Vitamin B12 Deficiency-Induced Neuropathy and Cognitive and Motor Impairment in the Elderly: A Case Study

[WiscGuy]

This article was interesting to me because it is reminiscent of many posts on this forum describing undertreatment of B12 deficiency symptoms. It's interesting to see the results when injection frequency is in line with informed recommendations.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/fu...

[Myoldcat]

This is positively heartwarming piece of research, where the phrases "listen to your patients carefully" and "if a patient reports an increase of complaints towards a next B12 injection it might be useful to increase the injection frequency" ring out as full of common sense and humanity, yet are so sadly lacking in so many people's experiences. Thinking of poor Waveylines' recent horrendous gp consultation - or verbal abuse session, more like. Thanks for another great link, WiscGuy.

[traveltime]

thank you.

[HeartyGilly]

excellent article. Thank you.

[MoKayD]

My doctor, who is very pro B12, told me that he had a new patient recently. The elderly man was unable to walk and needed a wheel chair. He prescribed B12 shots for the gentleman and the next time he saw him the man was walking (using a cane.).

[Bellabab]

Another very useful study - thank you. I am 81 and also have type 2 diabetes which is hopefully in remission.

[Cherylclaire Forum Support]

Also interesting to note that the man having B12 injections every three weeks was considered to be on a low frequency ! This allowed such improvement over the course of a year that he was able to return to his housing business.

The woman was given injections twice a week, then later at her request given three a week, then later still this was reduced back down to two per week - again, at her request. They listened to her and respected her decision to opt for improved quality of life over the possible reduction of efficacy of the chemotherapy for her leukaemia. Thankfully, no such reduction was found.

Also interested to see that because her sisters have treated B12 deficiency, a genetic cause was looked for in DNA. Crucially, although no link found, not either ruled out !

I was also given injections twice a week - for a whole 6 months - but had to self inject later and trialled EOD (every other day) treatment frequency for myself in an attempt to get back to work. This, after a couple of years, I reduced to B12 injections with a 2 or sometimes 3 day gap - which prevents deterioration. Although I still have some remaining symptoms, they appear without warning, prompt or pattern. After keeping daily charts from August 2016, I finally abandoned this recording in November 2022.

In August 2019, I had had a final appointment with Adult Inherited Metabolic Diseases, who also found no cause in my DNA for continually raised MMA and continuing symptoms despite treatment frequency. They apologised to me for being unable to help.

It really does matter how this is approached by the medical profession. I was lucky in that I had a GP who worked very hard to try and help me get back as much as possible of my old self. I got frequent injections while also ensuring nothing else was missed by sending me to consultants for various elimination tests. This does not happen often.

In August 2020, lucky again : I took the offer of voluntary redundancy. It was a relief.