[daniella]

My b12 was tested a few times and is 1500 down from 2000. Anyhow I still continued to take the b12 1000mcg and the b complex that I think has 250mcg. Anyhow I have had a lot of dizzy,spacy,so shaky,out of it feelings. I have been tested for everything possible and its not from meds I'm taking it seems. The dizzy comes and goes like it will be here for a few days super strong where I can't leave the house cause I feel I will pass out and then will go away for 5 days. I also get a tight feeling in my neck sometimes when this happens where I can't keep my head up. I asked my docs about the supplements and they all gave different answers if I should take it. So I stopped for the past 2 days to see. Any ideas if too much b12 could be causing this with already high levels in my blood? I feel so caught cause my pain I want to be helped but can't be feeling like I'm going to pass out.

[rose]

No. If the B12 is doing anything, it is helping your body repair.

And stopping for a few days will not show what it is or is not doing. B12 is stored by the body in quantities that in almost all cases do not allow for short-term differences when stopping the vitamin. In almost all cases, the body continues for a long time to use the stores slowly. So stopping to see what difference there is will almost always be unproductive and misleading.

If you are repairing, it takes a long time when the central nervous system has been affected, and if you are repairing it sounds like that is what is involved.

Do remain alert to other things, but I hope you will never stop the B12 for long.

rose

[ConsiderThis]

Daniella,

I sure identify with how you wonder if it could be the B12... I always did that, always always.

And I would stop... but then I'd get worse.

For sure the B12 does not cause bad side affects... And while your level may seem high, it's not, not really.

Because you are dealing with several serious health issues, the more B12 in your blood, the more there is a chance that some of it will get into the tissue where it needs to be.


In terms of being dizzy... on Wednesday I had to file in my appeal to get my condo back... and because it seems unlikely that the courts are going to stop denying my rights, it was extremely stressful.

When I came home my right knee buckled several times and I nearly fell, so I went to bed and have stayed there most of the time since.


I think stress can do a lot of damage... quite quickly.

For instance, it is stressful for you to be worrying about whether you're taking too much B12, and whether that might do some bad things...

so the more you worry, the more the stress attacks you.

It could be that your B12 level went down 500 points because of the amount of stress depleting that amount of B12 from your system.

I say this because some years ago I had a court hearing that was extremely stressful, and because I had B12 tests before and after, I was able to see that I lost nearly 300 points on my B12 level as a result of that stress...

So, if it reduces your stress, you can stop taking the B12... I think that will increase your peripheral neuropathy (it always does mine) and then you will feel more certain that it's a good idea to keep taking the B12.

I have to cycle through this periodically.

It just makes me so angry that doctors prescribe so many life threatening drugs and at the same time fail to talk up the benefits of B12 and how it cannot hurt us.

((((((((((((Daniella)))))))))))))

[johannakat]

I find that too much oral b12 makes me shakey and emotional for a while after i take it (like 24 hours). I had started out taking 3000mcg sublinguals every couple of days, but I had to quit because they made me so weird taking it all at once. I can take the 1000mcg sublingual methyls just fine, and i take them every day. just a thought.

The nurse at my endo's office said oral b12 psychs her up, too, but that a b12 shot does not.

I am not deficient, I take it for nerve pain/repair associated with TOS, I also learned recently that i am hypothyroid.

good luck trying to sort it out. the more conditions you have, the harder it is to figure out what is coming from where. I spent a long time thinking my tiredness and raving emotions were just part of chronic apin assoc with TOS. I am SOOOOO glad i went to my endo and made him start looking for other culprits. I feel 100 times better after only 2 weeks on thyroid meds.



Johanna

[ConsiderThis]

You bring up a good point. Things are not the same for everyone, and to get a handle on what's happening within ourselves... it's best to keep track.

Keeping a few notes of symptoms, medications and vitamins, test results... can be extremely useful to go back to ... it helps give an overview of you -- you alone.

It's almost like doing your own little research study.

