Vitamin B12 level

[naveed123]

My vitamin b12 level without any b12 injection and supplement is 321pj/ml (189-883).can I take one tab of vitamin b12 500mcg after every three month to raise some serum level because the red blood cells replaced in 120 days?Any suggestion about it.

[naveed123]

Some people says it should be around 700 or why I want to improve it

[maxart]

There does seem to be some debate but I’m reading more and more about the inadequately low thresholds in a lot of labs. Have a look at this: jillcarnahan.com/2014/07/07...

Also the book called ‘could it be B12?’

[fbirder in reply to maxart]

There is no reputable, repeatable, studio that shows anything but the commonly used normal ranges.

Treating everybody with a level below 700 pmol/L would, indeed mean you would have to treat everybody. That would mean 150 people turning up to every GP practice in the country - every day.

Any GP could look up the research papers, do the sums and come up with that answer. So, if you tried suggesting to them that they should treat anybody below 700 they would, quite correctly, label you as unreliable.

The fact that somebody quotes a book that says people should be treated below 1000 doesn't make the idea any less ridiculous.

What is not ridiculous, and is totally different, is suggesting that anybody with high serum levels should be denied treatment - in the presence of evidence supporting a B12 deficiency (unexplained symptoms or macrocytic anaemia).

[Gambit62 Administrator]

naveed, and maxart , serum B12 isn't a gold standard test. Using it as a single marker will result in missing 25% of people who are B12 deficient, but also picking up 5% who aren't.

That means that you should be using serum B12 results as a single marker to decide if your B12 levels are adequate - you need to look at symptoms as per fbirder 's response and use the two together.

Guidelines in the UK are to follow symptoms if there is a discordance between test results and symptoms so not the case that people need high levels, more about where it starts to become really unlikely that B12 isn't the problem.

[hendry]

I had a b12 level of 337 which my Dr. said was lowish. I felt terrible at the time. & years after a minimum of 1ml hydroxyl.jab every 2 weeks I am much improved however it took about 12 months to really start to see a difference. I was one of the50% for whom the intrinsic factor antbody test was positive