Pins and needles

I keep getting pins and needles in my hands and feet. Does this mean I need more b12? I self inject usually every 2-3 days but recently not for a week and I’ve noticed major pins and needles. I even wake up with it in my hands!? Any advice welcome thank you 🙂

[clivealive Forum Support]

Hi Hidden I think you can answer your own question from your experience of what happens when you pause the injections.

It may be a good idea to have your Folate level checked as a deficiency in that can cause (among other things) "numbness and tingling in the feet and hands".

I am not a medically trained person but I've had Pernicious Anaemia (a form of B12 deficiency) for more than 46 years.

I wish you well.

[Hidden in reply to clivealive]

I was put on 5mg of folate by my doctor once and felt great. Then they stopped it and told me to go and buy it. The chemist didn’t sell 5mg and what I bought that was a lower dose was no good.

[clivealive Forum Support in reply to Hidden]

Are you able to eat lots of leafy green vegetables? You'll also find folic acid fortified into many breakfast cereals. Personally I take 1 – Folic Acid 400μg tablet every day.

Remember I'm not a medically trained person.

[deniseinmilden]

Definitely agree - something is better than nothing and you can take more than one of the over the counter ones to make up a bigger dose.

A broad spectrum multivitamin and mineral supplement is a good idea and that will probably supply 200 mcg of folic acid.

As there are 1000 mcg in a mg the Dr's ones at 5mg are the equivalent of 5,000 mcg which would be like having 200mcg from a multivitamin and mineral supplement plus 12 of the 400mcg ones (12 x 400 = 4,800).

[fbirder]

You need to see a neurologist. They will be able to do some specialist tests to help determine possible causes of the neuropathy.

You almost certainly don’t need 5 mg of folic acid a day. That is 25 times the recommended daily amount. Most people cope very well with the 400 mcg tablets from the supermarket as mentioned by Hidden The 5 mg tablets from the doctor are to rapidly fix a severe deficiency. There are some suspicions that too much folate can be harmful.

Talking of too much vitamins... You don’t take B6 supplements, do you? Too much of that can cause peripheral neuropathy.