As a patient suffering from B12 deficiency I am shocked by some of the medical responses. Patients know their own bodies and know when they do not feel quite right. To say that a 3 monthly injection of B12 is satisfactory and any more than that creates a 'high' or is just a placebo effect shows how very little understanding the medical profession had in this area.
It is well known that, although from animal sources, B12 is a water soluble vitamin, which is unusual as most are fat soluble, therefore what is not needed within the body is urinated out. This happens within the first 24 hours. The body then uses the B12 to repair the body, anything from the nerve endings (neurological features of B12 deficiency, sometimes mistaken for MS etc) to mental issues (sometimes mistaken for depression etc) and many more in between. Back in the 1970s and 1980s B12 was given more frequently as routine. The injection hadn't changed but the recommendation has. B12 doesn't stay in the body any longer so patients become 'needy' sooner. What the medical profession lack is the knowledge that each patient is an individual and one size doesn't fit all. This leads to patients in serious pain and then having to self inject. Believe me when you've suffered from back ache, memory loss, the inability to remember day to day names of items etc this is not a high reaction or a placebo effect when, after the B12 injection, they stop hurting or get a little better!
B12 is so cheap under 70p per ampoule yet doctors would rather dish out pain relief and antidepressants like sweets which, of course, cost so much more. I wish that patients could mentally and physically pass on their pain to their GPs and others in the medical profession that write and say such twaddle as 'artificial high' 'placebo' etc then they would be able to more aptly treat B12 deficiency!
At this moment in time the B12 serum test is also flawed. B12 flows around your body with approximately 80% of it inactive and the remaining 20% being utilised by the body. If you look at the lower limit result say the range was from 200, this would mean the only 20% of this was actively used in the body. A patient could be told that they are not deficient, where in actual fact they would be and nerve damage would start!
Stop treating patients who ask for sooner B12 injections like drug addicts and start listening to them. Patients research themselves and are far more knowledgeable than GPs themselves. Doctors and specialist haematologists need to rethink their views in this subject and start reading and researching. In reading I do not mean flawed articals written by the medical profession to pat each other on their backs to why patients shouldn't have anything more than 3 monthly injections. I also mean thinking outside the ranges and focusing on the symptoms of their patients. I therefore ask you to think logically about ignoring B12 results once patients are on injections as the levels will be artificially high. Also remember that B12 isn't toxic, you can't overdose on it and it is very safe. I would very much like GPs and the whole of the medical profession to actually read the BNF guidelines regarding treatment of patients with B12 deficiency. You'll find what you are looking for in section 9.1.2!
Stop making patients feel like druggies (although I think they get treated better by doctors than B12 deficient patients do), give the injection more often or better still teach the patient to self inject (saving money by not using up practice nurses' time) so they do it safely.
Rapid Response:
Re: Vitamin B-12 deficiency
As a patient suffering from B12 deficiency I am shocked by some of the medical responses. Patients know their own bodies and know when they do not feel quite right. To say that a 3 monthly injection of B12 is satisfactory and any more than that creates a 'high' or is just a placebo effect shows how very little understanding the medical profession had in this area.
It is well known that, although from animal sources, B12 is a water soluble vitamin, which is unusual as most are fat soluble, therefore what is not needed within the body is urinated out. This happens within the first 24 hours. The body then uses the B12 to repair the body, anything from the nerve endings (neurological features of B12 deficiency, sometimes mistaken for MS etc) to mental issues (sometimes mistaken for depression etc) and many more in between. Back in the 1970s and 1980s B12 was given more frequently as routine. The injection hadn't changed but the recommendation has. B12 doesn't stay in the body any longer so patients become 'needy' sooner. What the medical profession lack is the knowledge that each patient is an individual and one size doesn't fit all. This leads to patients in serious pain and then having to self inject. Believe me when you've suffered from back ache, memory loss, the inability to remember day to day names of items etc this is not a high reaction or a placebo effect when, after the B12 injection, they stop hurting or get a little better!
B12 is so cheap under 70p per ampoule yet doctors would rather dish out pain relief and antidepressants like sweets which, of course, cost so much more. I wish that patients could mentally and physically pass on their pain to their GPs and others in the medical profession that write and say such twaddle as 'artificial high' 'placebo' etc then they would be able to more aptly treat B12 deficiency!
At this moment in time the B12 serum test is also flawed. B12 flows around your body with approximately 80% of it inactive and the remaining 20% being utilised by the body. If you look at the lower limit result say the range was from 200, this would mean the only 20% of this was actively used in the body. A patient could be told that they are not deficient, where in actual fact they would be and nerve damage would start!
Stop treating patients who ask for sooner B12 injections like drug addicts and start listening to them. Patients research themselves and are far more knowledgeable than GPs themselves. Doctors and specialist haematologists need to rethink their views in this subject and start reading and researching. In reading I do not mean flawed articals written by the medical profession to pat each other on their backs to why patients shouldn't have anything more than 3 monthly injections. I also mean thinking outside the ranges and focusing on the symptoms of their patients. I therefore ask you to think logically about ignoring B12 results once patients are on injections as the levels will be artificially high. Also remember that B12 isn't toxic, you can't overdose on it and it is very safe. I would very much like GPs and the whole of the medical profession to actually read the BNF guidelines regarding treatment of patients with B12 deficiency. You'll find what you are looking for in section 9.1.2!
Stop making patients feel like druggies (although I think they get treated better by doctors than B12 deficient patients do), give the injection more often or better still teach the patient to self inject (saving money by not using up practice nurses' time) so they do it safely.
Competing interests: No competing interests