Some advice please.

[Ritchie1268]

Hello all.

My daughter has been struggling for the last 18 months now with exhaustion & very low moods, extreme anxiety etc.

She can sleep for hours, get up for an hour & go back to bed & sleep all day! This is now effecting her college work.

I told her to get her B12 levels checked due to family history.

She had blood tests, (they came back as satisfactory, don't they always! I didn't see results as she lives with her mum). The Dr said your folate is low, take Folic acid tablets. This was 2 months ago now & she's getting worse.

She went to dr's again today & saw a different Dr who said, your B12 levels the last time came back a little on the low side, (not sure what they were). but said "no further action" so we'll do another blood test.

The only info I have is that her serum folate 2 months ago was >20 ug/l range (3.89 - 26.8) so they gave her Folic acid tablets.

My worry is her B12 is low, though she doesn't have these results & they're giving her folic acid to treat a folate deficiency that I don't think is low anyway??

[fbirder]

A folate level of more than 20 ug/L is not low. It is at the high end. Indeed, the use of > (greater than) suggests it was too high to measure.

If she does have a B12 deficiency then she would be getting folic acid supplements. Treating a folate deficiency in the presence of a B12 defieicny, without treating the B12, is a bad idea. It can mask some of the symptoms of the B12 deficiency and there is some thought that it can exacerbate the neurological damage caused by the B12 deficiency.

ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/V...

Large amounts of folic acid can mask the damaging effects of vitamin B12 deficiency by correcting the megaloblastic anemia caused by vitamin B12 deficiency [3,5] without correcting the neurological damage that also occurs [1,34]. Moreover, preliminary evidence suggests that high serum folate levels might not only mask vitamin B12 deficiency, but could also exacerbate the anemia and worsen the cognitive symptoms associated with vitamin B12 deficiency

[Ritchie1268 in reply to fbirder]

Thank you very much fbirder.

Though I'm still learning you have explained exactly what my worry was!

Especially after this Dr said your B12 levels came back last time on the low side but they said "normal"

I couldn't get my head around why, when she showed me her results, they would give her folic acid, thinking her B12 levels were low!?

I know I'm knew to this but it concerned me greatly that they were treating her for a folate deficiency she didn't have, then saying her B12 levels were low & not treating that!!

Think I'll go with her next time when her blood results come back.

Thanks again for confirming what I thought was wrong!