Excellent "This Morning" B12 TV video

[badger4071]

Just idly passing a few minutes at work pondering my recent B12 arguments with my GP and came across this video. I'm sure many of you will have seen it, but it not, they pack some very important points into the 5 minute segment.

youtu.be/YtkCYhq3Rtc(Not working as expected?)

[Jillymo]

I saw this some time back but unfotunately all Drs are not as informed about the B12 deficiency as Dr Chris Steele.

[badger4071 in reply to Jillymo]

Absolutely - I wish they were!

[Jillymo in reply to badger4071]

You and me both.

[red2022]

That video should be widely circulated by everybody as it is so instructive. GPs by not properly looking after their PA patients and providing injections based on the symptoms are in fact putting them seriously at risk. Unfortunately, GP's are also under pressure to cut costs that is now clear but that means even more patients with PA being treated in the NHS will be at risk and where a patient has auto immune diseases and PA even more so!

Red2022

[Pickle500]

So many Drs, I think, assume that malnutrition is not possible in the 21st Century.

I was asked 'Do you abuse nitrous oxide? I assume you don't but that is the most common reason we see today for b12 Deficiency'

So in that GPs experience, Im taking that he has never seen anyone in his practice with nutritional deficiency from either diet or absorption.

And so if he has never been trained on nutrition, how is he going to understand how b12 deficiency happens...when its not by nitrous oxide?

It's a hard truth to accept that our medics are not trained in something that can be completely devastating. And it may be down to the rarity of cases seen.

[Pasjc]

Very good and simplified so a layperson could understand. I wish GPs would watch it but then again even if they did how on earth do you get to see one and when you finally do to be told in very bluntly uou can only discuss one symptom. It begggers belief. I despair I really do. Apologies for the rant xx

[badger4071 in reply to Pasjc]

I agree. Humans are more than a single pathology and a 10 minutes slot to discuss complex issues isn't nearly enough. If you book a private consultation with BUPA for instance, you get 30 minutes. I don't have the answer but I feel and share your frustration.

[Hidden in reply to Pasjc]

"I despair I really do" .... Life today... can't and will never understand logic behind medical reasoning. It will cost more In dealing with horrendous disability both to the NHS and families of love ones.

[badger4071 in reply to Hidden]

Exactly this. B12 shots are cheap and very effective where there is a deficiency. Seems mad not to give them where there is a high risk and associated symptomatic disease.

[Pasjc in reply to Hidden]

So so true

[red2022]

Hi,

The real question is how do we wake up GPs and the NHS to evaluate what appear to be logical arguments when on a one to one basis GPs obviously feel superior to their patients and just do not listen well either!

Red2022

[badger4071 in reply to red2022]

I mentioned to the nurse doing my injection that I develop symptoms again after 8 weeks. She said most patients tell her the same thing. She suggested I speak to a partner at the practice but asked me not to mention her name and that I would be met with strong resistance to increase frequency to 10 or 8 weeks.

[red2022]

Exactly the same when I spoke to the senior partner at our GPs this week. My wife has had all her loading doses and finished those a month ago when it was suggested 8wks for the next injection as she was so long starting the treatment.

In the meantime last week she appears to have had a bad MS 'flare up' and bedridden but despite hr pain we could not get a doctor to visit and GP would only prescribe over the phone.

Spoke eventually to the senior partner as clearly he didn't like the meds prescribed so he rang but he was obdurate on 10-12 wks for the next injection even though I informed him of my wife's 24 hr pain, lack of mobility and all the other symptoms which appear to me to be B12 deficiency symptoms continuing . But, still no doctor has seen her!

So in my view something is badly wrong with 'the system' hence my earlier response. 111 is also being overloaded because GPs are not doing what they used to do.

Who is coordinating the 'wake up of GPs and the NHS to evaluate what appear to be logical arguments on B12 injections and better treatment of PA to prevent even more debilitating and devastating consequences?

Red 2022

[badger4071 in reply to red2022]

That's awful. I hope your wife gets sorted out quickly. At least my GP does face to face appointments but for anything urgent it's 111 who just say to go to A&E for a 10 hour wait. Much better for those of us with low B12 to be treated properly to keep us away from A&E. It's busy enough there.

[Cherylclaire Forum Support]

I've just watched this - and thought that both the woman with B12 deficiency and the GP fitted in a lot of information in such a short time.

The GP is Dr Chris Steele, who wrote the foreword to Martyn Hooper's book (founder of the Pernicious Anaemia Society). It started like this:

" During my 45 years as a GP, I have often felt uneasy about the way in which pernicious anaemia is diagnosed and treated....."

It took attending a lecture by Martyn Hooper for him to realise why.

He advises, in the foreword, that every doctor read this book.

["What You Need to Know About Pernicious Anaemia & Vitamin B12 Deficiency"]