If anyone else has more information, pro or con, I'd love to hear it. From the study it seems that much of the extra cobalt was released in the urine.... which is good, but means the kidneys and bladder will have to deal with the extra cobalt.
One of the weaknesses of the present study is that it was not possible to determine the exact form of the cobalt being measured, namely, whether the cobalt measured in the urine and plasma in the methylcobalamin form, a breakdown product, or ultimately as a free form of cobalt. This might have significant implications to the actual toxicity of the cobalt to human tissue.
(PDF) An autism cohort study of cobalt levels following vitamin B12 injections. Available from: researchgate.net/publicatio... [accessed Nov 24 2018].
I downloaded the whole article. It seems very confusing and very confused and mentions 2 different cobalt compounds, one of which is toxic (cobalt(II) nitrate hexahydrate) and methylcobalamin (which isn't).
At one point it mentions that the test looking at urinary levels of cobalamin wasn't able to distinguish between these two compounds.
Urinary levels of cobalt were much higher in patients being given methylcobalamin injections (no surprise there because we all know that excess B12 is removed by the kidneys and passes out of your body in urine).
Not sure how they get to a conclusion that it increases levels of cobalt(II) nitrate hexahydrate) as they didn't measure that specifically.
It remains the case that hydroxocobalamin (B12) is used in very much higher doses (5-10,000x) than those used by patients with PA and B12 absorption problems because of the lack of toxicity - the body just doesn't seem to break B12 down in a way that would result in significant amounts of cobalt(II) nitrate hexahydrate forming, if it breaks down at all.
One of the weaknesses of the present study is that it was not possible to determine
the exact form of the cobalt being measured, namely, whether the cobalt measured in
the urine and plasma in the methylcobalamin form, a breakdown product, or
ultimately as a free form of cobalt. This might have significant implications to the
actual toxicity of the cobalt to human tissue. Similarly, while the present study was
able to demonstrate a direct relationship between the frequency of methylcobalamin
injections and levels of cobalt in the urine and blood, it was unable to examine the
various tissue concentrations of cobalt or the forms of cobalt present in the tissue.
Once again, such data would help to significantly determine the potential toxic
consequences of methylcobalamin injections.
Another weakness of the present study is that it evaluated only the acute
distribution of cobalt following methylcobalamin injections. It does not provide
insights into what the distribution pattern of cobalt may look like in the human body
following long-term administration. It is clear that the case reports presented show
that there may be much more information to be gleaned from such studies.
To be honest the parameters of the test just left me thinking that it was a colossal waste of time and energy.
The paper was over 8 years ago and doesn't seem to have been followed up with any other studies. I also couldn't find anything on pubmeds.
The use of methylcobalamin in treating autism in this way was, if I remember correctly, was/is a fringe treatment that caused a lot of controversy anyway
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Self-treating with methylcobalamin
High serum b12, high MMA and low transcobalamin
