Struggling with lightheadedness low b12.
Posted , 4 users are following.
Greetings all,
I am a 25 year old male living in the netherlands and i suffer from a couple things that make my day to day life not enjoyable.
I have been struggling with b12 for some time now.
The first time i experienced low b12 was over a year ago. I felt weak and was constant lightheaded/dizzy. I went to the doctor and got myself a blood test. Both my vitamine D and B12 were low.
I was getting vitamine D D-cura capsules 25.000 ie once per week,
and b12 injections called hydroxocobalamine.
I started getting b12 injections once per week. I remember how good i felt and how happy i was. The first injection already made me feel so much better. I was relieved and i continued getting injections every week for 5 weeks. After my 5th and final injections i had another blood test and everything came back fine. I went home and the doctor believed i was cured.
5 months later; All of mine low b12 symptoms started comming back. I started worrying and asked for another blood test and with no suprise my b12 was again way to low.
By this time i switched doctors ( for insurrance reasons) This time i got 2 injections per week as my treatment, basicly double as much as my previous treatment. Sadly this time my treatment had no effect. I continued feeling awfull. Fast forward 5 weeks and i have had my 10th and final injection for now. The doctor adviced me to wait 2 weeks and then have another blood test so i did. This time i tested multiple things including folic acid and iron. My test came back today and everything came back fine. My folic acid was fine my iron was fine and my b12 was over 1200.
That is why i came to this forum to seek for advice because i have no idea what to do anymore. I cant keep on feeling like this.
My symptems are;
Feeling weak tired all day long
lightheaded/ dizzy especially when moving head to fast.
Tinkeling hands/feet that randomly occur during the day.
Feeling bloated alot especially at night in bed.
I also suffer from anxiety but that is something i had for atleast 10 years now.
I hope that someone can help me with some advice.
Thanks for taking your time to read about my struggeles.
Greetings Rico
1 like, 3 replies
isabel1 rico48906
Posted
may I suggest you join the Health Unlocked forum and also the Pernicious Anaemia Society (PAS).
you will get lots of help and advice if you post on either of them and people do tend to respond fairly quickly.
i hope you can get something sorted out as having low b12 can be very debilitating.
Good luck.
marion29181 rico48906
Posted
Hello Rico, I am sorry to hear what you are experiencing with the treatment of low B12 in the Netherlands. First of all, are you vegetarian or vegan, as diet can be a cause of low B12 if you aren't eating enough meat and fish. Secondly, in the U.K., our standard treatment for low B12 is a course of six injections over a two week period. Then the doctor waits for six weeks before doing another blood test, this is to see how well the body is retaining the B12. Testing any earlier will, of course, give a high reading, because your body has been flooded with injected B12. The continuing treatment varies according to your symptoms, mostly people go onto a three monthly injection. If you have neurological symptoms then the injections should continue to be given very frequently, until there is no further improvement. Then you would still continue with them every eight weeks.
There are also some people who have problems using the B12 that is being injected.
Your doctor needs to do more blood testing to find out why you were low to begin with.
Normally this would be a test for intrinsic factor, they can also check for MMA and homocysteine levels.
There is more information available from the Pernicious Anaemia Society website, they can offer advice on all causes of low B12. You may need to pay the membership fee to access their help. There are also several books by the founder of the society Martin Hooper.
very best wishes
Marion
clivealive rico48906
Posted
Was your Vitamin D level tested again Rico?
It seems strange to me that with your B12 folate and iron levels OK you are still having neurological symptoms.
You could always ask for an MMA test. Methylmalonic acid is a chemical used up in one of the cellular reactions mediated by B12. If there's not enough B12 in the cell then MMA levels will rise. If they're not high then it means your cellular levels of B12 are OK.
Also, do you know if there is any Pernicious Anaemia in your direct blood family as this can be inherited?
I wish you well