[daniella]

I really feel so lost on my blood levels. I got some of my past medical records from when I was anorexic in the hospital a few years ago. Just to see because they are concerned with my liver enzymes being so high and wanted to see my past. Anyhow back then when I was 85 pounds and that was my only issue all my vitamin levels were fine and my b12 was still high back then before I took any supplements. It was the same as now. It actually has gone down. since taking the supplements. I'm now a healthy weight on a healthy diet still. How could being so malnurished everything be fine even when I was lower weight I never was told of any negative blood results other then liver? Now onto the supp. Someone said I may have an allergy not on this forum but another. I know docs know very little about vitamins but being told so many different things is confusing. As for my issues right now I have the pn but wants to be treated like rsd,osteoporosis, they were thinking maybe inflammatory arthritis,low white blood and high liver enymes,ibs-c but I'm only 29. My past though is 12 years of long anorexia but better. I agree about stress but this is different. I used to suffer from severe anxiety attacks so I know stress but this is sucha different feeling. I went to the endo thinking it may be thyroid or diabetes but no. I will say and the head doc I talked to at my past eating disorder clinic is that people with or who have recovered from an eating disorder there blood work is not an indicator of what is actually going on so I'm not sure what is. Thanks. You guys are truly the "experts". I always think of you guys at a doc apt when they tell me things that don't make sense. The last was not to take fish oil pills cause I'm not 40's with heart issues. I had always been told to take them cause of depression,inflammation so on. I swear you go to 10 docs and you will get at least 5 different answers.

[ConsiderThis]

Hi Daniella,

gosh, well done for coming out of the anorexia.

(I always think I have the opposite kind of disease, because I always think I am soooo skinny, even when I was nearly balloon shaped. I was so balloon shaped that the measuring tape would barely go around me... and when I lost an inch I felt like everything was solved.

Now I'm afraid you won't like me...

I've lost over 10 inches around my waist... now that I can more more. I was sick in bed and couldn't move... I need to lose another 10.)

Okay... sorry.

The blood tests are ... they are hard to talk about because in the case of B12 it is so... superficial.

I have got to look for the article I had on how the only way to really see what someone's B12 level is, is a spinal tap.

That's because the amount of B12 in our tissue is much lower, if we are deficient, than it is in our blood.

Equally, because we have a lot of B12 in our tissue to start out, when we are young and healthy, it takes a long long time to deplete it. So we can sort of ignore the symptoms... for a long long time.

But then... sometimes there is permanent nerve damage before replacement is given.

My neurologist said I could recover for years... and that's been true.

But I get so wiped out by stress. This morning all ready I had a leg buckling episode... so of course I don't want to walk when there's such a risk of falling... and I don't want to gain the weight back, either... so it's not happy making.


Well, in need to say, before I stop writing, that your post made me smile. It's such a good thing to learn to pay attention to our own bodies.

((((((((((Daniella))))))))))))
.

[rose]

Daniella,

It sounds like your liver was dumping B12 back into your blood. That would account for lower stores at the same time as higher B12 test results.

Now that you are getting more of what you needed, your liver is probably much happier and able to build and hold stores of B12.

Yes! Sounds like a very good thing!
rose

[ConsiderThis]

It was nice chatting with you, Daniella.

I feel as if I learned something from you --

and I have a sense of admiration for you.

(((((((Daniella))))))

[daniella]

Considerthis thank you for your praise. That really made me feel great. I'm still adjusting to a new way of coping without an eating disorder or that body. I can see rationally I should feel proud but its still a major change. I will never go back to the anorexia as I see you only get one body. It took 12 years though and loosing a lot including friends,jobs,school,health. I can only move forward. Anyway for you I don't know why you would think I don't like you. When I was inpatient there were overeaters,bulimics,anorexics. There all similar in the way its not actually about the food or weight but the reasons behind why you do it or feel the way about yourself as you do. If that makes sense?
Thanks Rose and considerthis for your info again about b12. Oh yes on the stress issue I think learning healthy coping mechanisms for oneself can help. Such as for me I journal,crafts,reach out to a friend. Ok now thanks