Reoccurring head pressure, foggy brain, energy swings, anxiety...

[OhioMike1987]

Hello everyone, I am hoping to find some help on these boards as there seems to be a lot of individuals with lots of knowledge. I am a 29 year old male, and have had problems with concentration, dizziness, uneasiness, anxiety for years. Starting back to when I can first remember extreme problems, I was around 24 years old. I was having all of the above mentioned issues along with daily migraines/ocular migraines and balance issues. I come to find out that I had an intolerance to the high daily consumption of diet coke/aspartame. Once I stopped drinking aspartame, within days many of my headache and balance symptoms cleared up. For a couple of years I have still had heavy head, foggy brain, anxiety issues. Furthermore I started cutting out gluten in my diet about 2 years ago. Once again I believe I have noticed a difference in energy levels especially. That brings me to where I am now... I have a desk job that requires a high level of concentration, and I am noticing many cognitive issues that come and go. I will feel great for the most part for the first couple of hours after waking up, and then symptoms will start rearing their ugly head. Mostly lack of energy and concentration. I recently had some bloodwork done and all my nubers looked normal aside from noticing that my mean cell volume MVC was high 92.7fl along with a low platlet count. Upon doing research online, it looks like this can be a result of low b12. What was really interesting is that I took a supplement of around 1000mcg a day for 5 days and felt fantastic. Unfortunately after those 5 days, I started feeling terrible... a lot of cognitive issues, facial flushing, overall uneasiness. Because of this i quickly stopped. I am scheduled to get my b12 and folate levels taken, and I'm really curious to see what those show. I know my journey is a very specific one, but I'm Hoping someone has a similar experience. It is really affecting my life in a negative way, and starting to really worry me. Any help?

[pvanderaa]

Once you start on B12 after being deficient, metabolism kicks into high gear and all your other minerals and vitamins get consumed fairly rapidly. You feel worse.

There are also a lot of metabolic byproducts from this activity and this flood may cause to get symptoms that mirror your existing symptoms. Again you probably feel worse. These symptoms typically follow each other in the same sequence for 48 hours after you get B12.

Start a timed logbook of all your symptoms and your food, drink and medications. Look for the onset of your neurological and psychological symptoms as these are the ones caused by nerve damage in the brain.

Because the gut is involved, there is a 3 to 48 hour delay in symptoms appearing after you get the trigger. The logbook also helps support the short term memory loss that is part of the brain fog.

Look at dairy because the casein protein in milk is very similar to gluten.

When you get your blood results, post them here as there are people who can interpret them.

Your B12 or folic acid results may get skewed from your supplements, so you may not be at a level where you "fail" but are still low.

Here in the USA, some of the diagnostic lab at a caveat that "10% of the population exhibits neurological symptoms when the B12 levrls is below 400 pg/ml."

Brain fog for me always occurs about 24 hours after i get either gluten or dairy. This delay confuses the identification of the true cause of the symptoms.

Once you start on B12, you also need to bakance the folic acid and other B vitamins, minerals and metals with a daily multivitamin. You will feel like you are on a roller coaster until you get everything in balance.

Rare case are copper deficiency. This is mainly energy in men. Also get your testosterone levels checked.

While you continue to isolate any food or drink issues try to fix something like a rice cassarole for the week that you know the specific ingredients that do not cause you issues. Eat this for one meal a day for the week to eliminate the variability in your diet. Change the ingredients for the next week, add one item each time to experiment how it affects your symptoms.

If you suspect other allergens, remove them for at least 2 weeks to detox your gut and bile (the hepatic loop) and then reintroduce once and monitor you symptoms for 48 hours.

You are becoming your own guinnea pig in this experiment.

Repair of nerve damage is extremely slow so use the logbook to assess a severity score of your own choosing to monitor your progress over months.

Your energy will be all over the place until you get a regime of vitamins that stabilizes your symptoms.

