B12 Reduces Drug Side Effects

[MoKayD]

I saw this article about B12 helping to reduce nausea side effects and thought I'd share with everyone uspharmacist.com/article/a-...

[VellBlue]

Great, but poor old shrews!

[Davy28]

I wonder if it's related to or linked to hydroxocobalamin being used as an antidote for chemical weapons poisoning as this is something lots of people are not aware of ie cyanide poisoning, when made into cyanocobalamin

link chemm.hhs.gov/countermeasur...

[WiscGuy in reply to Davy28]

I might be misunderstanding, but my impression is that cobalamin (B12) is used in cyanide poisoning (up to 5 or even 10 grams of B12 by IV within 5 hours) because the B12 bonds with the cyanide, then the kidneys fairly quickly remove the excess B12 with the cyanide attached.

[FlipperTD in reply to WiscGuy]

You're right; it's an elegant solution to a horrible mess. There have been other cruder but scientifically valid chemical approaches to cyanide poisoning, but the crucial thing is that it needs to be done quickly because cyanide is so rapidly toxic, so it's important to do something quickly.

One method which I particularly liked was to adminster something [a nitrite] that causes MetHaemoglobinaemia, and then the MetHaemoglobin allegedly binds and detoxifies the cyanide to form CyanmetHaemoglobin, which is [I think] relatively non-toxic, although it doesn't transport oxygen any more.

When I was working with cyanide, I had an antidote kit that contained Cobalt EDTA [Kelocyanor] but thankfully never had to try it out. Any port in a storm, I suppose!

[helvella in reply to WiscGuy]

This is a link to the company that makes extreme high dose hydroxocobalamin kits for cyanide poisoning:

cyanokit.com/

Note: This is USA information. Equivalent in other countries may be written differently.