Can anyone advise me whether it is worth having an Active B12 test done in London even if the MMA results fall within normal range? My husband's blood serum level is very high (1900) but he suffers from so many symptoms of B12 deficiency. He has peripheral neuropathy, standing tremor, ankylosing spondylitis (an autoimmune disease) and IBS just to name a few!
Any advice?
Hi Queenie,
I expect its not worth doing the Active B12 test as when that result is bordeline on the lower end will they recommend MMA to get a more precise result. If MMA is normal there then seems to me no chance that an active B12 test will give a different result.
Your hubby's symptoms could also be caused by other condition such as thyroid, or other vitamion deficiencies etc, perhaps it would help if further tests were done. (Or have they already been done ?) Has homocysteine been tested? Has folate been tested, is his full blood count normal; size of bloodcells (MCV) normal?
I hope this helps, its not terribly positive, sorry,
Kind regards,
Marre.
Hmmmm , Do you have any thoughts as to why his serum B12 is so high ??? Is he injecting or supplementing heavily .....?
Not at all.
Hi Queenie 123 I agree with Marre, I would personally feel it was worth asking your GP to either run a full set of bloods and include everything he can think of, ie. FBC - U's & E's - Liver Functions, Bone Profiles, Glucose, Thyroid, Amalase etc. etc. Then perhaps in view of these results your GP might be prepared to refer your hubby to a Haematology Consultant and from there, in turn, he may be prepared to refer you to Guy's St thomas's hospital. With all the results from the aforementioned tests, plus the consultants inputs, it would I feel perhaps be worth him being referred to the team of experts in London, people who are working on these problems every day of the week. But in the short term, you could try talking to Dr Dominic Harrington who is the Director of Scientific Research at Guy's, talk to Denise O'Blein on 0207 188 71888 and see if she will arrange a telephone appointment for you to speak with Dominic, he really is a very nice guy, so don't worry about having a chat with him, but those blood results would also be a good thing to be able to E-mail down to him, along with as fuller history of hubbies symptoms as possible for a starting point.
Good luck hope this helps.
Thank you both for your help. In fact we have seen a haematologist locally and because my husband has AS and injects Humira fortnightly he has regular blood tests at the hospital so we do know a lot of his profile.
We are having the active B12 test anyway as I spoke to Axis Shield and they thought it would be worth it.
Thanks!
queenie123 I am wondering if you found any answers to your husbands high B12? I have the same problem no one can figure out. My intrinsic factor, MMA, homocystein, gastrin, folate are all normal. My liver enzymes and ultrasound are normal. However my cellular B12 is at 14% and I feel absolutely horrid with symptoms of deficiency. I am trying to consult with people all over the world about this and I just came across Dominic Harrington's info. Any info you can give would be very much appreciated.
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