[Gambit62 Administrator]

symptoms you describe could actually be a number of things - including B12 and folate deficiency. They could also be migraine related - the specificity of the timing (ok first thing then coming on as day goes on) suggests that if B12 and folate are involved they probably aren't all that is going on. Have you also been tested for thyroid?

The high MCV could be result of folate as well as B12 deficiency.

As below - supplementing could make testing of B12 levels misleading now - you'd need to wait at least 3 months to get a decent reading - could be 6 or more.

[BethattheBeach]

Here in Australia, I have had excellent results from consulting a Functional GP. He has been able to test for all vitamins and minerals and I recommend you try to find the equivalent in the States. A sort of medically trained naturopath. Good luck.

[OhioMike1987]

Thank you everyone for your replies. It's comforting to know that there are people out there willing to listen and help.

I realized that after i scheduled my b12 bloodwork that I may get incorrect results. If I had known in hindsight I would've refrained from taking the supplement. I was just so desperate for the "magic pill", I kind of recklessly took it. I started taking it on last Thursday. My initial dose was actually 2500 and the daily doses afterwards were 1000. On my initial dose I did feel like I was going to jump out of my skin with energy. I was mindfully in control though, not dizzy or any issues with anxiety. On that Friday I started feeling really sharp and focused. Saturday is when I was at my peak. I felt absolutely wonderful. Level energy all day, good mood, felt on top of the world. Sunday I regressed a bit but still felt really good. Monday is when I started to really decline. That night I started feeling the aforementioned issues, confusion, anxiety, flushed body... I took a smaller dose the next day of 500, but started feeling terrible mid to late day. That was my last dose. As of this morning I feel ok, but I'm sure that will change as the day goes on. It's so crushing, because I felt like my normal happy self back when I was an early adult, but then to have it ripped away so quickly.

I did have what I believe is a thyroid test TSH, and my number was 2.144uIU/mL, which was noted as perfectly normal. My heart rate is around 60bpm, and I have never had measured issues with blood pressure. I dont take any medications, and take a twice daily dose of PCNL 2000mg fish oil and a daily Sports Reasearch brand 2000iu vitamin D3. I started taking the D3 about a month ago, and have been taking daily fish oil for around 2 years. Neither of these have seemed to make any really difference at this point. I do high intensity cardio 5 days a week, when my body permits it. Some days I can't just because of the sheer lack of energy. After I work out I typically feel a lot better, at least for the rest of the night. I will still get some foggy brain, and concentration issues, but energy seems normal afterwards. I really try to stick to a marginally strict diet, but I do eat a lot of dairy daily, cheese, yogurt, whey protein.

I am going in for my bloodwork today and will let you all know what my results are. I will also start keeping a log book as mentioned by pvanderra.

[pvanderaa in reply to OhioMike1987]

You probably feel great after the workout because your muscles activity release lots testosterone.

The fact you run out of steam after a couple of days is right along with not recycling B12 correctly. You consume it and, because it is water soluable, it goes right down the drain.

I would suggest you get off all dairy, butter, yogurt and the whey protein for a couple of weeks as an experiment to see if your symptoms change.

Any IBS or diarrhea symptoms?

Also have your ferritin (iron) checked.

Also stress and worry consume lots of B12. Think PTSD. Any traumatic events in the past 6 months?

[OhioMike1987 in reply to pvanderaa]

As far as IBS or diarrhea symptoms, not really. I do have bloating at times, but not very often.

The only big life changes in the past 6 months have been getting my first house, and starting a new job around 9 months ago. I wouldnt categorize them as traumatic though. I do stress a lot sometimes about my performance at work. The only recent traumatic events I can think of recently have been my mother passing away 3 years ago and a bad breakup right at the same time. I did notice an anxiety/depression increase around then.

[pvanderaa in reply to OhioMike1987]

Have you been taking any antacids?

The B12 deficiency is like a downward spiral. Slow at first but gradually getting worse faster and faster.

How does 5-hour energy drink affect you? Last less than 5 hour? For me it is like at the 5-hour mark, I hit the cliff edge.

