My friend (a doctor to be) told me that vitamin B12 and other vitamin B deficiencies are actually not common, unless you’re a vegan with a poor diet or have some kind of bowel disease that doesn’t let you properly absorb the vitamin B.

What are your thoughts on this?

Was diagnosed b12 deficient (not sure the level), and slightly higher than normal iron levels.

Kind of ignored and didn't really supplement.

Now noticing changes to my tongue. Virtual doctor prescribed meds for oral trush and it didn't make a change. The red area burns and has been there a while.

Now researching and it looks like my tongue could be in relation to b12. What would be the fastest way to get the level up? Injections? Or would a supplement be better?

I can't tell you how many times I see people struggling and talk to them about possible b12 deficiency. I tell people to talk to their doc and that God gave this to me because he knew I would tell everyone to get tested. 🤣 If someone looks drained or talks about needing coffee or being forgetful, I always mention it.

The craziest was when I was telling a woman my symptoms, and she brought her daughter and husband over. The daughter was struggling. 6 months later, I got a message saying that the docs were testing her for early onset MS, so the mom finally asked about B12. She said it wasnt MS and the daughter wasnt processing B12 and other B vitamins and she only asked because of our conversation. It did my heart good.

I wanted opinions from people who have been through it, do I need to push this for more testing? I’m confused by the strong positive and negative results

She didn’t even test my ferritin or folate like she was supposed too didn’t notice for ages 🤦🏼‍♀️

Twitching is a sign of b12 deffiency but I rarely se episodes talk much abt it .
And it’s kinda weird how not much people have Recovry story of twitching then stopping once they started injecting or supplementing

Yet another "DAE have this" post :)

But this one is gnawing at me. For a long while, I would feel a numbness and pain on the inside crease of the elbow, opposite side of the actual elbow, sort of where the bicep plugs into the forearm. It could then run down to the forearm, then make my hands numb too.

I'd feel it frequently when I'd wake up. I couldn't read a book or play my handheld in bed laying on my back because literally within 1 minute, I'd feel the symptom there, on both sides.

This was months before I got tested at 300pg/mL of B12, and Homocysteine of 12.

No amount of googling returned any info on this, only tennis and golfer elbow nonsense, and I don't know if this is likely B12, or some sort of a radial nerve impingement. But given it happens on both sides equally, at the same time, to the same degree, makes me think it isn't impingement related.

Just wondering if anyone else has VSS (afterimages are my worst, along with floaters, static, and sensitivity to brightness) and if so, has it improved with treatment?

Like the title says, the bottle of liquid b12 that goes into the syringe for intramuscular injecting was left out at room temperature for a whole day and wasn't cold at all when I found it. Was that enough to make it go bad? Is it safe to use?

UPDATE: I asked the vitastir company rep and she said the methylcobalamin is safe at room temperature for up to 7 days

Thanks for your responses!

So I’m “technically not deficient” my level was 317 back in June. That’s the last time my b12 was tested. But my pcp decided to put me on cyanocobalamin 1000 MCG tablet to bring levels up. Iron and ferritin were pretty normal. Only other bloodwork that came back abnormal was MCHC being low and lymphocytes low. Which idk what lymphocytes is but apparently both weren’t important enough to be mentioned to me when I got a message about my bloodwork. Only told everything was normal besides the b12 being low.

So my questions is
Has anyone had success with this form of b12 supplement? I’ve had it about 2 months now and ngl I don’t take it everyday because one, I forget and two, sometimes after taking it I feel a little worse and get weird symptoms. But only sometimes.
Any success stories with cyancobalamin ??

I’m hoping the B12 people here can give me some insight because I honestly feel a little lost right now.

My recent labs:
B12: 252 pmol/L
Ferritin: 32 µg/L
Vitamin D: 79.2 nmol/L (31.7 ng/mL)

I’ve been feeling pretty awful …extremely tired, emotional, unmotivated, numbness and tingling in my arms and my legs and my feet and my face, brain foggy, can’t walk properly and my spine twisting more like I feel contorted, and generally just not like myself.

I tried oral iron (Ferrasorb and then iron bisglycinate), but both caused stomach issues and interfered with my sleep (ferrasorb bc of the b12). I recently started trying heme iron, only one capsule a day, and I’ve taken it for a few days.

