making sure you get enough nutrients on a vegan diet (vitb12)

[DaffoDeffo]

hello fellow vegans!

I have always had a problem with vitb12 even on a meat diet. I just don't seem to absorb enough of it from my food whether I'm a meat eater or not. I've had gastro checks and they believe I suffer from malabsorption but I'm not in the criteria to get vitb12 injections.

I've been taking a supplement but it's still only getting me marginally off the absolute baseline number for vitb12 and I wonder if anyone had any other tips. I don't think I'm ever going to get enough from my diet, whatever I do.

Which type of B12 are you taking and how much? I take 1000microgram daily alternating Methylcobalamin and Cyanocobalamin.

I started taking a spray - this is the only thing that's actually managed to get my B12 level off practically zero.

Just checked and it's methylcobalamin (B12)

do you think I should try something else too?

I am wondering whether I should just try and get the B12 injections.

What's your B12 level at? Given the seriousness of the symptoms of this deficiency, it's bonkers that any malabsorption isn't enough to get jabs.
I have B12 deficiency caused by pernicious anaemia and have given up on getting sufficient treatment on the NHS, so I buy it myself and inject myself

that's what I'm thinking of doing petulia. I don't have my blood test results with me but the first time it was checked was by the gastroenterologist as they suspected I had some inflammatory bowel condition. They ruled out the obvious ones but did say I had malabsorption and they suspect I have a mild inflammatory condition of the bowel but not one that needed treatment (as it wasn't getting worse). My Vitb12 level at the time was way under the recommended lower limit. I started this spray and it managed to come up to be right at the bottom of the range. I can't remember what the numbers are but if the range was say 3-12, I managed to get to 3. It's never been higher than that and without this spray it falls well below it. I was a full meat eater at this stage (and ate healthily) so it definitely wasn't from an issue with my diet.

I wonder if I should just buy the stuff and jab myself or even go to a private doctor and see what they say as I am feeling more and more tired again which is often a sign when I'm low on this stuff.

problem with malabsorption is there's no point taking an oral supplement as I just don't absorb it that way so it's either the spray or the injection but for some reason, I don't quality for the injection on the NHS

thanks, actually even just writing this down has made it clearer to me. I found I was getting very forgetful and confused before and I'm sure it's because of a deficiency in this!

Yes, it absolutely is a symptom.
I'd go back to your gp and ask again for your B12 to be tested (stop supplementing first) and if it's below range, ask them to follow the nice guidleines and administer B12 loading doses by injection cks.nice.org.uk/anaemia-b12-and-folate-deficiency#!scenario

It's a pain in the bum but you probably need to argue your case a bit. If that doesn't work, you could try a private gp. Once you've had a few injections and found whether it improves things for you, that'd be when I'd think about moving to inject yourself if necessary.

a lot of nutritional advice I follow comes from this website nutritionfacts.org/topics/vitamin-b12/ . Dr. Greger is not a big fan of methylcobalamin .He says "
For adults under age 65, the easiest way to get B12 is to take at least one 2,500 mcg supplement each week or a daily dose of 250 mcg. Note that these doses are specific to cyanocobalamin, the preferred supplemental form of vitamin B12, as there is insufficient evidence to support the efficacy of the other forms, like methylcobalamin. "

I alternate and my levels of b12 are quite high, so for me methylcobalamin works.
How is your iron?

iron was always bad but is better now (low but not critically low) - I definitely have malabsorption, I need to find the letter from the gastro. I read on the Nice guidelines that with malabsorption, I should be getting the vitb12 injections so not sure why I wasn't referred for them. I checked my levels and I think it says in those guidelines, that below 148 you can get them. At the time mine was first checked it was 151 but that was with supplements so it was very low. The problem is if I stop taking the supplements, I start getting symptoms so it's a bit of a double edged sword. I guess I could stop for a month and get retested but I'm a bit worried about my brain!

I think I'm going to go to a private GP and ask for the injection and see what happens

in the meantime, I've bought more of the spray (I had run out) and I already feel better so I was definitely suffering beforehand!