As you guys are very clued up on B12 I thought this might be place to get some advice. Although my issue is probably opposite of most here. Im type 2 diabetic which is now under control with diet/exercise. I just had a health screen and everything was fine, except my active B12 was 195 pmol and I think limit is 165. I’ve tried googling and it’s all very confusing and a few nasty reasons come up. But as said all other tests ok so I don’t anything to serious going on.
I have seen exercise can increase B12 and I walk a lot like 80 miles a week and walked on morning of test. Also I take few herbal things Yerba Mate ( a lot ) Ashwaganda Rhodiola. So if anyway can give some feedback would be much appreciated. I’m 54 years old male.
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Keano100
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"I just had a health screen and everything was fine"
Have you checked all the results yourself?
I was told on more than one occasion that everything was normal and then I found abnormal and borderline results when I checked.
If you're currently not taking B12 supplements, not having B12 injections and not eating lots of B12 rich or fortified foods/drinks then I would expect your doctors to try to find out why your active B12 is above range.
Have you taken B12 supplements in past year?
Has your doctor checked your liver and kidney function and have you had a full blood count (also known as complete blood count)?
I'm intrigued by you saying that B12 increases with exercise, have you got a link to an article that explains how that happens. I thought that the opposite happened.
It is possible to have B12 deficiency symptoms with a normal or above range serum B12 result. If you have symptoms consistent with B12 deficiency, might be worth looking into Functional B12 Deficiency. This is where there is plenty of b12 in the blood but it's not getting to where it's needed in the cells.
Thankyou very helpful reply. I will confess I do suffer with health anxiety and in past have driven my GP a bit mad. I’ve been with practice for 20+ years same GP and on the whole she’s very good. So I really try to only ask for blood tests if really desperate. I had a very bad fever in February and been struggling to get back to “ normal” nothing major symptom wise just feeling bit off. So I didn’t really want to bother my GP. So I decided to get a private test done. And actually I was kind of curious as the screen had stuff like testosterone. So yes I’ve seen all results and pretty much perfect.
Yes I checked the relationship with Exercise before blood test. It just seemed kind of obvious to me as things like creatine get effected. I just thought because amount of walking I do is quite excessive it might distort results. The paper I found was a test with rats but seemed quite conclusive I’ll see if can find it.
I will probably mention it to my GP but I have feeling she will be dismissive of it as all other tests are fine and I don’t think 195 is super high.
You mention that you are diabetic and that it is now well controlled - High B12 can be an indicator of kidney problems, and diabetes is a risk factor for kidney problems.
My go to in mitigating the effects of B12 deficiency before it be came severe enough to be diagnosed was exercise. Most extreme was running a minimum of 35 miles a week up to 50. It became swim a mile a day until I could not do that due to B12 deficiency.
yeah I think after little more research it’s unlikely the reason is anything sinister. When connected to some disease cause B12 can be like x3 of upper limit and I’m basically 1/5th over. Added to fact that all other bloods are fine. Most likely a combination of things has caused the result I’ll redo in couple of weeks and see.
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How does it feel to have too much B12?
seeing neurologist, advice on b12 injections welcomed…
