Symptoms?

[Hayley31]

I've been self injecting B12 every week now for about 10 months and it's been going really well. I had problems before because I couldn't gage when I needed B12 and was on and off it like a yoyo which was really messing my health around, but when I began having regular weekly injections my health really improved and seemed to be on an even keel, more so than it had before. It really seems to be the answer for me. However, over the last couple of weeks I have had bad symptoms again, not sure if it's following injections or from becoming deficient or a bit of both...head pressure, dizziness, a lot of breathlessness, neck pain that seems to be extended to spine pain, tingling sensations around my head and neck, tiredness, heart feels like it's missing a beat, chest discomfort and at one stage last week actual chest pain. I have been stressed over the last few weeks as starting a new job quite far from where I live, so it could be anxiety...and probably is to a certain extent, that would make sense, but it seems to be similar types of symptoms that I used to have when I hadn't had an injection for a long time, and then had loading doses after not having had B12 for several months (I don't do anymore as I strongly feel that this was making me really ill). Will these symptoms start to settle down? Should I carry on having the weekly injections and not increase or decrease it? Could stress make me use up B12 more quickly and that is why I'm having a problem? Confused, stressed, worried....as I thought I was past all this and had found a solution. I really worry about the chest issues and the dizziness.

[clivealive Forum Support]

Hi Hayley31 I'm not medically trained but perhaps you should get yourself "checked out" by your doctor for the chest pains. Stress and worry caused me to have a stomach ulcer 59 years ago which meant having surgery - nowadays they are easily treated with drugs.

Take care - I wish you well.

[Gaudygoat]

Hi Hayley31. Others will be able to answer the question better than me but I also self-inject weekly and generally find my health is more stable and most of the symptoms are considerably reduced. I do know from what I have read and from personal experience that I feel more B12D symptoms when I am stressed so I do think they affect your levels. I have also read on here that other people have found that they have to change their level of treatment and the advice generally seems to be to be flexible with treatment. You could maybe try bi-weekly injections through this period of stress. It may also have something to do with other cofactors; folate, potassium etc but whether these would be affected by stress, I'm not sure.

sorry this isn't a very definitive answer, all I can really say is that you are not the first to go out of kilter after a period of treatment and from personal experience, stress can certainly be cause.

[deniseinmilden in reply to Gaudygoat]

Hi,

Great answer!

Definitely stress and doing more can increase your need for B12 and the supporting supplements (cofactors).

For the processes that use B12 - in DNA synthesis, nerve function and energy release - to work properly, many other vitamins and minerals are required.

If you supply more B12 your other resources can be used up in healing damage sustained by the deficiency to the point where you can show deficiency symptoms of these too. If anything is in short supply that will become the limiting factor instead of the B12 and will stop the processes happening, resulting in a return of B12d symptoms too.

Many people find that they benefit from taking a broad spectrum multivitamin and mineral supplement plus extra folate, potassium, magnesium and iron.

You can Google these to see what the symptoms of deficiency and excess are and what sources of these you will like to eat and drink.

It sounds to me like this could explain your problems. Are you taking any additional supplements?

I get your problems if I am short of folate, potassium, magnesium and iron but need the multivitamin and mineral supplement too.

Folate is available quite cheaply as own brand 400mcg folic acid tablets in supermarkets and pharmacies.

Ideally you will get your additional minerals (potassium, magnesium and iron) from your diet but potassium can be obtained from LoSalt and magnesium from Epsom Salts, also from supermarkets and pharmacies, as are iron supplements. Be careful with these using tiny doses only if your multivitamin and mineral supplement plus diet sources don't supply enough.

It's easy to say "don't worry" but I expect that if you get all your other vitamins and minerals sorted you will feel better again and your anxiety levels will drop too, however, as Clivealive said if you think there could be other problems please get yourself checked out properly too.

Good luck with it.