VitB12 result

[Ali8655]

Should I be concerned if my recent blood test showed a reading of L119 (deficient <140)

[fbirder]

Yes. It means you have a B12 deficiency.

There are two things that should be done next.

1. Get some treatment. If you're in the UK then that will depend on your symptoms. If you have neurological symptoms then you need three injections of B12 a week until those symptoms are no longer improving. Then one injection every 8 weeks. If you don;t have neurological symptoms then it's three a week for two weeks, then one every 12 weeks.

What are neurological symptoms? Tingling/numbness in hands/feet is the most common. Balance problems (falling over when washing your hair in the shower) is another. Brain fog is yet another.

2. Try to figure out the cause. Are you vegan? Do you abuse nitrous oxide? Do you take PPIs or metformin? If so then you can fix the problem (take B12 pills if vegan; stop the drugs for the others). Otherwise you may have a permanent problem - which means injections for life.

Check out the pinned posts over on the right for lots of useful info and ask any questions they leave unanswered.

[Ali8655 in reply to fbirder]

Thanks fbirder. I have numbness in my hands especially in bed and definitely have the brain fog. I think the cause may be due to IBS-D - this can affect 3 or 4 times a day.

[fbirder in reply to Ali8655]

If you have Pernicious Anaemia it's because your immune system is attacking cells in your stomach called Gastric Parietal Cells (GPCs). These make a protein called Intrinsic Factor (IF) that is needed to carry the B12 molecule across the gut wall. No GPCs means no IF means no B12 absorption.

GPCs also make hydrochloric acid, so no GPCs means no stomach acid (achlorhydria). This can cause havoc with the digestive system. The acid is needed to break down proteins. Without it the undigested protein can get down into parts of the gut where it doesn't normally go - and the bacteria there have a big party.

The acid also stop bacteria from lower in the gut getting into the stomach. Without the acid they can invade and cause big problems.

The symptoms of achlorydria can be similar to those of IBS - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achlo...

I used to have terrible problems with my guts. Now I drink about 30 ml of lime juice with each large meal and take a probiotic (Bio-Kult). No problems now. Others swear by apple cider vinegar (but it doesn't taste as good with tonic water and gin).

[Ali8655 in reply to fbirder]

Thank you. I'm currently doing the 12 week Symprove programme which is a probiotic and 5 weeks in starting to feel some benefit.

[jade_s in reply to fbirder]

Hey fbirder, have you also tried betaine hcl? I'm just asking because I take it regularly but sometimes feel as if it's not enough, even when I take quite a few tablets. ACV gives me a bad reaction, so I might try lime juice. Do you just buy a bottle of it or fresh limes?

Also have you heard of using celery juice? My lyme/cfs doc wants me to start on that soon, as she says it will help increase my body's production of HCl - though from what I've been learning here, if the cells have been destroyed, then it won't have much effect.

[fbirder in reply to jade_s]

Yes, I used to use betaine HCl but I couldn't really adjust the amount. At one point I'm sure I took too much and killed off most of my gut flora (the symptoms were different from my normal problems - more like the time I took strong antibiotics in Egypt). Symprove fixed it, but was too expensive, hence the Bio-Kult.

I buy Chef's Larder lime juice, 6 one-litre bottles at a time from Amazon.

Celery juice will not increase HCl production. Not even if the GPCs were working properly. HCl is produced in response to the release of the hormone gastrin, which is stimulated by the presence of food in the stomach and switched off by the presence of acid in the stomach.

People with no medical or chemical knowledge will tell you that celery juice is alkaline. It's not, it's slightly acid (about pH 6) so it will tend to switch off gastrin (and, hence, HCl) production. If it were alkaline then it would react with the HCl, removing it.

[jade_s in reply to fbirder]

Thanks for the info. I think i'll give the lime juice a try too. Good excuse to drink daily cocktails.

I figured the celery juice thing was a bit hokey - I couldn't find any scientific evidence for it.