15 year old drop in b12

[Greentrees1]

Evening all!

I finally got my 15 year old to agree to do a blood test as i have Hashimotos and she's fatigued with low mood.

Popped over from thyroid forum as concerned about drop in B12.

Her thyroid results seem normal as her TSH has dropped from 3.2 two years ago to 1.33 and T4 went up from 12 to 14.13. Test was fasting at 9.30am.

The notes said b12 was insufficient. Two years ago it was 500. Would vit D and falling B12 cause fatigue? I guess I should get her tested again if she shows symptoms in the future.

Really appreciate any thoughts or advise. She hates the taste of vit sprays and won't take it so need an alternative that is easily absorbed!

Thanks for reading!

[Singoutloud]

Hi Greentrees1

Just wondering if your daughter is on any thyroid hormone replacements. Her TSH may have lowered but Ft4 & ft3 are still very low in range and both need to be at least in the top 50 - 75%. If undermedicated or unmedicated, this could be a contributing factor to the low mood and fatigue.

B12 deficiency causes terrible fatigue among other things and needs to be addressed quite urgently as neurological damage can occur. As it's in range your gp probably won't do anything about it but there are some good sublinguals that could help. I use solgar methylcobalamin 5000mcg but they come in 1000mcg also. They melt under the tongue quickly and taste quite pleasant. Just be aware that supplementing will skew blood test results for a long time so future tests will show as artificially high.

I use vit d3 tablets obtained from Amazon (5000ui) I think not sure without looking at them but it is important to take vit k2 to ensure it is directed to bones and teeth instead of swimming around in the studies. SeasideSusie on tuk gives a great explanation of how vit d works so look up some of her previous posts.

[Greentrees1 in reply to Singoutloud]

Thanks singout. She's not medicated as she doesnt have Hashimotos and thyroid level is normal but as I've learned for myself, normal range can be confusing! I am a poor converter so i wanted to check her ft3, but her's is far higher than mine so i thought she's probably ok.

I will get her on high strength D3. I take a maintenance dose and k2 myself.

When i get her D3 rechecked, I'll see what other tests she should have for B12. My level was at 300 last year but it's at 1100 now with sublinguals.

[Gambit62 Administrator]

Personally I would be inclined to deal with the vitamin D deficiency first and then move on to exploring B12 as a possible cause if the symptoms linger.

The results above give results as 282 - the range for being given for insufficient is actually 140-250 so the result isn't insufficient on the scales given above.

Serum B12 isn't a good single indicator for B12 deficiency as people vary very much in the levels that are right for them.

[Greentrees1 in reply to Gambit62]

Thanks gambit

That seems sensible.I'll start her on D3 and k2 and get her retested.