How much B12 do you take?

[WIZARD6787]

I currently take 1,5 mg of hydroxocobalamin in a lozenge twice a day. I am considering increasing to 2 mg a day. The more I take the less symptomatic I am, which personally is what I want to experience.

I am accepting that there may be unknown effects of too much hydroxocobalamin, it is a risk I am considering taking to be less symptomatic.

[Lincsangel1]

Good morning... are you vegan or do you eat meat and dairy? If you are B12 deficient yet eat both meat and dairy then you have absorption problems... therefore supplements will not be absorbed. All you will benefit from is around 1-2% through passive absorption

Hydroxocobalamin is water soluble and any excess will be peed out...so high amounts are not a risk

If you are having neurological symptoms..whether vegan or not.. you need B12 injections, along with co factors

Neurological damage will not heal without injections

Under treatment can result in irreversible neurological damage

[WIZARD6787 in reply to Lincsangel1]

Thank you for your reply and the information.

I eat dairy and don't avoid meat, I just do no eat very much meat. Once a month or so. I eat fish sometimes. My favorite fast food is salmon or swordfish. Two minutes a side on my grill, check temperature and done. 😀

I did a trial of injecting cyanocobalamin, then methylcobalamin, then methylcobalamin with oral adenosylcobalamin (not long enough to really evaluate), then hydroxocobalamin. I improved somewhat with all trials. I am from USA and did not have the advantage of the flow chart used in the UK. Nor had I discovered this website.

I watched a video posted on this site "Functional B12 Deficiency" and found that helpful to understand what can go wrong with B12. I experience PA verified by endoscope then factor test. I had been un-diagnosed for years and when B12 was tested it was not detectable.

I did a trial of sublingual understanding it is not mainstream. The theory is the B12 is absorbed through the blood vessels in the mouth especially at the back of the tongue. My theory/guess was that as the first step of the body absorbing B12 is from saliva. I thought perhaps the saliva from sublingual might help my body with transcobalamin/TCN2.

The sublingual trial yielded the best results to date. Allowing it is possible the results may be just a factor of being further along in my healing and or that I take a higher dose of B12 sublingual than with any other trial.

[Lincsangel1 in reply to WIZARD6787]

Sublingual B12 goes through the same process as when we eat foods that contain B12The molecules of B12 are too large to pass through to the bloodstream

So the only B12 you will be getting will be through passive absorption.. a tiny amount that will be nowhere near enough to treat a deficiency

To adequately treat pernicious anaemia you need injections

Have you considered self injecting?

Most of us do... it works out very cheap

I self inject daily and I'm slowly starting to heal

[WIZARD6787 in reply to Lincsangel1]

Hey Lincsangel1, Thank you for your reply. I have tried injecting. See my reply to your first comment. I hear you and appreciate your concern and know it is valid.

[helvella]

Do we know if two doses of 1 milligram with a time gap, rather than one dose of 2 milligrams, ends up delivering more, or less, B12 into our bodies?

Seems to be an important question but I don't remember a comprehensive answer. Obviously whether we produce any Intrinsic Factor at all might be the most important single factor. I imagine the answer could very well vary depending on us as individuals.

[Technoid]

50mcg methyl+50mcg adenosyl 3 times a day and 10mcg of a methyl/adenosyl/hydroxo blend late evening.

My intrinsic factor is ok - I dont have PA or absorption issues - my symptoms seem controlled at this dosage/frequency. Higher frequencies/dosages of injections or tablets had no effect after 5 months or so.

Initially I was on twice weekly injections for ~ 5 months, then dropped back to once a month until stopping injections last December.

[WIZARD6787 in reply to Technoid]

Thank you for your reply. You are the first person I know of who also takes methyl and adenosyl. I have hydroxo liquid in the mail. You are also the first person reports experiencing a loading until symptoms stop improving than reducing, I am allowing that there may be many people who have experienced the loading and reduction and may be unlikely to search for answers on this site when they have them.

I am curious as to how you arrived and your decision to go with the forms of cobalamin that you now use? If you want to share that.

[Technoid in reply to WIZARD6787]

Its the forms that are in present in my multivitamin supplement, Complement:

lovecomplement.com/products...

I like to have a mixture of all the natural forms (although in theory they are all the same). Thats why I take the additional tablet that has some hydroxocobalamin in it as well.

I used to take an extra 500mcg dose of the three natural forms but dont bother nowadays as I didnt notice a difference, so I figure the four doses a day are enough.

Bear in mind, I had a dietary deficiency, not PA or absorption issues, and although my deficiency was severe enough to have caused neurological symptoms, I had not lost intrinsic factor function and tablets always worked for me, they just werent enough in the initial treatment stages.

[WIZARD6787 in reply to Technoid]

Thank you very much,!