The Effect Of Vitamin B12 On Your Nervous System

Yesterday's post and the next four posts all relate to Vitamin B12 and neuropathy. If you weren't a hypochondriac before reading these, you may well be afterwards, so taking a sensible view of the many symptoms shown here is advisable. Strangely, most HIV and/or neuropathy patients aren't standard tested for B12 deficiency but it may well be worth asking your doctor to do exactly that - it may explain several things. All 5 posts come from the same site B12patch.com (see links below the articles), which is pretty much an 'all you would ever want to know' type of information site but the descriptions of what neuropathy is are accurate and honest and explained in language that we all can understand. Very interesting and worth discussing with your doctor if there's time, especially if you're considering taking B12 supplement pills (usually need Folic acid to help absorption) - injections may be better in your case.

How Vitamin B12 Deficiency affects your Nervous System -Physical Pain

Certain symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency are hard to miss-overwhelming fatigue, painful numbness, brain fog. But vitamin B12 deficiency causes a wide range of physical and mental disorders, so many that it’s easy to confuse them for other health problems, such as thyroiditis, diabetes, or clinical depression. To understand the impact that vitamin B12 (cobalamin) has on your body, it’s important to address all the various biological functions that become impaired when vitamin B12 deficiency occurs.

This segment focuses on physical neuropathic pain caused by vitamin B12 deficiency-pernicious anemia.

Vitamin B12 and your nervous system

Vitamin B12 is one of the most important nutrients for your nerve cells- it plays an instrumental role in protecting and maintaining your nervous system impulses.
Each nerve cell is protected by a fatty layer called myelin that insulates and allows for quick and efficient communication throughout the many other neurons of your brain and spinal cord.
Demyelinating diseases such as pernicious (megaloblastic) anemia and multiple sclerosis destroy the myelin of your nervous system, wearing it down to a thin layer, causing nervous reactions to slow down and malfunction.

Physical damage caused by vitamin B12 deficiency

Neuropathy, nerve cell impairment, is a one of the first symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency and unless treated, worsens with time, causing severe and permanent nerve damage affecting your physical health.
Physical impairments caused by vitamin B12 deficiency include:

• Numbness in your hands and feet, including “pins and needles” tingling sensations
• Slower reflexes
• Impaired perception of vibrations
• Altered taste perception
• Ataxia- difficulty controlling posture and movement.
• Gait impairment- difficulty walking smoothly without stumbling
• Muscular weakness
• Poor bladder control
• Burning mouth syndrome- tingling and painful burning sensations in your tongue, mouth, and lips
• Impaired vision
• Eye twitching
• Impotence
• Increased risk for miscarriage and stillborn births

Diagnosing and treating vitamin B12 deficiency
A few simple blood tests are required to positively diagnose vitamin B12 deficiency or pernicious anemia; first, a screening of vitamin B12 levels in the blood and second, a screening of antibodies that indicate autoimmune disorder as a possible cause of vitamin B12 deficiency.

To get your B12 levels back to normal, your doctor will likely prescribe routine vitamin B12 injections, to be inserted intramuscularly (optimally in the thick muscular tissue of the thighs). The usual dose is 1000 mcg of vitamin B12 per shot.
Since vitamin B12 shots require prescription, many sufferers of pernicious anemia who need extra doses of vitamin B12 have the option of supplementing with over-the-counter (OTC) vitamin B12. Dietary vitamin B12 pills are not recommended, as they are not digestible for the majority of vitamin B12 deficiency patients.

http://www.b12patch.com/blog/symptoms-of-vitamin-b12-deficiency-2/how-vitamin-b12-deficiency-affects-your-nervous-system-part-1-physical-pain/