That's a good level of Vit C. for a juice.

John's iron is from numerous blood transfusion over a two year period. He was on Desferral first, then did phlebotomies for while but it was too taxing on his bone marrow and now he's on Exjade. Exjade is the first, effective oral iron chelator. Very expensive. It really upsets his tummy though and he needs to take a break every once in a while. If he can get his hemaglobin up to 12 then he'll probably add in phlebotomies every 8 weeks along with the Exjade. His Ferritin is around 1480 and he really wants to get it down because we think it's effecting his endocrine system now.

But the good news is that his PN is the best it's been in five years...it continues to heal at snails pace.

Marlene

he is getting some healing. It took a long time to get where he was, so it takes time to heal. But as long as you see improvements, that gives encouragement.
This lowers stress some, and the stress I think is a big player. At least for me it is. Stress was eating me alive!

I don't know if PN can cause elevated C-Reactive Protein or not, but mine is up almost continually, sometimes more than others. It scares me, but if it is the result of inflammation, Prednisone doesn't get it all of the way down where it should be. I don't know why, but Doxycycline seems to help reduce it...

Cathie

--would be expected in people with certain types of neuropathies--especially ones that are autoimmune related--but they wouldn't always show up.

My reading seems to imply an elevated C-reactive protein would be more likely to be characteristic of an inflammatory process that primarily attacked myelin, such as in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy or Guillain Barre, but it could also show up in those autoimmune vascular/connective tissue conditions, such as lupus, Wegener's, Sjogren's, Rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, etc., in which neuropathy might be secondary.

I don't think it actually causes neuorpathy--it's more likely both an elevated level and the neuropathy are secondary effects of a more primary process.

Looks like we will have to attack this on multiple levels.

John's PN is from his treatment back in 2002. Lots of drugs complicated with malnutrition. So at this point, I don't think he has an autoimmune PN issue.

We found out his testosterone is very low also so we hope that by improving that, it will help his cardio profile and possibly increase his red blood cell production.

There also seems to be a possible hypercoagulation issue with his blood. One doc says there is, another says there isn't. I think we need to get the test rerun. Anyway, cancer, infections, chronic illness can cause this apparently. (bad blood draw can increase test results also) According to our doc, when the fibrinogen builds up it prevents good circulation at the cellular level. So nutrients don't get to the cells and trash doesn't get moved out. So John has added in a systemic enzyme to breakdown and clear the fibrin out. This one has me a little nervous though because I'm a worrier at heart and his platelets are still low. But everything I've read about this says it does not impact platelet production or increase bleeding times. I found a transcript of a presentation on the use of systemic enzymes if anyone is interested.

We are taking all of this very slowly, much to the chagrin of the doc. He wants to do multiple things at once and we are pushing back big time. Our experience is that it's best to introduce one thing at time and let it settle in. I'm also a firm believer that if you fix one thing, it can then lead to healing in other areas.

Cathie.....this doc looking for a potential infectious agent that may be lingering and has talked about using Doxycyclin. He says an infection will elevate the CRP. I'm not sure John will go for this though. He'll try herbal remedies first since he's had so many problems with long term use of antibiotic. The last thing he wants is to take a hit on his bone marrow from drugs.

Thank you for all the replies....It really shows how complicated this stuff is and gives me lots to ponder.

Marlene

I am searching on PubMed today for B6 data for a my thread on the Vitamin forum and ran across this C-reactive Protein paper:

P5P can be purchased easily... NOW brand makes a good one.

I will have to look at John's supplements to see what kind and how much of the bio available Bs are in them. He's taking Thorne multi and I know they use bio available Bs in many of their mixes.

Part of John's problem is getting them all down at the recommended dosage. His Exjade puts his stomach on edge.

One question on the folate. Is the folate in uncooked food the bioavailable form? Or does folate from vegetables still need to be converted?

It's so interesting to see how the B vitamins are vital to many aspects of your health.

Thanks....M