PEOPLE WHO ARE VIOLENT TO ANIMALS RARELY STOP THERE!
Friday, May 14, 2010
Pernicious Anemia
Well I really should make a point to make an appointment for a total check -up with my doctor again, but like always I keep postponing it because I really don't like doctors. At my last checkup it was discovered that I suffer from Pernicious Anemia, also called Vitamin B12 deficiency. Your body has a certain reservoir of vitamin B 12 stored in your body and it usually is sufficient until your sixties, well my reservoir was pretty empty by age 42, I had next to no levels of Vitamin B12 in my body and was therefore to take a daily Vitamin B12 pill of at least 1000 mcg, plus whatever vitamin B 12 I take in with my daily food. Like always when you start to feel better one tends to start slacking off big time with sticking to the regiment of the daily pill popping, as I have been very guilty off, and I am starting to pay the price again. So needless to say I have started taking my B12 again faithfully every day for the last few weeks, but improvement is slow and next to undetectable and it really is driving me crazy, I have days where I can hardly keep my eyes open and my energy is so low that don't even want to move, plus the memory loss and the lack of concentration and the lightheadedness it's all starting to take a toll on me and I really don't want to do much, mainly because I can't remember what I wanted or needed to do, and because I don't have the energy. Thank god I have some driving forces behind me...like the donkeys to keep me motivated at least to do that, otherwise I surely could become a couch bound, Tv watching hermit. So here is to another shot of B12. WOO HOO!
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7 comments:
Oh, I know the feeling! When I was pregnant with the kids, I had to have the shots all the time. Now if I don't get enough potassium, I don't even want to get out of bed - same feeling.
Well make sure you continue to take your B12 even when you are feeling great. Me thinks I should be taking B12 too. The symptons you described are how I have been feeling for awhile. Hmmmm. Like you, I have little use for the docs around here. People docs that is. It's all a guessing game. I haven't been to a doctor in well,let me think...... about 15 years.
I hear you Cindy, before the last check up it was at least 13 years before that when I went last....
I know Sharon, seems like if it's not one thing it's another that's missing.
i thought i would check in with you from sharon's blog and you can't imagine how thrilled i am to find DONKEYS. hope you feel better and stick with the vitamins. i just broke my shoulder, hence the one-armed typing. your blog has cheered me up a whole lot. inger
If you have pernicious anemia, all the vitamin pills in the world won't help you. When you have pernicious anemia your digestive system is unable to absorb vitamin B12. What you need are injections, into the muscle tissue. You will need those for the rest of your life. I was diagnosed 35 years ago and have been giving myself the injections.
B12 can be supplemented in healthy subjects by oral pill; sublingual pill, liquid, or strip; intranasal spray; or by injection. B12 is available singly or in combination with other supplements. B12 supplements are available in forms including cyanocobalamin, hydroxocobalamin, methylcobalamin, and adenosylcobalamin (sometimes called "cobamamide" or "dibencozide"). Oral treatments involve giving 250 µg to 1 mg of B12 daily.[32]
Vitamin B12 can be given as intramuscular or subcutaneous injections of hydroxycobalamin, methylcobalamin, or cyanocobalamin. Body stores (in the liver) are partly repleted with half a dozen injections in the first couple of weeks (full repletion of liver stores requires about 20 injections) and then maintenance with monthly injections throughout the life of the patient. Vitamin B12 can also be easily self-administered by injection by the patient, using the same fine-gauge needles and syringes used for self-administration of insulin.
B12 has traditionally been given parenterally (by injection) to ensure absorption. However, oral replacement is now an accepted route, as it has become increasingly appreciated that sufficient quantities of B12 are absorbed when large doses are given. This absorption does not rely on the presence of intrinsic factor or an intact ileum. Generally 1 to 2 mg daily is required as a large dose [3]. By contrast, the typical Western diet contains 5–7 µg of B12 (Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Daily Value [33]). It has been appreciated since the 1960s that B12 deficiency in adults resulting from malabsorption (including loss of intrinsic factor) can be treated with oral B12 supplements when given in sufficient doses. When given in oral doses ranging from 0.1–2 mg daily, B12 can be absorbed in a pathway that does not require an intact ileum or intrinsic factor. In two studies, oral treatment with 2 mg per day was as effective as monthly 1 mg injections.[34][35]
Hypokalemia, an excessive low potassium level in the blood, is anecdotally reported as a complication of vitamin B12 repletion after deficiency. Excessive quantities of potassium are used by newly growing and dividing hematopoeitic cells, depleting circulating stores of the mineral.
Recently, claims have been made that other routes of B12 administration, such as intranasal and sublingual routes of administration, are superior to the simple swallowed pill. Although the intranasal route is are effective at increasing B12 levels, there have been no direct comparisons to show that they are any more effective than simple swallowed megadose tablets (1 to 2 mg). In particular, the sublingual route, in which B12 is presumably or supposedly absorbed more directly under the tongue, has not proven to be necessary, though there are a number of lozenges, pills, and even a lollipop designed for sublingual absorption. A 2003 study found no significant difference in absorption for serum levels from oral vs. sublingual delivery of 500 µg (micrograms) of cobalamin[36], although the study measured only serum levels as opposed to tissue levels, which is more reflective of B12 levels. Sublingual methods of replacement may be effective only because of the typically high doses (500 micrograms), which are swallowed, not because of placement of the tablet. As noted below, such very high doses of oral B12 may be effective as treatments, even if gastro-intestinal tract absorption is impaired by gastric atrophy (pernicious anemia).
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