B12 loading and acne

[Victoria1990]

I finished my loading injections a week ago, at first I had a few spots appear but now my forehead, neck, scalp and temples are covered in really angry painfull spots. Has anyone else had these side effects and how long do they last?

[clivealive Forum Support]

No Victoria1990 you are not alone but if you are concerned best go back to your doctor or maybe have a word with your pharmacist - but hopefully the rash will subside given time.

It is also not uncommon for some symptoms to begin to appear to get worse before they get better as the B12 starts repairing the damage done to your nervous system.

Do you know what your Folate level is as this is essential to process the B12 you are having injected?

I hope you get to feel better soon and wish you well.

[Gambit62 Administrator]

acne is listed as a symptom of B12 supplementation - one theory is that it isn't directly to do with the B12 but is to do with the way micro-organisms on your skin respond to the B12 - excreting a toxin that the skin reacts to.

When you start treatment with B12 some of the systems that have been starved of B12 seem to temporarily go into overdrive - including the immune system - which means that your skin may over-react to the toxins. For many people this does seem to die down after a while - for some it doesn't recur but for others it seems to be a reaction each time they have a top-up. Unfortunately there is no way of knowing which group you fall into other than wait and see. As clivealive says - if it is really bad and you can't live with it then I would suggest talking to your GP or a pharmacist about what you can do to relieve the situtation.

Hope you feel better soon though.

[Lulu_65]

I had the exact same thing. All cleared up now but took a few months. I went to an aesthetician who gave me a cleanser which permeates all 7 layers of the skin and that helped but I do think they were beginning to clear up.

My skin looks better now than it has done for years so it's worth persevering.

Lu x

[deniseinmilden]

I had that to start with - lasting at the worst a week or so - and still get an odd small spot nearly 2 years on but I sort of welcome them now as I only get them when I am getting enough B12 and supporting supplements to make it work well enough to be healing the damage I sustained in all the years I was deficient.

Unfortunately I need a lot more B12 than the standard NHS treatment and so had to continue with frequent jabs and I had spots for a while.

If this course of treatment makes you better and you are fully well on 3 monthly jabs you should be fine once the spots heal up - maybe a couple of weeks.

If you need many more frequent jabs I'm very sorry coz it is miserable - to start with you either feel terrible or you are spotty - but in time, with plenty of B12 and other supporting supplements (a broad spectrum multivitamin and mineral supplement plus extra folate, potassium and magnesium, maybe iron) it does improve, permanently.

Some say the spots occur when high levels of homocystenine have built up in your body and the natural process of recycling it into methionine starts again when the body has enough B12 and folate to do this. Homocystenine is bad for you and requires B12 and methylfolate to break it down.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hom...

(see section "Methionine Salvage").

In time I had to change my folic acid supplement to methylfolate and if I knew then what I know now I would have taken methylfolate along with the jabs to see if it could speed up the homocystenine breakdown. If this is what does cause the spots it should make them clear quicker - however I am guessing based on experience, not training and officially cannot advise you.

For more information, including sources of supplies, you could look up my profile by double clicking on my name and see my post "My Experiences".

I hope it clears soon!

[Lucieb01]

does everyone take acne with injections I have not started yet I am in my 60s and don't like the idea of acne at my age

[wedgewood in reply to Lucieb01]

No , not everyone gets this reaction . I would say it's a minority who do , after reading so many postings on this forum . Nobody knows 100% why it happens , but it does disappear eventually .

[Bambigal83]

After i had my loading injections a year ago i had the WORST acne of my life!! Im 33 and i spent the whole year in hiding it was so bad. My skin was hot, layered with thick acne and would bleed daily. My skin ached. It got continually worse for months before it appeared to get better. I tried a skin/ acne product which seemed to be helping but in honesty i believe it was a combination of time and consistant injections which saw my skin improve. (I did always use a medicated soap to wash my face and keep bacteria to a minimum.) Im almost back to perfect skin but i still have some redness from the new scarring i received. My heart breaks for you as i know exactly how difficult and embarrassing it is to have this happen. X

[Millerk]

God yes it's normal I think. I had it bad but thankfully on my back not my face it was painful itchy and I felt ugly. It took about a month for it to clear up. Hydrocortisone cream helped mine hope you feel better soon. Xxc

[Victoria1990]

Thank you all so much for your replies! It has really reassured me! I'm 47 but look like a spotty teenager. The ones on my face are starting to improve but still have nasty ones on my neck and behind my ears with some new ones popping up! The B12 injections have made such a difference in how I feel though I just hope it lasts for a while.