Anesthesia and B12

[Ashley8]

Hi everyone,

This Wednesday I need to have an endoscopic ultrasound will be put under for about an hour. Doctors are trying to locate neuroendocrine tumors as I have very high lab markers (and symptoms of course) but all previous scans do not show anything significant. I read something somewhere before (can’t remember where exactly) that certain anesthesia drugs can deplete b12, is this true? If so, what should I do in this situation? I’ve recently started to self inject 3x weekly to (hopefully) reverse the horrible balance, dizziness, and visions issues I’ve been having for a few years now. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[fbirder]

Nitrous oxide (gas and air) cam irreversibly bind to B12, rendering it useless. Not too bad for most people, but it can be a problem for those with a pre-existing deficiency. Ask about it before the procedure.

Which markers do you have for NETs?

[Ashley8 in reply to fbirder]

Thank you for clearing that up for me fbirder. For the NETS I have extremely high gastrin levels (typically between 2,000-4,000 but it’s been higher than that before as well) and high chronogranin a levels. Originally they assumed because I have high gastrin levels that I may have Zollinger-Ellison syndrome (I still might) but I don’t present with typical symptoms, so who knows. Atrophic gastritis is another possibility.

[fbirder in reply to Ashley8]

There are two main type of gastric NETs associated with high gastrin.

Type 1 is caused by high gastrin levels caused by the lack of stomach acid associated with gastric atrophy. That’s the sort normally associated with Pernicious Anaemia.

Type 2 is caused by a gastrinoma that secretes gastrin. This is Zollinger-Ellison syndrome. Instead of low stomach acid, as with Type 1, you get very high stomach acid. You can get a test for the gene (MEN-1) that causes most cases of ZES.

To see if the NETs have spread you can have a Octreatide scan (with uses radioactive iridium and a gamma detector) or a Doatate scan (which uses radioactive gallium and a PET/MRI scan).

Here’s a good description of gastric NETs.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi...

[KimberinUS]

i also live in the US and have a b12 deficiency. my doctors put me on tablets for 30 months before finally i got my first injection. getting injections helped but i did not get well until sometime after finally getting diagnosed and getting treatment for h pylori.

i tell you this because none of my 3 US doctors ever mentioned h pylori. i did not have the usual symptoms of heartburn or stomach pain. i had reduced appetite, was only eating once a day, and i put on weight, and nausea. i hurt (knees elbows, wrists), my short term memory was gone (i felt i had lost 50 IQ points), i was sleeping 11 hours a day and waking up exshauted, i could barely stand in the shower to wash my hair (so my hygiene went downhill), i was easily irritable,i thought i was losing my mind and might be on the path to an early death. these doctors either said i was fine (normal cbc) or had a whole list of possible causes such as, menopausal, which i have heard since i was 30 (which was 17 years ago and im still getting my period!!!), depression, hypothyroid, ect.

h pylori increases gastrin levels and can cause all of the symptoms you list. here is an excert of the link i will put lower from a reputable source.

"The effect of H. pylori infection has been studied also in relationship with the production of other gastric hormones[38]. Serum gastrin concentrations were significantly increased in both H. pylori positive children and adults. Dyspeptic symptoms, including upper GI symptoms accompanied by lost or reduced appetite, were reported by the majority of H. pylori-positive children (65%), but only by 15% of H. pylori negative children[46]. Subjects with H. pylori infection have lower basal and fasting serum levels of ghrelin and higher concentration of leptin than controls. Briefly, the gastric mucosal damage due to H. pylori provokes a marked increase of leptin and gastrin levels, and a reduction in ghrelin plasma levels, and this phenomenon may contribute to the occurrence of dyspeptic symptoms and appetite alteration."

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

please demand a breath test for h pylori.

do not allow for any nitrous oxide. i had some at the dentists prior to knowing it could inactive the b12 in my blood and several weeks later is when i fell of the cliff. prior to that i had been slowly going downhill but was still maintaining a job. afterwards i could no longer function enough to work. of course at the time i was still on tablets, not injections.