B12 injections.. how long will you be doing them

[Kb9503]

My b12 is low and started b12 injections once weekly. But for how long, 3 months, 6 months, a year my whole life unknown. How long will you all be doing them?

[Gambit62 Administrator]

do you know what caused you to become deficient?

if the cause was treatable, eg h pylori infection, then you may not need injections for life.

If the cause wasn't treatable then you will need injections for life (and this would include the situation in which a cause cannot be found as the most likely explanation in that case is PA.

People who don't have absorption problems can replenish and then access stores of B12 in their liver but as this depends on the same mechanism you use to absorb B12 from your diet it won't work if you have an absorption problem so you will need to be continually topping up the B12 levels in your blood.

Some people do find that really high dose oral allows them to absorb enough outside the ileum (averages about 1% of B12) so can manage with just tablets (1000mcg+ per day) but this doesn't work for everyone.

[clivealive Forum Support]

Hi Kb9503 do you know what your Folate level is as this and B12 help your iron to make red blood cells and to function properly in your body?