Vit B 12

[ponai]

I'm still plodding along- it's been 6 years now, and I'm on 5mg pred after a bit of a flare last October, possibly caused by my 5th covid vaccine. I'm still very stiff, can't walk as far as I'd like to, but am not in severe pain and can manage my fairly undemanding life. Recent blood tests have shown high vitamin B12 levels and I wondered if it might be a pred/PMR thing? It's possibly our chickens' fault- they're laying well and I've been eating rather a lot of eggs.

Current advice is just to keep an eye on it. Has anyone else had this? I don't have any new symptoms- just the same annoying old ones.

[SnazzyD]

Goodness! How many eggs do you eat? Has the doctor taken steps to rule out conditions that can cause high B12?

[piglette]

Usually, excess vitamin B12 is removed in the urine. Although eggs do have vitamin B12 it has been found that people only absorb 9% of the vitamin B12 in eggs compared to a lot more from other animal-based sources, so your egg consumption is unlikely to have anything to do with the raised levels. Are you diabetic? Also have you had any liver blood tests? Your doctor should be checking why you have raised levels, not saying it could be eggs!!

[PMRpro Ambassador]

HOW high? Not sure a doctor should blame eggs for breakfast without checking there isn't another less benign cause.

[ponai in reply to PMRpro]

Sorry- it was me suggested it, not her. Bit of a joke as our hens are on overdrive at the moment. There were other tests, all ok, not diabetic, no symptoms, forget the B12 number-possibly 800? She's going to test again in a few months and meanwhile I can try cutting down on the things that might affect it. Just tend to blame pred or PMR for things generally!

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to ponai]

The thing is, B12 is a water soluble vitamin so usually it is excreted when too high, Actually, up to 1000 is considered normal range so not sure why 800 is being considered high.

[ponai in reply to PMRpro]

That's reassuring. She seemed to think 700 was acceptable. I think it was the fact that it was higher than when they checked it before and she thought maybe I was taking B12 supplements. I'm not- but we didn't have hens then! Isn't everything complicated. Good to keep an eye on it. Thanks- I'm very grateful for the responses.