So following doc visit this morning, these are my levels as follows and treatment changes to go with.
B12 Serum 179ng/L (200.00-900.0 range) - Below range still after B12 in tablet form, now prescribed 5 no. injections and review in 4 months, blood test for pernicious anemia at that time to be done also
Vitamin D serum - 72nmol/L - says Adequate, no range given
Cholesterol - 6.5mmol/L - this is 0.2 down on last blood test (my paternal Grandmother naturally has high Chlosterol and has been on meds for over 30yrs)
Thyroid Serum TSH 4.76mlU/L (0.3-4.5 range) this is higher than the 3.7mIU/L in my blood test 5 months ago, my levothyroxine had been upped to 75mcg from 50mcg, and now Doctor has upped it to 100mcg a day
Serum Free T4 is still a steady 14.4pmol/L (10.00-22.0 range)
and my FBC is just below level....
Im tired all the time, got brain fog, breathing is tough sometimes but have blue and brown inhalers for this as have adult onset asthma.
Im hoping having B12 lifted to top end of range might give me the will to go out and exercise, as all i want to do is sleep, my diet is good but i just cant be bothered... you know what i mean?
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MrsSAcky
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B12 and folate deficiency is probably causing most of your symptoms but low thyroid will be responsible for some of it.
VitD 72 is just shy of replete 75 -200 nmol/L. It's very unlikely you will have any symptoms of low vitD at that level but you could see whether 1,000iu D3 until April improves energy. Ultraviolet light should be high enough in April to stimulate natural vitamin D. Take vitD 4 hours away from Levothyroxine.
Doctor advised 4 month repeat from last blood test, FT3 is a paid test, i'll double check, i've pushed for him to listen to me as feel dreadful, he said about my brain to thyroid may not be converting it hence the increase, i'll push him for the T3 test before i go in April, i know they'll do it via an endo at the hospital.
Do you have any More info on this? High chol for older people?
My 82 yr father in law was prescribed statins for cholesterol of 7, despite having NO other risk factors. Thankfully he stopped taking them quite soon as he kept falling asleep - no doubt the coenzyme q10. But I like to give him as much info as poss as he does listen but is of the generation who thinks doctors know everything - they are currently wanting to do a consultation for Dementia whilst he waits 2 weeks (!) for a b12 deficiency test which is a Moreno likely cause given his symptoms
US measurements need to be converted to UK, though
and PPIs are implicated in dementia, so if he is taking those ... remember the GP wants him to have dementia because it's cost effective for the GP practice.
Statins affect the same pathway as Coq10 and Squalene and also B12. So if on statins needs B12 supplementation and obv CoQ10 and get off the statins. Read Dr Kendrick's book - The Great Cholesterol Con also Doctoring Data or google for his blog The real reason for heart disease.
Also Dr Tom O'Bryan the man for Gluten info thedr.com. I listened to an interview where he staate the reason e got into gluten issues is because his father died far too early of a heart attack - postmortem - no justfiable cause. Persisted to find cause - was B12 deficiency causing some sort of vasilation (I better check, I wrote it down) which caused a heart attack. His comment was his father died because of a simple vit deficiency wich cost pennies to rectify! His father was not absorbing B12 because of intestinal villi damage from gluten/grains
So treating with a drug to prevent heart disease with something that causes a B12 deficiency is crazy! and also Squalene and CoQ10 which are heart protective.
And proven and agree with Angel of the North. The elderly need higher cholesterol.
Thanks, he came off the statins already which is good. I knew about Coq10 but not b12. Doing metabolism this weekend at college so no doubt it will come up!
Re-testing the B12 after injections will skew the results. You also run the risk of the GP saying you do not need anymore. I have read of this scenario often .....
I was taking cyanocobalamin,50mcg one a day, I had 50 from beginning September, my doc agrees those don't work, and I'm presuming there cheaper to prescribe than the injection
Maybe try the lozenges you dissolve under the tongue so they go into your system avoiding the gut. Jarrow Methycobalamin B12 5000mcg may do the trick - from Amazon I use them in between my injections which is Hydroxocobalamin. Injections are NOT expensive - I buy 3 in a box and the syringes for under 5 euro here in Crete.
Having same injections, but here as I'm hypothyroid I don't pay for my prescriptions as it's medication for life, well still pay my national insurance etc thro working lol... I'll look at Amazon tho, once seeing how I feel with the jabs too.
Cost differences can be difficult to establish. We often don't have full information available about medicine costs, and we are even less liekly to have proper costings of appointment + time to deliver the injection. Having said that, the price of injections might be lower!
In medicine cost alone:
One a day (90 tablets) of 50 microgram cyanobobalaimn would cost £7.99.
One injection would cost £2.41.
Cyanocobalamin (Non-proprietary) Less suitable for prescribing
Tablets, cyanocobalamin 50 micrograms. Net price 50-tab pack = £8.99
I really hope I didn't offend, in the england hypothyroid is classed as life limiting as medication is for life, hence I don't pay for my prescriptions, but in reality I do pay as I work and pay tax & ni. If only the cost let's were black and white persay, we could all make a decision to suit.
My doctor said he didn't like tablets as the never seemed to work, and myself took the tablets and my B12 still decreased whilst on them.
I think you'd find that the basis for hypothyroidism qualifying for "free" prescriptions in England is arbitrary. Someone, at some point, might have tried to make a sensible assessment but reality has overtaken that. There are many medicines which are so very important for those who need them, and may well be required for life, but do not qualify.
The use of oral B12 for those with absorption probelms requires high dose (at least 500 micrograms, preferably more) in order to exploit diffusion. That only occurs when a nice big dose hits the gut. 50 micrograms would be laughably small and incapable to providing the circumstances in which diffusion could occur - if anything to do with B12 deficiency were at all amusing.
Omg, my (private) doc told me I should be taking 5000-7000mcg oral b12 per day. 50 is like a drop in the ocean and that is why oral b12 'isn't working' according to that doc.
Low b12 is fairly easy to remedy (unlike say d) so if your levels were *decreasing* that is beyond the pale. This is like when they prescribe 5mcg t3 and then throw their hands up and say 'See, I told you it wouldn't help.'
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