Comments on: Have you tested your B12? It’s a deficiency thyroid patients need to catch.

By: Victoria

Victoria — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:35:38 +0000

I had mine tested and it was over range. My D and ferritin are problems that my doc and I are working on, but plenty of B-12 – must be all the cottage cheese I eat, which I found out is very high in B-12.

By: Mel77

Mel77 — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:27:07 +0000

Also forgot to mention that I am now on Dessicated Pig Thyroid or Armour – what a difference, the first time in my life I have not had cold hands/feet!

By: Mel77

Mel77 — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:25:45 +0000

This is very interesting to me. I have had underactive thyroid for a long time, Eutrosig or Oroxine made me very ill for 5 and 1/2 years. In that time I saw 3 Endocrinologists, none of them believed the tablets were making me ill. I found a naturopath and went straight off them. I started with a new endocrinoligist about 18 months later and had the same problem with Eutrosig again. Now I am seeing a new doctor who specialises in nutritional medicine. He has diagnosed me with Hashimoto’s Disease and PCOS (the last endocrinologist told me I wasn’t symptomatic enough to be tested for it!) He has also found that I had virtually no vitamin B or Iron in my blood as well. He has since put me on an iron drip and sublingual vitamin B complex – I love the vitamin B complex, look forward to it every day and a lot of my sweet cravings have subsided. It all seems strange to me how the many endocrinoligists I saw previously did not bother to test for hashimoto’s, PCOS, iron levels and vitamin B!

By: Sara

Sara — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:32:50 +0000

There is some great info on pernicious anemia, which is mostly relevant to other forms of B12 deficiency, at the Pernicious Anemia Society website: http://www.pernicious-anaemia-society.org/ We who have pernicious anemia sometimes have as much trouble getting diagnosed and treated as anyone with hypothyroidism! You could be forgiven for thinking that vitamin B12 was a highly controversial experimental drug that cost $10,000 a dose the way some doctors carry on if you want a B12 injection more than once every 12 weeks!

One interesting symptom of B12 deficiency is “the sighs”. “Breathlessness” doesn’t really cover it, it’s more like you feel the need to sigh a lot because you can’t take in enough breath – sometimes it can be mistaken for asthma but there’s not usually wheezing associated with it.

I got diagnosed only because I insisted to my doctor that I wanted more tests than just B12. I read on a thyroid support forum that you should get the B12 carrier protein tested too, which is “Transcobalamin II” or sometimes “holotranscobalamin”. You also need to get a full blood count, folate, and ferritin tested. If you suspect pernicious anemia, get tested for parietal call antibodies and intrinsic factor antibodies. I asked for those and it turned out ny serum B12 was considered “normal” (hah) but my transcobalamin II was quite deficient and I tested positive for antibodies.

To treat, you usually need a “loading dose” of B12 injections, my then doctor actually argued with me that I didn’t need that so I went elsewhere and lucky me found a doctor who agreed that loading doses are a good start. There are various regimens, but usually you get a fair few hydroxycobalamin injections in the first month, then go to one per week or month, depending on what you need. Some people can go a bit longer. If you have pernicious anemia you can only absorb around 1% of all the B12 you eat, but consuming megadoses of 1000-5000mcg can help keep you “topped up” between injections. Sublinguals help some people but I have read that it can be better to take the oral megadoses as they help keep storing B12 in your liver, where sublinguals send B12 straight to your bloodstream.

Anyway I highly recommend checking out the Pernicious Anemia Society site and forums, there is lots to learn.

By: ibeji

ibeji — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:34:30 +0000

Dear Janie,
thanks a lot for your calling attention to this important issue!
However, not only does hypothyroidism frequently lead to digestive issues, but these digestive issues may also make the intestine more vulnerable to potentially harmful foods.
Many people with hypothyroidism develop an increased sensitivity towards gluten (which causes inflammation of the intestine, characterized by bloating and sometimes diarrhea), which further exacerbates the absorption problems of, among other things, vitamin B12.
Furthermore, no mammal is prepared to consume dairy products during adulthood. Dairy products therefore especially harm an already weakened intestine (and it is not only the lactose in the milk which causes the problems, the other ingredients from the milk do as well!).
Many good doctors (the ones who prescribe Armour and also treat weak adrenals, among other things) therefore advise hypothyroid patients to avoid gluten and dairy products (and sweets), since all of these will increase fermentation in and inflammation of the intestine, which causes intestinal atrophy and leads to malabsorption of all nutrients, creating a bunch of additional problems in its wake.
Note that bread made from sprouted grains is an exception to the rule (of avoiding gluten) and can be consumed with moderation (as everything should), since sprouted grains have the same nutritional value as vegetables.