Hi dahlek,

First calcium.... (Well, I wrote that and then sat here for several minutes... not knowing exactly what to put next).

Calcium is so tricky because we hear so much about how much we need it.

The thing is that years ago I subscribed to a Women's Health Newsletter that was really interesting because some of the authors were very keen on magnesium.

They wrote about magnesium a lot, saying that in other countries where people take far less calcium the rates of osteoporosis are actually lower than here in the US where people supplement quite commonly with calcium.

The authors said that our rates of headache and bone spurs were also higher, and that they were related to the high calcium intake without sufficient magnesium to balance it and make it go where it's needed.

So I started taking a magnesium tablet every time I had anything with calcium in it, and when I had a bone density test my bones were lovely and dense. (quite to the surprise of the people administering the test, who I think had anticipated selling me some drug to help with the bone density problem... only I didn't have it.)

Okay... B12. I don't know how much you are taking. But I bet that even stopping three days or a week before hand will not completely clear your blood of the B12 that is circulating due to supplementation.

I once read this really neat article about the only way to really tell how your B12 levels are, is to have a spinal tap.

Apparently the amount in our blood tends to be about 600 or so times more than in our spinal columns.... spinal cord... I forget the exact word.


Here's what I think about B12 tests... in the US the scale for B12 is pretty low. In the U.S. some labs show 180 as low "normal" -- but to me that's way to low to be normal.

In some other countries the low is 550, because at that level changes (for the worse) in mentation can be identified.

So to me, none of the tests we do here are particularly helpful because we don't have a well thought out national approach to B12 as tested in our labs...

Here's my favorite article:
http://www.health-boundaries-bite.co...B12-Level.html

While I wait for my computer to bring up the URL, I want to add that it's good to also remember that B12 tests are done on the basis of healthy people... so when we aren't healthy and need more B12, we need a LOT more in order for it to go into our muscles and into rebuilding our nerve sheaths.

It's such a good idea to keep some sort of Time Line that lists your daily (or when there's a change) symptoms, test results, supplementation. That way you have a record of how you are affected and you can use it to decide what is working and what is best.

(((((((((dahlek))))))))))