[OhioMike1987 in reply to pvanderaa]

I haven't taken any antacids, and very rarely do. I next to never have heartburn/acid reflux.

That's something I haven't tried is 5 hour energy. I do notice when I have caffeine I typically have more energy right away, and don't notice any particular drop off in energy later on. Maybe a bit, but that could just be from the caffeine wearing off.

[OhioMike1987]

BethattheBeach, I have really considered finding someone like that to go to. I have all the respect in the world for my general doctor, but I feel like sometimes I'm chasing my tail. Initially she wanted to put me on anxiety medication, but I know that can't be it... I requested the b12 test after my initial bloodwork results last week. She added the folate/serum test, both of which I will be taking today. My only concern with going to a specialist, is that I'm not sure if my insurance covers it, but honestly it's almost worth spending a lot of money to figure it out at this point.

[Sleepybunny]

Hi,

I've assumed you're in USA.

B12 books I found useful

"What You Need to Know About Pernicious Anaemia and Vitamin B12 Deficiency" by Martyn Hooper

Martyn Hooper is the chair of PAS (Pernicious Anaemia Society). Book is up to date with UK B12 guidelines.

"Living with Pernicious Anaemia and Vitamin B12 Deficiency" by Martyn Hooper

Has several case studies.

"Could it Be B12; An Epidemic of Misdiagnoses" by Sally Pacholok and JJ. Stuart (USA authors)

Very comprehensive book about B12 deficiency with lots of case studies.

Sally Pacholok has a website called "B12 Awareness"

b12awareness.org/

PAS (Pernicious Anaemia Society)

Based in Wales, UK but has members from around the world.

pernicious-anaemia-society....

PAS tel no [phone] answerphone

There is a PAS support group in USA in St Louis, Missouri.

pernicious-anaemia-society....

I also found the website "B12 Deficiency Info" useful. Some info on it is aimed at UK but there may be something useful on it for you.

b12deficiency.info/

[OhioMike1987 in reply to Sleepybunny]

Thank you very much for these resources Sleepybunny. Depending on what my test results show, I believe I will be heading down the track of finding a specialist and doing some more research myself. I'll definitely keep these in mind.

[OhioMike1987]

So I already received my results, and they are really not what I expected. My B12 was 832 pg/mL, and my folate was >24.0 ng/mL, which both seem completely normal. It sounds horrible, but in a way I was hoping one of them would come back low, just so I could find an answer. Could this be a result of taking a supplement of 2500mcg Thursday and 1000mcgs Friday-Monday? It just seems to me like my b12 could even be considered a bit on the high end. This is maddening because why would I have such a positive reaction to b12 initially and then an adverse reaction if I have no issues. I would think if my b12 was normal, it wouldn't have affected me. I'm just at a loss...

[Sleepybunny]

"realized that after i scheduled my b12 bloodwork that I may get incorrect results"

b12deficiency.info/b12-test...

Have you had a full blood count (FBC), sometimes called a complete blood count (CBC). It can give useful clues as to whether someone might have iron deficiency, B12 deficiency or folate deficiency.

patient.info/doctor/macrocy...

labtestsonline.org.uk/under...

Have you had a ferritin test ( ferritin is a stored form of iron in body)? Iron deficiency can cause a variety of symptoms.

Some people with suspected iron deficiency have a set of iron studies.

labtestsonline.org.uk/under...

Thyroid Tests

You mention a TSH test. Just testing TSH will not give a full picture of thyroid function.

thyroiduk.org/tuk/testing/t...

Might be worth putting any thyroid results you have on the Thyroid UK forum on HU. Marz who posts on this forum knows about thyroid function. You could search for her posts on this forum.

I am not medically trained.

[Lizreds1]

Why don't you try the basics and then see how you feel? Get up in the morning have a drink of a decent electrolytes, then take one methyl folate( I take solgar metafolin as I read it had been tested the best,) then I have my b12, the three all work in conjunction with each other, works for me, I had chronic migraines and extreme head problems for 7 years, very few migraines now, and by the way I cut Coke Zero too,