Tales From Another Planet

I thought it was just a stressful job. I had no free time, my boss was verbally abusive, but I thought once I quit it would all go away. After I quit, I thought maybe I was depressed: I was unemployed, my brother had recently suffered a serious injury. But, when my life started getting better, my mental state continued getting worse. After almost a year of living through severe apathy, lack of focus, and even some short term memory loss, I finally decided it was worth mentioning to my doctor. After running some blood tests, she diagnosed me with a severe B-12 deficiency. I couldn't believe that after all of those months of wondering what was wrong with me, and why I could never complete a task, all I needed was an injection and some B-12 supplements. I now take sublingual B-12 tablets everyday, since I have a severe aversion to shots. I feel so much better. I am finally able to keep up with an exercise program for more than two days, I can remember events from the past week, ...

Apparently, no one knows very much about B-12. Pretty much, if they find out you're low on B-12, they will inject you with the stuff once a month for the rest of your life. Not a very pleasant future to look forward to. Since I can't handle injections very well (I do okay with blood being taken out, but I pass out just about every time I get injected) I decided to do a little more research. I found one tiny little study (36 people) which seemed to indicate that sublingual and oral pills of 500+ micrograms taken daily were as efficient as an injection when taken regularly. A few of their patients may have had missing intrinsic factor. What causes B-12 deficiency? There are a lot of theories, but most people with severe deficiencies probably have multiple causes or a lack of intrinsic factor. Intrinsic factor is just this weird thing in our stomachs that helps us absorb the B-12 while the food is in our small intestine. Pretty weird. It also might help us to be able to reab...

I was shocked when I went to my doctor yesterday. A normal level of B-12 is between 350-1000 (although Japan recently raised their levels to 500 for the low range). Mine was 247. When I read the list of symptoms, I was amazed at how many I was experiencing. B-12 deficiency didn't even register on my radar. Suddenly I learned how important this particular B vitamin is. I learned it the hard way. Just to list some of the possible symptoms: memory loss, numbness in the hands and feet, eye twitches, migraine headaches, depression, fatigue. I thought I had a case of mild depression that I just couldn't seem to recover from. I was always tired and had started forgetting things (which unfortunately is also listed as a depression symptom). I have always had migraine headaches, and I didn't think anything of the minor eye twitches I would get from time to time. I had no idea that B-12 deficiency is common in up to 30% of the population and can lead to severe brain and nerve ...