Melody

Heyjoe is correct that your serum levels will be affected by taking vitamins. I think, but am not sure, that folate and folic acid also mask a B-12 deficiency...not just additional B-12. I can't remember, but I read up on that a while ago. The lab people don't ask and the docs frequently don't realize that either. I would ask before you have them take the blood, because you might be wasting blood and money...and none of us want to do that.

C

Hooray for you and your friend, Melody!

Others: please realize that the response they have apparently had is not typical. No responding that way does not mean you don't need B12 and it isn't helping.

rose

Yes, the test will measure lots of B12 running around in your blood that will never be stored or used. But it will likely show that B12 is being absorbed, and that is a very good thing. Keep it up, because it takes time to replenish stores of B12 to a healthy level.

Getting folic acid through supplements or fortified foods is one of the reasons a person deficient in B12 may not show signs of anemia. And, unfortunately, a large percentage of medical people think that lack of anemia rules out B12 deficiency .

rose

Hey Cyclops:

I already took the test. I don't pay for it, and all visits to my primary care guy have no co-pays. So they can take all the blood they want.

All I know is one thing. Since I've been taking B-12 methyl, I have A LOT more energy. So that's a good thing.

The thing with my feet (lately) is that it comes and goes. Depends on the weather (if it's going to rain, I have burning, then when the rain falls, it stops). I absolutely don't understand this at all. Does this mean, I should move to England where it rains all the time?????? I would if I could, believe me. But it usually flares up when I sit at the computer or sit anyplace.

If I walk, my feet just slightly buzz. But if I sit for any length of time, they burn.

Very confusing.

Melody

P.S. No, I never went to 2001 Odyssey (isn't that where they filmed Saturday night fever???), Ah, for the old days when we did the Hustle and the Saturday night fever line dancing. I can still remember the steps. We used to go to Strattons and Lakeville Manor. I will never understand why we had to leave the house at 12 midnight to arrive there at One a.m. I would ask my friends. Why can't we leave t 7 p.m. and get there at 8 p.m. and then go home at 1 a.m.??? They would look at me and sigh, like "she's crazy"!!

I mean, who on earth goes out at 12 midnight and gets to a place at 1 a.m. It never made any sense to me but that's what me and the other girls did on friday nights and Saturday nights. Then we would all line up on one side of the room while the guys would just mosey on by and "select" some girl to go up to and buy her a drink. Now I DON'T DRINK AND NEVER HAD!!! So I drank TAB all night long. You should have seen some of the polyester outfits we wore. I could die laughing thinking about it. And Donna Summer and McAuthor Park, oh yeah, I could go back in time. I wish there was a time machine.

of course i dont wear a polyester shirt or leisure suit, it would clash with my flowered shirt or Nehru jacket.

I also have much more pain and stiffness in my feet when I am sitting for more than a very short period of time and then stand up. I hobble around for a while after I stand up even on the best of days.

Joe: Read my P.S. that I put on my post.

Oh, I had a Nehru Jacket once. I went to the Fillmore East and saw Santana.
God, those were the days. I will never forget. I was 22 years old and I went with my girlfriend Loretta to the Fillmore East. My girlfriend jumped up on the chair and she's moving this way and that way. I never saw her do that either. Then she says out loud!!!

THIS IS BETTER THAN SEX!!! I almost choked on my diet soda.

I didn't even know she knew what sex was. I sure didn't at 22. I laughed so hard. I'm a 'LATE BLOOMER" as one would say. But I bloomed.


I also remember being at the Fillmore to see James Taylor, and everybody was drinking Apple Wine and they passed joints around I will never forget this as long as I live. Now I was an old fuddy duddy when I was 22. I didn't do ANYTHING.

So down the rows, they are passing joints and the guy next to me calmly hands me a joint. I just passed it to Loretta, and she didn't do pot either, she simply passed it to the guy next to her. Everybody in the whole place was getting stoned.

AND NOBODY DID ANYTHING ABOUT IT!!! Here we were, a few thousand kids at the Fillmore, and all the police were a the right side of the building just watching us and watching the joints go round and round and no one got arrested. I remember asking my friend "isn't pot illegal???" She just shrugged.

Those were the days!!!
mel

Rose:

You said this: "But it will likely show that B12 is being absorbed, and that is a very good thing."

How will it show that B-12 is being absorbed???

Thanks, Mel

--B12's effecton flagging energy levels has been known about for over a century. In fact, the first line of defense for sagging "pep", as they used to say in the 50's, was a B12 shot, and many mid-20th century doctors gave them for just that reason. (I also suspect that they gave them quite often to women they suspected of being "vaguely depressed". Of course, if you lived like most women in this country did in the 50's--even in higher socioeconomic strata--you'd be depressed, too.)

I think my taking of methylcobalamin (though I never took quite as much as that--my max was 2500mcg/day) has helped me to combat the sluggishness that gabapentin (Neurontin) tends to foster (though it hasn't stopped the carb-craving weight gain gabapentin also can cause--in fact, it may have eaxcerbated it, as most of the b-vitamins are good appetite stimulants!).

Hey, if it's giving you more energy to that extent, you may well have not had optimal levels, even if you would have had no symptoms from it. That serum B12 reference range of 200-1100 is just flat outdated--even the Japanese/European reference range of 500-1300 may be too low. I think an optimum "cell-bathing" range would be at least 4 digits.

My last B12 level was 1864. I had taken my supplement a few hours before, so I may have had an exaggerated reading. My neuro, though, knows all about what I do, so he just smiled.

I think I am seeing a common thread here. Maybe all of this dancing and hanging around in discos we all did way back when causes PN, when your feet finally say, "that's enough"... And how about those 3 inch heels we used to stumble around in? Think those could have part in PN? I know you guys probably didn't have any of those, but I bet I am not the only one on here who wobbled around in those spikes....

I fell off of my shoes in the front yard some time back, in shoes with a normal size wedge-heel no less... Fractured ribs... Ouch!!!

And from tennis shoes? Plantar Fasciatis...

Now that I think about it, maybe I should go back to the spikes... At least I knew why my feet were hurting then...

Cathie