I have been taking B12 injections for what was meant to have been 3 years but because of COVID-19 I have not received any.
I’ve been feeling depressed, irritated, breathless, ribs hurting, right/stiff muscles, pains in joints, cold sores, acne, clotty periods and feeling the cold a lot more
I also take folic acid 5mg on prescription which doesn’t seem to make a lot of difference to my levels. Vitamin D I feel could be better despite GP saying it looks good. Iron sorted 3 years ago too with an iron infusion but I still seem to get dark eyes and pale skin after periods have been and gone.
No one seems to know what’s wrong with me
Thank you for reading!
Sep 2020
Vitamin D 65 nmol/L (vitamin D suboptimal 50 - 75)
Vitamin B12 628 pg/L (190 - 900)
Folate 3.1 ug/L (2.5 - 19.5)
Ferritin 36 ug/L (15 - 150)
Written by
LuciaRose
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Hi LuciaRose so sorry you are suffering all those symptoms looking at your blood results I would say all your vitamins need improving.
I don't suffer with pernicious anaemia myself but I have a friend who does and her GP stopped her B12 injections at the start of the Corona Virus but she pleaded her case with one of the nurses at the practice and got them reinstated. Maybe you could try and speak to someone and tell them how much you are suffering.
What the doctors think are acceptable levels of vitamins like yours are not what I would say are very good at all.
I am not medically trained but have had to self educate myself on thyroid illness which I have suffered with for many years and Thyroid Healthunlocked has been an absolute godsend. Read and learn as much as you can sometimes it has to be a self help situation with Vitamins. I buy my own Vit D the Betteryou spray from Holland and Barrett's which I find good also the the B12 one too. My levels of B12 were low but the spray was good for me and improved then greatly.
I wish you good luck in finding answers and getting the help you need,
Vitamin D, folate and ferritin are low. B12 appears to be fine, but really depends on whether you are self injecting, supplementing or when your last injection was given etc: you said "I have been taking B12 injections ..."
Anyway B12 aside, no wonder you aren't feeling good with these results.
My GP said that you can be symptomatic with any result below 60 ug/L for ferritin. My Oral Medicine consultant wanted my levels at 80. I struggled, even with additional supplements, on top of the multivitamin and mineral I was already taking, to get beyond 60 - so he decided that that was probably as far as my body would naturally take me. My levels of all three can fluctuate, so are monitored regularly to ensure they are at a good level and stable.
It took a couple of years to do this effectively.
This is not an unusual situation for someone with B12 deficiency, as you have probably noticed in previous posts and responses.
Folate also better in top 2/3 of range (around 15 ug/L). 5mg of folic acid is an awful lot and should have made more difference by now. Also true of ferritin- the iron infusion was 3 years ago.
Do not accept lack of investigation into all these issues. Your GP should want to know why all these things are going on.
The lowest folate level I had was 5.5, the lowest ferritin 36, lowest vitamin D 74 and the lowest B12 196 ng/L - I felt like I was creeping slowly towards my coffin !
Hi my GP nurse injects the B12 into me, they were on prescription but not anymore. I haven't received any injections since but I had been taking them from Feb 2017 - January 2020.
What did they tell you the injections were for exactly?
What tests did they do previously?
Have they ever told you that you have/don't have pernicious anaemia - and how did they reach that conclusion ? I'm not being nosey, just trying to understand...
What I really don't understand is the "three years" timeframe : are you in the UK ?
It may be worth trying the B12 Boost spray suggested by Silverlady - if in the UK, they are easily available (Holland and Barrett sell them) - they really did nothing for me though.
Some good people go between Thyroid UK and Pernicious Anaemia sites because like PA, Hashimoto's (thyroid condition) is another auto-immune condition. Some people have two, three or even more - vitiligo, psoriasis etc. So someone will probably come along with an answer to your question.
I have had some advice about thyroid tests (and results) before from one such person :
TSH test will not give you a full picture.
You would be better off to have FT3, FT4 -and the antibody tests: anti-TPO and anti-TG. Most NHS practices only do TSH, some, like mine, also do FT4, but that's it I think.
I had a full-panel thyroid blood test by post done by a private healthcheck company initially, mainly because two of my sisters have Grave's disease. I wanted to be sure.
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