I am 29 years old and I have been suffering from B12 deficiency since April 2016. My health was very bad at that time and I could not identify what it was. Initially, I thought the health issue was due to the kind of office work and lack of physical exercises. I am a software engineer and work 8 to 18 hours a day continuously in front of the computer. No any physical exercises in days. I was a vegetarian till the end of September 2016. I wasn’t drinking alcohol till the mid of December 2016 since my birth. After some research in the internet regarding what all I was feeling bad that time and went for consultation with a doctor. He suggested me a checkup of B12 level and found that my b12 level was 164picogram/ml completely below the range of 187 – 883 p/ml. The doctor gave me “Remylin D”. Despite with the supplement I was still the same. The symptoms I had that time are,
1.Anxiety, stress, depression.
2.Tiredness, Fatigue, loss of energy.
3.Excessive hair fall, overnight hair graying.
4.Brain fog.
5.Dizziness
6.Hands numb while sleeping, feels like I don’t have that hand.
7.Piercing pain in left side of chest and back of my head.
8.Inflammation on top of the head.
9.Digestion take more time.
Next, I went to have a consultation with a neurology chief, the doctor after consultation told me I have no issues and suggested “b long f” and “neurobion” injection for 6 weeks. After that I felt a bit better. Soon, I decided to eat non veg food, to bring b12 naturally up and stopped taking supplements. Some of the symptoms I mentioned above were gone and some persists. Finally I checked the b12 level again and the level climbed up to 504 picogram/ml, however, I was having depression, anxiety, Brain fog, tingling and numbness in hands and foot and inflammation on head, excessive hair graying, getting upset for silly matters. I use bike daily for traveling and now I have a problem of numbness and tingling in my testicles and penis. Recently, on May 2017, I started a consultation with a new doctor and he says my b12 level is in the range and need to check other factors to identify the persistent numbness and tingling happening due to the causes other than b12. I met a dermatologist for my hair loss and overnight hair graying and the doctor says it is due to stress and anxiety or chronic or can even the chemical pollutants in the air. I am totally upset and I would like to know when my disease will go?
Now I became too fat due to uncontrolled diet and my triglycerides is 271 out of 150mg/dl, VLDL 54mg/dl and SGPT/ALT 81 U/L out of 41. My thyroid level is normal. and I did NCV test and it is fine.
Have you had your iron and ferritin checked? Low levels can cause hair loss and fatigue. Also would be worth trying an anti-inflammatory and gluten free diet to see if your symptoms improve.
You may need folic acid along with B12 as your absorbtion seems ok. You need to have a good level of D3 with K2 ... once the doctor tells you are suffering from stress and anxiety etc it means he is lost or cannot see his way to diagnosing your basic problems. If you were vegan/vegetarian then you are most likely to be deficient in B12. Magnesium is also important and a good multivitamin is needed for some. Good luck with your doctors.
With neurological symptoms caused by low B12 - it is important you continue with treatment - either injections or a good level of supplement. Also a good B Complex to keep all the B's in balance and with Folate/Folic Acid - which works with B12 in the body.
When supplementing B12 - further testing is of little value as results will be skewed.
Do you have your thyroid results ? - if so then do post them so people can help.
TSH over 3 suggests a thyroid that is struggling. Also you need the FT4 & FT3 tested to see the whole picture. Also thyroid anti -bodies Anti -TPO & Anti -Tg should be tested to rule out Hashimotos .....
What time of the day was the thyroid checked? TSH drops during the day so it really needs to be checked as early as possible. You do sound to me as though you have a thyroid problem. Please ask for a full thyroid blood panel including antibodies. You could have the autoimmune version that will not just show up on TSH alone.
I got an appointment to an endocrinologist and made a list of my symptoms and signs from when I was little, she prescribed Levo there and then, it was a while later I found out the results of the blood tests she had arranged, I had autoimmune hypothyroidism due to high TPO antibodies.
I don't remember well but I think the time must be in the noon. Now, I wonder, thyroid checking has timing. I need to check it again. Thanks for pointing it out.
Whatever your thyroid is doing will be a long term approach. You were way under the limit for B12 to start with and you are way under the optimum limit for B12 after 'treatment' - after supplementation your results were artificially high and not medically significant. The optimum to aim for is above 1000 p/ml, so your measurement after treatment would be considered low without treatment, if you get my drift. With treatment it is still dangerously low. I use the term 'treatment' advisedly because you were no way getting optimum treatment for B12 deficiency.
You need very high doses of vit B12, injected either intramuscularly or subcutaneously on alternate days for three weeks or until the symptoms subside. As Marz says, you need to ensure a good oral supply of folate alongside in order to ensure maximum uptake of B12 into the tissues.
You won't get injections on prescription, I suspect, because of the ignorance of the medical profession. If you do - wow. If you don't, you can do it yourself - loads of advice on here. As a needlephobe, I inject subcutaneously and have no problems other than my GP nearly having an epi (apologies to epileptics but the symptoms were all there) from horror when I told her (GPs automatically assume superior intellect to their patients and non-forelock touching by their patients as subversion. Do not be afraid).
By the way, I'm still injecting every 2-3 days, and still am improving, even after six months or more. And I'm no needle-junkie.
B12 is water soluble - you will wee it out. You can't overdose - 5000mg is given repeatedly as an antidote to carbon monoxide poisoning, so 1000mg (the injectable dose advised) is p***-all (no pun intended).
You will know in a matter of days if it's the answer - you'll feel worse for a few days to start with, called reversing-out syndrome, and after that you'll have reductions in all the other symptoms, the time over which the changes take place in accordance with the healing of the damage wrought through low B12 over the years.
My advice is to start B12 injections as fast as you can - by the time you've finished arguing with the doctors, you will have less tingly whatsits and sufficient clearing of the fog to hold your own. If it's not B12, you will have lost nothing.
Other than the grey - that's a done deal, I'm afraid.
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