Getting methylcobalamin in Australia
 

Hi Everyone

I tried unsuccessfully to buy methyl B12 from Iherb in January 2006. I suspect the Australian customs confiscated my order. I understand from Brian in another thread that Australians are now getting orders of methyl B12 from Iherb through Australian customs. Is that correct, or does it depend on what products one orders? Does one need to arrange an import permit?

Methyl B12 is available in Sydney from a store called Mr vitamins (http://www.mrvitamins.com.au). Manufacturer is Thorne (USA) and the cost is high. Only 1000 microgram caps are available at just under AU$1.00 per cap. I have no idea of the quality of this product. These caps are classed as 'Practitioner only' and are hidden behind a counter. Methylcobalamin is supposed to be very sensitive to light so if the manufacturing process quality is not high the capsules may be ineffective.

Does anyone know of any other way of getting methyl B12 in Australia (legally)?

Thanks.

Martin

Martin, a while back other aussies posted [ might have been at the Braintalk forum] that they were getting b12 methly through iherb, apparently iherb refused to post to Australia at one time after having trouble at customs holding the orders up and in some cases even charging more as import tax to the customer, but they were contacted by customs but this doesn't seem to be the case with your order, what did iherb have to say about your order or even customs ? it seems strange if knowbody contacted you, it may have got knocked off, mate :confused:

I was getting it through a place called " Life Extension " via another country at one time, but the price was about 70 bucks a bottle back then, i only got a couple of bottles of it and stopped, i haven't even got the contact details for them now, but your shop sounds cheaper anyway.
" Natures own " has got the strongest Cynocobalamin supplements at 1 mg a tab, Blackmores are very weak, There is nothing wrong with b12 Cynocobalamin, it still does the job, it doesn't have to be just Methyl' , its only preferred if its available to you, because its already in the active form, except for a couple bottles of methyl i have only used b12 Cyno and it has done the same job for me.

Also you can buy b12 injections of Hydroxocobalamin either from a doctors script or without a script at any chemist, about 12 bucks for 2 shots, it goes straight into the blood stream, its good quality b12, so we are not left out by any means.

Brian :)

Thorne should be very good quality, but how disgusting is that price!

rose

Hi Martin,

Vitacost says they ship to Australia... have you tried them?

:)

I like both their Jarrow forumla and their Source Naturals. :)

Hi Martin
 

Mr. Vitamins (in Chatswood) is the only place that I have ever seen them. But I think you can possibly as a chemist to order for you. Have you looked into Mushasi vitamins?

When i was trying to get b12 Methl in the first place, i looked every were, believe me, i don't know what's going with customs theses days but back about 4 years ago i did read that if the Methyl was addressed to a medical person or place it was allowed through, no problems, but later on some of our members in OZ were saying they were getting it in by iHerb company no problems, so i don't know what is happening these days, but it can work out to be a lot of money if customs decides to charge import taxes on it too as well, which i have heard has happened, well its just not feasible unless your very rich.

Its defiantly not worth it when we have Cynocobalamin supplements easily available, and we can get Hydroxocobalamin in injection form from any chemist with or without a doctors script.

I hope Rose will correct me if i am wrong :) but i think if you use SamE as the methyl donor with cyno b12, it will convert it to methylcobalamin anyway, but most people should be able to convert it in their own system anyway, SamE is pretty expensive as well and i think it can't be used if your on anti depressants.
I had a b12 blood test using 2 or 3 mg daily of Cynnocobalmin supplements for 12 weeks prior to the test, the test showed 750 approx, so i must have been running on empty for a long time before i started taken the cynno.supplements.

This is from Australian Customs - http://www.customs.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=5549
I checked iHerb's website and they say about 5 % of their Australian customers have trouble with customs.

all the best
Brian :)

Many thanks to you all for your replies. Apologies for posting a similar question in Monica's thread - I thought that post attempt failed.

I don't think our customs have anything against Iherb, they just think we are too dumb to look after ourselves, so they have to look after us by preventing us from importing nasty vitamins from overseas.

I am taking 2000 micrograms of B12 per day - 1000 of methyl and 1000 of cyano (Nature's Own) - to hedge my bets and keep the costs down.

I am now also trying 1000 microgram cynao B12 sublingual lozenges made by Herbs of Gold (available from Mr Vitamins).

Regards

Martin

Hi Brian,

I was very interested to read that you can get the hydroxy form from your chemist.

I had tried to get it here in Santa Fe a few years ago, and met with no success.

Are you using the hydroxy form?

If so, how much do you use, and what have you noticed in terms of your symptoms after you have a shot?

******

That's also interesting about the SAMe. I purchased a lot of it, then had a quite bad reaction... so I never used it. Fred on the old BT forum had liked it and appreciated its results...

Fred thought that since I was using the cyano I should use the SAMe. Recently he wrote me that I could have had the severe reaction because of how much cyano I've had and continue to have...

Don't know...

When there's a little less stress, I can try it again... maybe I need to get rid of toxins that the Milk Thistle is missing... then again, I think I took the SAMe before I started on the Milk Thistle.

Just was directed to your topic here and it was of interest to me.

South East Queenslander here.

I take a 1mg cyanocobalamine sublingual which I purchase from a health food store. I'm very happy with that, but I was just chatting with the naturapath there yesterday and asked her about the availability of the methyl just because I was curious. She looked at me as if I had rocks in my head. lol. Suggested I look into Sports supplements. :confused: OK, so I did and there's apparently a shop in Everton Park, Brisbane that sells it.

Hi Lara,

That's interesting about it being a "sports supplement" --

I forget what I was trying to find out, but I posted on an athletic forum of some kind at one point, and I noticed they were all talking about Methycobalamin as if it was very familiar to them as a sports supplement.

But that forum was in the U.S.

I think they said it enhanced performance...