Doctor's appointment coming up

[Autumn11]

Hello I have a doctor's appointment on Monday, I haven't seen a doctor in about a year and a half. I have a lot of the symptoms listed on here. Shortness of breath, dizziness, vertigo, short term memory loss, loss of appetite, numbness in my toes, anxiety, fatigue, bladder issues, (past) paranoia, and depression. There might be a couple more, but been tested for vitamin b12 levels and came back high. I dont know what to say to the doctor as she will see my past test and think I'm fine. I'm not fine I'm miserable and just dont feel normal! I know with all my heart something is wrong with vitamin b12 in my body. But I dont know what to say anymore or what test to ask for next. Please help. Also I live in the U.S.

[wedgewood]

You need to have an active B12 test , The common B12 blood serum test includes up to 80% of inactive B12 which is inaccessible to your body . Do you know which test you had ?

[Autumn11 in reply to wedgewood]

Just a blood test for vitamin b12

[Gambit62 Administrator]

a) had you supplemented at all prior to the B12 test?

b) was the result high in range or over the range?

c) had you had a previous serum B12 test that could be used as a comparitor?

d) have you checked folate, MMA, homocysteine

e) if your result was high for serum B12 then the result for active B12 is likely to be high in range as well. you would expect serum B12 to be roughly 5x higher than active B12 which is taken into account in the ranges.

US tends to use active B12 (may be referred to as holo-B12 or holo-T)

wedgewood - for info

f) unfortunately the symptoms of B12 deficiency overlap with those of a number of other conditions - some of which can be equally difficult to diagnose if GPs are rigidly applying normal range rather than looking at trends (eg thyroid conditions).

[Autumn11 in reply to Gambit62]

Yes I have supplemented with vitamin b before testing. I dont remember the range for it..and the exact amount, just that is was around 1000

[Gambit62 Administrator in reply to Autumn11]

supplementation may have skewed results. 3-6 months without supplementation is ecommended for both serum and active B12 tests

[Autumn11 in reply to Gambit62]

Ok thank you, but theres no way I would be able to, it helps me in so many ways

[Gambit62 Administrator in reply to Autumn11]

then continue to supplement but accept that you will be unlikely to get a diagnosis from your GP