Vit B12 shots. My doctor says NO.

I got my blood work test result back.

First time ever I have not been anaemic since the age of 12. ( I am now 49 - that 37 years of aneamia from being under carbed - and they blamed it on the veggie lifestyle!)

However my B12 = 211 ng/L.

I asked my GP if she could give me B12 shots if necessary - she said NO.

Are you in the UK? Have you found this?

Any way around it?

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Permalink Reply by Carlos169 on April 3, 2012 at 11:53pm

Find a GP that is integrative or alternative. Mine was and she even suggested the shots despite my B12 going up quite a lot with HCLFRV.

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Permalink Reply by Diospyros on April 4, 2012 at 12:06am

Yeah buy sublingual tablets

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Permalink Reply by Peter Csere on April 4, 2012 at 12:59am

Those don't work if you have a deficiency. They are alright for maintenance I guess, but unwashed organic vegetables from your garden are even better for maintenance. Shots are necessary for deficiencies.

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Permalink Reply by Diospyros on April 4, 2012 at 1:21am

And you're so sure why?

I refer you to this:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1884303/

Cobalamin (vitamin B12) deficiency is caused by pernicious anaemia, food–cobalamin malabsorption, vegetarianism, and other deficiency states. It has a reported prevalence of 3–29%[1]. The usual treatment for cobalamin deficiency consists of intramuscular injections of the drug. However, these can be painful, are difficult to give to disabled or elderly patients, and are costly if administered by health professionals [2]. In the 1960s, Swedish investigators treated 64 patients with pernicious anaemia with 1000 µg of oral cyanocobalamin, and all showed clinical and haematological remission [3]. About 1% of cobalamin is absorbed orally in subjects without intrinsic factor. The daily requirement of cobalamin is 1.0–2.5 µg, and thus, large oral doses may meet these needs [4]. This hypothesis was confirmed by several more recent trials with sublingual or oral doses of cobalamin between 1000 and 5000 µg [5–9].

Cobalamin is traditionally administered by intramuscular injections. However, it has recently been shown [9] that the sublingual route is equally effective. In this prospective study of 30 subjects with vitamin B12 deficiency, we found that sublingual and oral administration of 500 µg of cobalamin was equally effective in correcting cobalamin concentrations. Most of the increase in cobalamin concentrations was achieved by the end of the first week of treatment (Figure 1). Previous studies used sublingual or oral doses of 1000–5000 µg [5–9]. Our study shows that as little as 500 µg is enough to correct cobalamin deficiency. All our subjects had a very low serum cobalamin concentration at entry to the study (mean 100 pmol l⁻¹) and all were in a preclinical state of cobalamin deficiency. None had specific symptoms of cobalamin deficiency or anaemia. Plasma homocysteine concentrations as well as urine MMA concentrations were within the normal range. After 4 weeks of cobalamin treatment, there appeared to be a trend towards lower concentrations for both these metabolites. The difference did not achieve statistical significance, except in the sublingual group, where the decrease was of borderline significance. Since the low concentrations of cobalamin in our subjects were found as part of a screening program, in the absence of specific clinical symptoms, we assume that the subjects were at an early stage of negative cobalamin balance.

In summary, a dose of 500 µg of cobalamin given either sublingually or orally, is apparently effective in correcting cobalamin deficiency in subjects with early-stage disease.

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Permalink Reply by Mikey on April 7, 2012 at 4:14am

Touche! nice post. Great info

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Permalink Reply by Chuckster on April 4, 2012 at 6:04am

Sublinguals work, they fixed my proven deficiency. I've got the blood tests (mma and homocysteine) to prove it.

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Permalink Reply by Diospyros on April 4, 2012 at 9:59am

Good :)

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Permalink Reply by Dr Gosia O'Reilly on April 5, 2012 at 11:13am

"Those don't work if you have a deficiency."

This is an outdated information. Recent literature suggests otherwise.

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Permalink Reply by James bananaman Bailey on April 4, 2012 at 12:34am

im in newcastle. i have found any and all dr's ive delt with to be a complete nightmare. unless its truma, they are less than f***en usless. they wouldn't even test my b12 levels. when you bare in mind i suffered from septicemia, allergic reactions to antibiotics which stripped my stomic of its linning and was on strong antibiotics of one type or another for 8-9 months, i think this is more like medical malpractice than just shoddy medical care. sorry to say it but go private. you can get sublingual drops off amazon, while you wait to see a private dr..

regards, james :)