THE DAM

[may61]

Can anyone explain in layman s terms what the Dam is How When What Thanks

[fbirder]

Never heard of it. Can you elaborate?

[Foggyme Administrator]

Hi May61. Not so,sure I could explain it very well (yet 😀) but Gambit62 has written some replies about this recently. If you click on her profile page and scroll down her replies, you should be able to spot it in a fairly recent post (3 or 4 days ago, I think).

From my limited understanding...something to do with the body developing antibodies to high levels of serum B12, producing a reaction which stops B12 crossing over into the cells - Gambit refers to this as a 'dam' - the only way for B12 to get over the dam and hence through to the cells is by taking super high doses of B12 so that B12 breaches the dam (a metaphorical flowing over the top) and trickles through to the cells.

Not sure how clear that is...gambit's really the person for this one 😀.

👍😀

[Gambit62 Administrator in reply to Foggyme]

The dam is a metaphor for an observable phenomenon called function deficiency. One possible cause is antibodies to TCII which is the mechanism that transports B12 to cells but, just as there are a number of problems that can lead to a B12 deficiency there are probably a number of mechanism that can result in functional deficiency. The observation re treatment is that keeping levels very high works - hence the water coming over the top of the dam analogy.

Although there does seem to have been research in the late 60s and 70s it doesn't seem to have been investigated in great detail - there is so much about the metabolism of B12 that really isn't understood properly - and that is before you start to get to interaction with genetics.

[Foggyme Administrator in reply to Gambit62]

Thanks Gambit62 👍👍