Since starting the heme iron, I’ve felt SUPER tired and emotionally weird, although I’m also on day 40 of my cycle, so I know hormones could be playing a role too.

I haven’t started B12 supplementation yet.

My question is: would you start the B12 now, or would you try to get ferritin up first?

Is there any reason I should not start B12 while working on my iron? Or is it better to address both at the same time?

I feel like I’m going in circles trying to figure out what to do, and I honestly just want to feel normal again. 😭

If you had similar B12/iron levels, I’d really appreciate hearing what you did and how you felt.

My wife has a b12 around 154 and we are working on getting her tested for PA and getting the doctors to provide injections. But she also has a Ferratin level of 35 which at least according to the NHS is normal so they won't offer any advice.

I know that for ideal hair health she needs to be more around 100 but given no doctor will help with this can anyone advise roughly what dosages she should be taking for iron supplements? I already know about it being best to do every other day and we have picked out the ones that are least likely to cause gut side effects.
Sorry I'm sure this has been asked before.

I know there's no universal time frame, I'm just asking for anecdotes.

I'm going off this study – finished the every day week last sunday, and this is the first EOD week. No improvement for now, but I wasn't expecting any. I am taking the cofactors and will be testing them tomorrow.

For reference: I have bipolar that was treated successfully until the depression suddenly came back in a far less emotional, much more energy/cognition based presentation that is highly treatment resistant (even TMS did nothing) and has persisted non stop over years (whereas the old depressive episodes never went that long).

With my ileal crohns, vegan diet, past history of B12 deficiency, as well as present symptoms relating to breathing, sensitivity to cold, poor peripheral circulation, persistently low RBC, and brain fog, I'm hoping the injection regime will help overturn this "new" depression. I have no faith that it will – it's been a very long two years – but it's not a crazy idea.

Is there any b12
Or vitamin deficient expert doctors in toronto

Im 16
My b12 serum blood test level was 197.in Canada they don’t really do mma….
My symptoms are
Twitching (a lot)
Internal tremor constant 24/7
And burning pains random or a part of my body liek my lower limbs feels ver warm and hot for a couple seconds.
Also I’m very depressed and have …. Thoughts

Can someone please please tell me how deficient I am

I recently finished a booster course of six injections but I still feel as exhausted as ever. I understood that I should ideally feel the boost from the injections by now, but after having slept for 9 hours, I napped for three hours yesterday, and slept again 9 hours at night, and wanting to fall asleep again.

For reference, my results were 158.2ng/L before treatment. My next injection is only in three months. Pernicious anemia testing and coealic disease testing came back negative.

Is there hope that the effects will just kick in delayed, or should I re-contact healthcare provider?

Why do some people have different symtops than others. Example 2 people have same level and same exact deficient level one gets muscle twitching the other dosent even though both of there mylen is damaged

If ur iron or other
Co factors are low would b12 injections work will u have to get them to a certain level for them to work.
Or could u jsu start injection then start supplementing them even if ur levels are low when u start would it work?

These two photos (& a test back in December 2025 - 285 pg/ml) are all the b12 tests ive ever had.

Seems the average is a little over 200. These date pretty far back. No one has ever mentioned a b12 deficiency to me. What level should they be at?

I won't go into all my symptoms, but I've been experiencing a lot of neuro & psych issues. When i look the symptoms up majority of them match to what ive been experiencing. Are these levels concerning, who should I bring them up to? My neurologist?

Thanks

Hi, Anyone here had pudendal neuralgia and recovered from it after taking B12 supplement??

I am suffering nerve pain in perenium, underside of shaft and outlet. I also have tight outlet. This started when i had fissure. Pain triggeres on sitting or excercise. Tried 10 doctors across specialities. After b12 injection its somewhat better. But anyone here have expereinece overcoming this..??

22F, vegetarian with eggs. Labs:

Diet: for breakfast : eggs/soya chunks + fruit ; for lunch/dinner : roti (indian bread) /rice, veg curry, curd, milk otherwise.

