Hello all. I've been off the site for several months now (dealing with a lot of new body function, etc.). One of the conditions I'm finding is all my toenails have turned a light brow color. Now my fingernails also are slowly turning brown. At first my GP said, oh that's toenail fungus. He said to use the OTC medicines and that apple cider vinegar would help to get rid of it. However, I soaked for 30 min in apple cider vinegar, usually twice a day, and after that put on several kinds of OTC toenail meds. Result, my toenails got worse. They went from looking a light brown to totally darker brown. I read where it says if you have PA the PA itself can turn your toenails brow. Have any of you experienced brown toenails. I've been having B12 injections once per week, but now I am having breathing issues. I was so tired yesterday, that it took me 1.5 hours to finish eating my wife's BBQ ribs (3 ribs). I'm assuming that apparently not being able to breath causes me to be anxious, which makes it harder to catch my breath, then that causes more anxiousness, and it creates a back and forth situation. It seems to me that 1 B12 shot per week is not making it for me. Any ideas or feed back on these? Also, I can't seem to keep my sharpness much when I'm having these breathing issues (not that I was ever the sharpest tac in the box to begin with LOL).
Brown Toenails: Hello all. I've been... - Pernicious Anaemi...
Brown Toenails
Look up melononchyia. Not sure I've spelled correctly. This can be caused by B12 def or other micronutrient deficiency. I had a couple toes that were purpleish but they cleared after o started with B12 injections although it took months. For breathlessness, maybe check a full iron panel blood test. Have you any heart Palpitatiins or restless legs?? Those are other symptoms of iron def.
For the toes, maybe try increasing your B12 injections to twice a week for a bit?I'm not a doc but these suggestions are from my own experience.
Best wishes, Rexz
Are you also taking a Vit b complex and folate alongside b12 jabs. That was advice I had from a vit b12 group connected to Vit B12 society. B12 and folate need to be taken together and b12 needs other b's to be in balance. Maybe that doesn't answer your toenail query, mine are similar but not fungal. Hope it comes in useful though 😉
Hello, I am taking B12 shots once per week and I also take one folate each morning as well. Maybe that's not enough for me? the folate I take is sublingual and is 800 mg. Thanks
Hello, the advice from the Vit b12 group is to take 400mg folate daily whilst on injections so that is what I take, alongside the Vit b complex. Vitamin d is often low when Vit b12 is low so I take that & it's Co-factor of Vit k.. Hope you feel well on your regime 😊
Thanks and I like some of your suggestions. I'll look into that. Mjat
I'm not a medical professional so always consult your doctor. Once a week shots did not work for my wife. She was suffering from MTHFR based neuropathy and the only thing that started turning it around was daily injections. From everything I've read and from personal experience, once you get to the deficiency stage, you need to "overdo" it to get your levels back where they should be. Once they're right, whatever that is FOR YOU (not some graph made up by a board of physicians and insurance money-men) then you can drop to more of a management stage. (Your "management" may be daily injections; it all depends on you) You also need to try to get a full panel work up and see if you have any other obvious deficiencies. Good luck!
My big toe toenails have turned brown over the past year. I am awaiting a rheumatology referral to see if I have psoriatic arthritis (I have other symptoms of joint pain, swollen fingers, nail putting) so I think that's my issue but there's a strong link between PA/B12 deficiency and psoriatic arthritis. The flesh under my nails on my hand are a dark pink colour now too, apparently from the inflammation underneath my nails.
I also had severe breathlessness aka "the sighs" and that was due to low folate. I also had anxiety which for me was worst in the middle of the night which deprived me of sleep. Within a few weeks of taking a folic acid supplement this went but I have to keep on top of this as I inject every 2 days and B12 needs balancing with folate, iron and vitamin D.
I hope your wife's ribs were tasty 😋
A new one on me, I must admit.
I did have problems with fingernails - vertical grooves, "cobbles", no moons except on thumbs, later black vertical lines (dried blood), pressure pain at nail base, especially thumbs, that would grow out as a deep horizontal dent .... but just some delamination of toenails. I lost one, but it just went white and pulled off painlessly and very slowly grew back - no brown colouring.
I think the loss of moons is fairly commonly mentioned.
When I was sent to a haematology consultant, she checked my nails on the first appointment. My nails still look a bit rubbish, but certainly a lot better than they were.
Someone might turn up with an answer about the cause of your brown toenails, and even what to do about that. I have heard before of a link with psoriasis -as Claire mentioned - which is another autoimmune condition. If you have PA, you can also find that you get other autoimmune issues such as psoriasis, Hashimoto's or Grave's (autoimmune thyroid conditions), vitiligo etc. So that would be worth pursuing as a possibility.
Breathlessness, anxiety and exhaustion: all common B12 deficiency symptoms I'm sorry to say. It could be that you do need more than one injection a week - certainly worth a trial.
Wishing you luck.
Thanks for all the info and tips. Yes, I have been reading as much as I can recently and I've seen where those with PA often have another immune cond as well. I think I have psoriasis or psoriatic, as brown toes are seen with the psoriatic arth. Thanks
Still, I'd ask the question of medical professionals ! Glad to see you back here.
Ive just watched a YouTube video by Dr Andrew Klein- consultant Papworth Hospital. It is excellent. He says inject every day if you need to as we excrete the B12 in 6 hours. I'll search for the link and post it.
youtube.com/watch?v=_xmM8Jb...
Thank you so much for posting this. This was the most helpful and informative video I've seen. What a wonderful doctor he is.
MindfulSquirrel posted this video a few days ago.
Thanks for posting it again. I had missed MindfulSquirrel's post, so I'm glad I got to see this. This was so helpful.
Apple cider vinegar gummies
LAST FYI ON shelf life of B12. Hope it helps.
reflux help please
Quert re brown small patches on face and darker freckles and B12 injctions
