Bobby78, Thank you for the encouragement! I'm strong, I was doing well!

paresthesias were decreasing week by week, until just last Sunday, when bang, I was hit hard with paresthesias that were similar to those leading me to post here the first ever time.

So, indeed! Time for an update:

Titled: "5 months forward! Now do it all again."

I was back to working out with some intensity - I worked out three days in a row last week, then bam - on came the symptoms. (Paresthesias in hands and feet - not relieved by elevation of feet or sleep as in previous months).

Other symptoms:

Insomnia (can not presently stay asleep longer than 4 to 5 hours - came on with paresthesias).

Some forgetfulness - I know where my keys are. But some words or place names elude me (they eventually come after minutes sometimes). This may be because of sleep deprivation. Butttt this and other symptoms I shall list do tie into something else.

Muscle wastage (recurred after many weeks, affecting left forearm. Legs are still down).

Anxiety episodes (I have fought with this a lot in the past; and as I moved on from teens and early twenties, those went away. Then after years - some anxiety episodes have occurred recently, which struck me as odd).

Lack of concentration (paying more attention to people walking behind me than to reading this for editing purpose, and having to re-read and re-read that which has been already re-read many times)

See? Now I just forgot the next thing I was going to list... Oh, right --

Tachycardia - (120+ bpm) on ridiculously simple tasks such as waking and stretching in bed. Skipped beats (not new for me, had that all my life. Used to play with this phenomenon - as a younger guy would hold breath, feel HR increase slightly. Then exhale and breath normally while taking pulse. And would feel pulse intensify, then skip a beat then resume normal course. Well - that don't happen lately! HR skips beats even during breath holding phase, and just does not fit the old and familiar pattern when having an episode of tachy, which usually lasts about 17 minutes; then bradycardia follows. Poor little heart! What the hell did I do to you, when you were only ever good to me and tried to keep me alive?!)

Lack of energy - feel heavy, lead-heavy these last 4 days; impacts on ability the last two days to work out according to my program.

Some breathlessness on exertion (when cycling, for example, to get B12 pills downtown).

Eyesight - muscles used for focus do not want to co-operate as they used to sometimes. Blurry vision.

Subtle loss of muscle mass from face, neck, and everywhere between neck to toenails.

Weight down by 10 pounds over the last three months.

And the good news, Dubinin? Gosh, give us the good news!

Can do 450 push ups with elevated feet in under an hour (up from 5 (not a typo- 5!) as of... 2 or 3 months ago? (Record was/is 660 in an hour)). I had reported here some time back massive loss of strength in right pec, right tri, and right everything else. Could not even do 10 normal pushups at that stage.

Can do 100 squats with 22 pounds in 6 minutes (3 x 1 minutes sessions with 2 x 1.5 minutes rests). Buttt legs feel like hell after, as does the rest of me. This feeling is contiguous with the big backflip I have gone through recently.

Now then- the solution, old chum? What is the solution to the current crisis?

B12. That is the solution and it is the one thing I managed to overlook. Well, not overlook. I overlook nothing. But I trusted a nutritionist, who never had a drink in his life, and didn't know the protocol for treating B12 deficiency.

The B complex I was/restarted taking has TEN times too much B6 (that's the one that will mess you up good, AND it can produce symptoms similar to those we're trying to deal with. So do be careful!) The same complex also had TEN times too little B12, in terms of dosage required to treat B12 deficiency. And yes, alcoholism (or whatever we choose to call it, without using such a 'shameful' and emotionally-charged 'sticker') will deplete B12.

I confess idiocy.

I thought I was on target with B12 - considering the 250mcg suggested by a high profile nutritionist that was supposed to be for "detox and recovery."

This strictly limited level of B12 is strict BS. If you're deficient in B12, this really will not begin to right the listing and paresthetic ship.

I have researched for many hours now over the last 4 days and, in sum, the published sources point to the following regimen for treating B12 deficiency.


FIRST TWO WEEKS:

SINGLE daily DOSE of 1000-2000mcg B12 (This high dose is required because of the variable absorption of oral vitamin B12 in doses of 500 mcg or less - hence the mess I was in with trusting for months in only 250mcg...)

NEXT TWO WEEKS:

1000mcg B12, once daily.

Re-check B12 levels:

"In ... vitamin B12 deficiency, we recommend repeat measurements of serum vitamin B12, homocysteine, and methylmalonic acid levels two to three months after initiating treatment." (Dr. Robert Oh: Vitamin B12 Deficiency. Published in: American Family Physician. 2003 Mar 1;67(5):979-986).

NOTE that serum B12 levels are NOT a fine measure of your actual B12 state. MORE accurately, we must check homocysteine, and methylmalonic acid levels (as is explained in Dr. Robert Oh's publication - link given below).

The ins, outs and in-betweens of B12 deficiency - signs, treatment and why testing only serum level B12 (without any reference to levels of homocysteine, and methylmalonic acid can be dubious) is all here:

http://www.aafp.org/afp/2003/0301/p979.html


I commenced this B12 therapy today. I expect no results for probably two weeks, but will keep notes, my own order of meticulous notes.

Make sure to treat B12 deficiency early. I have effectively let this go for months with very very scant oral B12, thinking I was doing okay. No wonder 180 B1 pills seemed to do nothing. I really do see that B12 deficiency ties in every symptom I have mentioned to date. Everything: paresthesia, the mimicry of PN (peripheral neuropathy), insomnia, cardiac symptoms, breathing symptoms, anxiety, muscle wastage, generalized lack of energy - the whole terrible lot.

I will let you know how I go...!

Peace and blessings to everyone!