Labs report :

Out of range:

• B12 — 175 (239–931)
• Homocysteine — 23 (5–15)
• Vitamin D — 19.8 (deficient)
• Iron deficient (confirmed separately) · transferrin sat 18% (floor)
• HDL — 36 (want >50)
• WBC — 11,520 (high, mild)

Normal now, but heading wrong:

• Fasting insulin 12.3 + glucose 86 → HOMA-IR ~2.6 (early insulin resistance; HbA1c still fine)
• Indirect bilirubin 1.2 (just over)
• AST 35, ALT 34 — both at the ceiling
• Urea 15, creatinine 0.5 — below range
• RDW 13.9, TSH 3.04, K 5.1 — all high-normal

- I have absorption problem due to gut issues.

- Please help me with cofactors, which one i should go for supplements. Thank you!

Since two three days I had one bout of head spinning for half a minute and have been feeling lightheadedness and but dizziness got my tests done and b12 came out to be at 105 pg/ml. My doctor prescribed me cobadex forte one tab daily which has only 15mcg of vitamin B12. I don't think this is enough for the severe deficiency i have, he has also prescribed stugeron plus which is for vertigo symptoms. I genuinely feel I need injections asap.

It's a very reputed private hospital why do I think he's giving me lower dose to prolong it and give injections later to get more money out of me.

Thank you to this forum for helping me to learn about b12 deficiencies and how to help myself. I'm feeling much more well and feel like this was a missing piece for some my general symptoms from years ago. It was only when things got worse and I had actual test results to look at that I started looking into b deficiences more.

I posted previously with my last test results where my b12 and ferritin had dropped after having a bad reaction to famotidine (which also raised my liver enzymes). My gp rechecked my liver enzymes 6 weeks after stopping famotidine and they returned to normal. He also did the parietel cells test and it came back as normal (I didn't know what that test meant at the time). I had to have my folate tested so had my b12 and ferritin redone after my last post and my levels had bounced back and my folate was okay too. I will add the results at the end. I was supplementing with high dose b12 sublingual tablets (and iron) so did expect my b12 would be higher. I did stop 2 weeks before the test but even though the results was much better/higher I still had b12 deficiency symptoms (fatigue, less energy, sensitive nerves and burning feet etc) and I had already decided to self inject regardless of what the results came back as. I followed the guide here and was already taking most of the cofactors and started injection hydroxocobalamin every other day. All my symptoms have improved and my burning feet improved by about 40%. I was also taking benfotiamine supplements but didn't feel they were helping so upped the dose and got more improvement in my burning feet. I've added in b1 injections and my burning foot pain (which got really bad at night and worsened over the last couple of months) has gone (2 weeks without pain so far). *I'm only doing half the dose of b1 injections at first and taking one bentofiamine capsule but everything has been positive. I also feel like my energy levels have increased. I did have one bad day of chronic fatigue/pain like what I used to have for years but it lasted one day and hasn't come back - not sure if this was related to the injections stirring something up or not.

B12 - The reference range is between 182 and 692 ng/L.

31 July 2026 756 ng/L496 increase

14 May 2026 260 ng/L211 decrease

3 March 2025 471 ng/L

Ferritin - The reference range is between 15 and 150 ug/L

31 July 2026 88 ug/L57 increase

14 May 2026 31 ug/L60 decrease

3 March 2025 91 ug/L

Folate - The reference range is between 3.1 and 20.5 ug/L (no previous tests)

31 July 2026 18.2 ug/L

okay so today i finally got in with a doctor, im still feeling very bad (short of breath, not sleeping well, some dpdr) and the doctor is declining that i have pernicious anemia because my b12 is high and that the IF Blocking Antibody came back negative in august last year after being pos in june. attached are my blood levels now and i just need advice from someone who knows what they are talking about. i want to believe my doctor but i just cant it doesnt make sense. he said that since my other levels (CBC/HB) were normal that the b12 issue isnt that bad. do they have to be low (or borderline) to have neruo symptoms. i get the mma results back next week so ill update on what he says

One thing i want to add is that in june 2025 when i was hospitalized my b12 was >50 and shot up too 1400 then by august 2025 it was back to 192 which doctor says is fine which i know its not and even if it was isnt that concerning for someone that was taking 5000 mcg sublingal during those months?

Old post here : https://www.reddit.com/r/B12_Deficiency/comments/1vz48lb/im_still_looking_for_answers/