You may be low on electrolytes and b12 requires things like potassium to metabolize.
There are pills or just natural foods with potassium. As a side note potassium can be deadly if taken too much so just stay within the RDA and no worries.
Also, I had heart palpitations when I was recovering. I kept doing the daily injections and eventually they went away. It was scary. Never hurts to get checked though as only you feel you.
I have been trying to have Bananas and coconut water, but maybe I have missed out magnesium. Is magnesium something folk need when taking b12? I have supplements for that here and magnesium bath salts, so I will definitely try that.
Seeing my Dr tomorrow, so gonna ask her to check my U & Es, ecg, and a few other things.
Not sure how versed she is on b12 stuff, as my b12 help has been private.
Thanks for letting me know too that you had palpitations at first too. How long did those take to calm down for you?
no. it just helps with muscles however I found my muscle tightness is, in my case, a primary symptom of my b12 deficiency. It's the first thing I notice when I space out injections and get low again.
When I was first diagnosed I thought it was some other cause, stress or tension from the stress; or my body was just broken.
SOOOO NOT BROKEN. When my b12 levels are normal, my muscles relax, my back pain and peripheral numbness goes away.
My symptoms didn't fully resolve until about 2 years of daily injections and I think if I had done more than one injection per day that it would have sped things up; however, I think people should go at the pace they are comfortable with. whatever you do, don't space them out .
About one month in I got achy all over, radiating all through my body and the way to the bones. I felt like death. but that's is part of the phenomenon that is stated as "gets worse before it gets better". this happens because the nerve cells that were once starved are now all coming alive all at once. It took a month to get over that. then there was the heart palpitations that got way worse in the evening. scary as hell.
then muscle weakness...
then a resting heart rate of 105. again, unnerving.
somehow, things like the weakness are the symptoms of b12, along with some of the things like heart paplpitations are part of the healing process. No idea what. But to me it's a sign of the damage that was done and being repaired. the good thing is it can be repaired.
I wasn't nauseated but I had lost my appetite. that is a classic b12 deficiency symptom.
There are 3 reasons I hang out in this forum:
1 - support. the community is amazing. like family
2 - legit advice either from clinical restuls (people trying things and reasonably reporting what worked) or from medical journals. all a bunch of pretty intelligent and/or dedicated people.
3 - my intense empathy for those who are starting this journey and in the place I was; helping people overcome the fears and doubt and helping best I can based on my experience. I don't know it all but people here seem to fill in the gaps.
You found this forum. It's a giant step toward your healing because it is hands down the best forum on the internet for b12 deficiency.
How long since you started injections?
what was your b12 level before the first injection?
take a b multi vitamine if you feel well enough. that should help too.
Once you get more down the road, we can add more things that will help with your anxiety.
b vitamine deficiency can cause anxiety but best to start with one thing at a time and if your b12 was low, I say start there; the reason is, it can be overwhelming and if mixing several solutions it gets hard to pinpoint what is working and what doesn't. so best to keep it simple. unless there is clearing something else that for sure needs treatment like thyroid, but if things like thyroid have been ruled out, then keep it simple and just do the b12 injections. give it about 6-8 months then start adding more b vitamins. hit us up on this forum and ask us specifics about what other b vitamins we take and how.
Lots of good advice above. Yes I drank a lot and spent almost three months in bed after loading doses. I was extremely sensitive to noise so the family washing up (which was a blessing) was too painful on my ears! I drank about 1-2 litres water during the night as I was constantly thirsty but I never noticed it as a symptom until you said. I don’t drink as much in the night now.
I wish you all the best with your GP and hope you have a rare gem and get support.
Just don't overdo the water/drink in excess. I did that and ended up in hospital for 2 days as I'd flushed out my sodium. Needed 2 saline drips to top it back up.
Hi, everything your going through right now I went through 6 month ago, I’m still injecting and still in the process of healing, it does take time… much longer than other deficiencies out there, but the thing I found confusing was that my neurological symptoms were improving, but my haematological symptoms such as fatigue wasn’t improving, which made no sense, since haematological symptoms should improve first, but l’ve recently discovered that I have very low ferritin levels aswell which makes sense why my fatigue wasn’t improving, since it’s easy to assume it’s all related to B12 deficiency….
All the symptoms you’d experience from low iron levels you would also experience with low b12, in alot of doctors you need a ferritin level below 10 for it to be recognised and treated…. But there are many sources that state a ferritin level of 70 and lower can cause symptoms, you should definitely continue with your b12 treatment, but it might be worth checking ferritin levels since it would be impossible to tell the difference between symptoms of one or the other… and we can sometimes have multiple deficiencies due to absorption issues.
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