time. Unfortunately the treatment was difficult to maintain for most patients. Also, as gastric atrophy continued, the body's ability to absorb even small amounts of B12 decreased and the treatment became less effective, causing the patient's health to decline. At that point in time PA was still considered a deadly disease. The treatment merely slowed down the progression.

We know it can still be deadly if not treated properly, but it is no longer widely viewed as a deadly disease and deaths from PA are no longer included in US death statistics.

[LouNatic]

If you have pernicious anaemia and do not produce intrinsic factor, you cannot absorb B12 correctly and there is no point in taking suppliments.