B12 and Acne

[marcus12345]

It seems like B12 has become a reoccurring theme in causing breakouts but can anyone shine some light on how long it takes for skin to clear up after b12 supplements/injections?

I went on a whole foods plant based vegan diet for about 6 months and experienced the best skin of my life. I essentially megadosed vegetables, eating around 5-6 servings a day, and ate tons of fruit, potatoes, rice, quinoa, beans, etc. However, when I started supplementing with b12, horrible cystic acne began popping up all over my face and even on my chest. I realized that the supplements were 40,000% of the daily value needed!! I will be getting a blood test this week to test my b12 levels, which I imagine are very high.

It has been about 4 weeks since I have taken my last b12 supplement and my skin has finally calmed down, just have a few spots on my cheeks. Does it normally take this long to get back to normal skin?

Would appreciate any experiences/opinions

[clivealive Forum Support]

Hi marcus12345 have a look at the "Related Posts" to the right of your question.

If you are going to continue with your "vegan diet" you will probably need to supplement with B12 for the rest of your life.

I'm not a medically trained person but I've had P.A. (a form of B12 deficiency) for 46 years.

I wish you well

[Frances55]

Hi ☺... I think it varies from person to person... I started every other day injections 4 months ago.. And starting getting acne really bad 😔.. I've been able to cut my injections to once a week now for the last few weeks and my acne has started to eleveate massively ☺... So for me it was always going to be there for the amount I was injecting.. And again for me NOTHING HELPED!!!!!!!!..... good luck and all the best for the future ☺

[Gambit62 Administrator]

the acne is most likely bacteria on your skin reacting to the raised levels of B12 by producing a toxin that your skin is reacting to.

As others say people vary a lot in how quickly their kidneys remove excess B12 - but the rate is dependent on the amount in your blood so it gets lower as the amount in your blood reduces. Unfortunately all you can do is wait until your kidneys have done their job and your blood levels return to normal - unless you feel like talking to pharmacist about a good skin wash as a back-stop for a month or so.

Suggest you take your B12 in much lower doses in future

[marcus12345]

Yeah I have seen some studies on b12 deficiency taking 5-10 years to develop on a vegan diet. I’m curious to see what my b12 levels are, should find out this week, but I imagine they will be high. I think I’ll start using nutritional yeast or fortified almond milk that contain lower doses of b12. Thanks for the responses!!

[mightydrunken]

Unless you have a known problem with absorbing B12, tone down your B12 supplement to around 2 micrograms a day. You should be back to super skin soon enough.

[Marybrown06 in reply to mightydrunken]

2 mcg is not enough when you are a vegan, absorption of supplements is not as good as absorption in "natural" food.

You can take very small doses but you need to take them three times a day.

And it is difficult to buy such supplements, the smallest pure B12 supplement I found is 10 mcg and is normally for children

[Marybrown06]

Hey marcus12345,

What were your doses (in mcg)?

As a vegan, you should take 2000 mcg per week (for instance 4x500 or 2x1000), else you can take 25 or 50 mcg but every day (VegVit or Veg1 are good deals because they also contain other vitamins you could be missing as a vegan).

You should be cautious because deficiency can come quickly, I had strong deficiency following pregnancies, while I am "only" vegetarian (I eat dairies and eggs).

I also have acne since I supplement, but I know it is important to supplement so I must be patient

My mum who is vegan had acne with 500 mcg every day but is fine with 4x500 mcg/week.

So you should try to reduce your intakes and it should be fine

[marcus12345 in reply to Marybrown06]

Thanks for the advice!! I actually just picked up 500 mcg of methyl to see if it helps with the breakouts. I was taking 2500 mcg of cyano once a week, although some weeks I would forget.

My blood test results showed 230 and the healthy range is 200-1100 so I definitely need to supplement. Hopefully this doesn’t cause any breakouts. It’s just been really hard since I haven’t had acne in 4 years, basically since high school, and now my self confidence has hit rock bottom again

[Gambit62 Administrator in reply to marcus12345]

marcus, the advise given by MaryBrown06 is not in accordance with generally available medical standards on treatment of B12 deficiency.

It seems to be based on advise on a few vegan sites that appears to have confused requirements in people who have absorption problems relating to B12 with dietary requirements.

Whilst it may be true that presenting B12 for absorption in the form of a pill may not necessarily result in the same efficiency as absorption from food (which is generally thought to be around 50% of dietary intake from food - so with a recommended dietary intake of 2.5mcg you would be absorbing about 1.25mcg which is enough to more than replace what you are using up it certainly doesn't mean that you need to be taking tablets or using a spray that contains 100x the amount that you get from your diet.

In most jurisdictions the recommended treatment for a B12 deficiency caused by a dietary lack of B12 is to take 50mcg a day for several months to correct the deficiency - so 50mcg is deemed more than enough to meet your daily requirements and rebuild your reserves.

Your body stores B12 in your liver in large quantities which regulates the levels in your blood (providing you don't have an absorption problem) which means that B12 deficiency generally develops very slowly, over a number of years or even decades.

[Gambit62 Administrator in reply to Marybrown06]

Marybrown - please note that in general B12 deficiency, particularly one relating to diet, develops very slowly - over years or even decades because the liver holds a significant reservoir of B12 and uses this to regulate the amount in the blood of a normal person.

If someone has an absorption problem then in general symptoms also come on slowly though they do tend to snowball towards the end as reserves in the liver start to dwindle.

If you are finding that you and other members of your family are needing to take such high doses of B12 on a regular basis to maintain your B12 levels then that would suggest that your problem isn't just lack of B12 in your diet but that there is also an absorption problem going on. This is perfectly possible.

And malabsorption isn't the same as non-absorption.

[Ryaan]

As your body gets used to B12 over time you’ll get less and less.

It took me 6 months, now I get the occasional 1 or 2 spots which I don’t mind.

I tried everything, nothing works.

I looked like a teenager for about 6 months.