Would I BU to just go get a B12 injection to rule it out?

[Thisyearisshit]

Hi

After some advice on B12 injections.

I have been suffering with brain fog for quite a while now, worse during period.
I feel sluggish, slightly drunk, trouble concentrating, etc. 33 so too young for menopause.
Had bloods done last year showed borderline anaemic so have been on high dose iron ever since, still take but only one a day.
B12 came back normal, however I know this is a grey area as levels can look normal but still cause issues.
Would I be unreasonable or silly to go get a b12 injection to see if it helps at all? Then at least if no improvement I can tick that off the list.
Awaiting yet another set of bloods to see what’s going on.

Privately you mean? It would be worth a go. Low ferritin, low folate and low vitamin D can also cause brain fog & hypothyroidism can cause confusion & memory problems too.

There is a study that found taking a double dose of iron every other day boosted levels better than a single dose daily.

You would need a loading dose of B12 to see any difference really. Every other day for 6 doses then 3 monthly injections to keep you topped up.

I know people get it imported from Germany and self inject as their surgery won’t give them.
It stings!

Interesting, thank you!! Didn’t know that about the iron will give that a go, at the minute I will try anything.

For a start, 1 injection is unlikely to make much of a difference. It could take up to 3 months of injecting every other day for10 days before you do, and it is very common to feel worse before you get better.

Secondly, once you start injecting, you forfeit the ability to do a number of tests that could confirm a deficiency. As you've said, the standard test done by GP is useless. Even the NHS website says so! What you would need is an active test but for this to come back with any meaningful results, you would need to be off Vit B12 for 4 months. The thing is, if you do get to the point of being symptoms free, the last thing you'll want is to stop it.

You can't hurt yourself taking Vit B12 as the body desolves what it doesn't need. It's safe but you need to decide whether you are prepared to start a 10 day every other day injecting as a minimum to see if it makes a difference, or try to convince your GP to do an active B12 test. You can also do these privately.

You also need to know what your level of folate is, if it’s too low even if you take B12 it will not be absorbed

B12 requires adequate levels of folate and vitamin C to be absorbed, it’s quite possible to have a problem with methylation the process where B vitamins are broken down to their bio available forms

Many people have faulty copies of the MTHFR gene which makes methylation much harder even with ‘adequate’ levels of circulating B12

If you do have deficiencies of B12, iron, ferritin vit D and folate I would also be wanting to know why, in my case it was undetected coeliac disease and MTHFR

Be prepared to have to take control yourself, the NHS approved levels are out of step with the rest of the world where levels below 500 are recognised as causing permanent nerve damage

Thank you, very informative, I completely forgot my folic acid levels were low last time aswell so I was put on higher dose folic acid but that was taken off me after 3 months as levels went ok again. I wonder if I can buy some from Holland and Barrett. Thank you