My understanding is that everyone must convert cyanocobalamin to methylcobalamin in order to get any benefit.
It is only the methylcobalamin form that our bodies use.
That is why our bodies make methylcobalamin from the B12 supplements we take, assuming that our bodies can absorb the B12... Because of the difficulty in absorbing it for some people, the sublinguals are a good choice because they bypass the need for gastrointestinal absorption.
What I think my neurologist and general practioner meant, was that the research shows that people who are deficient in B12 and then treated, get better and not worse.
I expect that's relatively true.
But what I find worrying is that the research is done on healthy people to start with, so their B12 stores are much greater than those of people who have been sick for a long time.
The research is great, and that's why I have excerpts from so much of it on my site:
http://www.health-boundaries-bite.co...-Excerpts.html
I think it's important to know what the research has shown.
But, it's also important to know that in every bit of research different people react differently... so the final results are based on the statistical significance of the numbers who had one result or the other.
Because that is true, one person could fall into a different part of a particular study's outcomes than another person.
It is for this reason that I think it is extremely important to keep notes on ones symptoms, the amount of B12 one is taking, and tests.
Though, given that the range for test results in the United States uses a very
low low, there is a point at which the test results cease to provide meaningful information -- by that I mean that when my test results went above 900, then I was considered to have too high of a B12 level. In fact, when my level went above 200, I had a hard time getting additional injections.
http://www.health-boundaries-bite.co...B12-Level.html
When I complained that dropping below a level of 900 caused depression for me, I was pooh-poohed.
If I had not kept notes, I think the combined authorities telling me that more B12 could not help, would have made me susceptible to believing them instead of what I knew about myself.
Given this experience of mine, when Matty described what went on with his wife, I was moved to reply. I think Matty is right, that more B12 would have been good, for much longer.
This is what Rose wrote:
Quote:
Originally Posted by rose
What I have said is that most people can convert cyanocobalamin to the smaller amount of methylcobalamin to store and use, and that lives have been saved for decades since cyanocobalamin was synthesized.
Not everyone can convert well, and people who do not transport well (usually older people) can do better with larger amounts of usable B12 (methylcobalamin).
Also, methylcobalamin is the form that in very large doses has proven therapeutic in some with MS, ALS, etc.
If one has only cyanocobalamin available, adequate doses of it will almost always refill stores, and usually (but not always) allow at least some improvement. So I have continued to make the point that people should not forego B12 treatment because some have led them to believe that cyanocobalamin is useless. It is not.
Hydroxocobalamin is better than cyanocobalamin, and methylcobalamin does things no other form can do.
Taking notes is great, as I have also recommended for years. However, the notes need to be taken for a long time, as when serious repairs are being made, it is a long and frequently weird process. Noting what happens in the first weeks, and expecting that to continue in a linear fashion is frequently misleading.
In fact, some people have thought that B12 was no longer helping, and so stopped it, only to find months to a couple of years later that their bodies had been continuing to repair on the stores they had build up and the damage was again worsening as stores had been allowed to deplete. This is one example of how dangerous going on the short-term obvious results can be.
I also malabsorb severely. But what I do is not important. What is important is that researchers found over 30 years ago that people who malabsorb severely (have true pernicious anemia---absence of intrinsic factor) can rebuild stores on 1000 mcg B12 orally per day.
If you had read the extensive history I have written (most of it lost in the old braintalk board crash), you would know that I have improved massively, but that I was damaged severely (nearly died) so it has not been a quick or easy ride.
Your neurologist and general practition are wrong if they stated that symptoms cannot get worse after beginning B12 treatment when it is needed. When the nervous system repairs, nerves grow back in ways that are not the same as before, and the central nervous system has to learn how to intrerpret the different signals. Even if you scrape your knee, as the scab forms and time progresses there will be different symptoms--- itching is common, for one. The symptoms one experiences during repairs are not necessarily the same as before, although sometimes they are a temporary exacerbation of previous symptoms, and even those can seem like new symptoms if they were too subtle before to notice.
I write all of this for the benefit of others who will read it.
rose
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