Rose and Consider This,

In response to which works best, cyano or methyl cobolamin - I spoke to our family doctor who has been treating my wife about this. He says to remember the B12 medication is artificial - so it has to go through a greater number of changes before it can be utilised by the cells than naturally absorbed B12 does. Cyano is the most basic form that needs to go through most changes before it's used in the body, then hydroxo, then methyl. He thought methylcobolamin as a lozenge or liquid suspension should be best to take orally as most B12 could be absorbed through the blood vessels under the tongue.

Consider This, if you are getting Cyano injections - perhaps you could ask for hydroxo which my wife gets, perhaps they'd be better utilised in your body than cyano - the trade name of my wifes' injections are Neocytemen (not sure of spelling) it's maybe worth asking your doctor about this??

Rose, in response to many different people needing different courses of treatment. This is so true, I have been involved in a small way with a B12 patient support commity that was set up after our family doctor recieved action against him from our Primary Care Trust ( that's the management side of the National Health Service in Britain ) and heard stories from perhaps twenty people about how B12 affects them. There were two people in the group who suffered as badly as my wife had from a young age, there was a woman who had severe depression who was contemplating suicide before she saw our doctor ( after starting treatment she realised her daughter was self harming due to depression ), some had severe arthiritis (or thought so), one young lady had been told by the Neurologist that there was nothing wrong with her and her partial paralysis and need for crutches was phycological!! ( the same department missed the parietal cells in my wifes' blood seven years ago and told her she had MS without testing B12 levels) - there are many more stories and they all had a similar treatment plan. Started on hydorocobolamin injections for (1000mcg in 1ml) every day for at least one week, then reducing gradually depending on signs ans symptoms. Some were on monthly injections for life with sublingual supplements, some supplements only ( 1000mcg once a week was enough for one lady ). So there's a huge variation in treatments and recovery but there's also a huge variation in severity of symptoms when the treatment started and age at first symptoms.

The good news, our B12 support group told the story to the media last year - a film was made by the BBC and on Britains Channel 5 news - and finally the authorities started to take notice of our doctor. He has recently been in discussion with a professor from the General Medical Council - some patients were interviewed to get our point across and hopefully a treatment plan for the whole country and a change in the way doctors are taught will occur. If this happens surely more of the world will listen too.

From what I have read The States are ahead of Britain in their understanding of B12 deficiency. I fit contact lenses in my job and often have to discuss patients general health. Out of the patients I have come across who get B12 injection ( three so far ) they all got it tested "as an afterthought" after being sent down a long line of doctors who had run routine blood tests - none of which was a stand alone for B12. So I hope that finally we are going to see a change to the way doctors diagnose in general. ( there's always hope! ).