Hey,
So I'm a 29-year-old guy and my GP told me I have a B12 deficiency after some blood tests. After talking to him he concluded that the most likely reason is my diet and PPI intake. Is that true I wonder?
If anyone here can help me understand if this could be causing my low B12?
I've had a lot of stomach acid related problems all my life , with gastritis when i was a teen and a duodenal ulcer about 5 years ago , caused by acid oversecretion. I got an endoscopy and a biopsy and I was H. Pilory positive and i got treated for it and i seem to be negative for the time being ( did a follow up test a few weeks ago ).
I did a few blood tests then and my B12 levels were good.
Now after my ulcer incident I started taking PPIs constantly for fear my ulcer will come back if I don't.
I was also overweight and in an attempt to lose weight ( which I did ) around 3 years ago I started a very strict diet consisting of small quantities of food and very little in the way of meats ( almost exclusively chicken/turkey ) which i follow to this day in order to maintain my health.
Now I wonder is the combination of 5 years of PPIs and 3 years of almost no red meat/fish consumption and relatively low dairy consumption enough to trigger the b12 deficiency?
I am scared I might have the autoimmune one but my doctor doesn't believe me. I heard it's liked to low stomach acid which was definitely not the case for me but I just want to hear about other people that are in my shoes.
I got a B12 shot for now and I started taking supplements and i will be slowly be getting off PPI's in the following weeks/months , but who knows.
Thanks for reading,
Alex