Stomach Acid & Vitamin B-12 Deficiency

I've written before that I get three daily shots: my Human Growth Hormone (HGH), my pitocin & and my Vitamin B-12.  People have asked me how do I know that I indeed need B-12 and I've always thought that a remarkable question.  Doesn't everyone get their levels, such as Vitamin D, checked periodically by blood work at their GP's office?

Vitamin B-12 is essential.  This is especially important if you happen to have ME/CFS/CFIDS or fibromyalgia. The bad news is that if you get a B-12 deficiency, it can take up to two years for your body and your cells to make up that deficiency.  I found this out the hard way.  Oh, your blood work will show relatively soon that your body has enough B-12, but unfortunately, science tells us that the deficiency takes a long time to correct. That's one reason why, since 1997, when I first discovered this deficiency, I've been religious about getting my B-12 shot daily when at all possible.

Unfortunately, in the past year the B-12 shots have become less than daily.  I think I've actually gone a month here and there without a B-12 shot, if not longer, because of all the hospitalizations this past year. (Seven ER visits*, three hospitalizations, about 33 days out of 365 in the hospital, not a good thing!)  If anything, I should have been a fanatic about the B-12.

I just watched an episode of Dr. Oz.  In full disclosure I'm not a big fan of the show.  I call the show "Just Shoot Me Now and Get It Over With!" because I find it too gloom and doom.  Furthermore, in an ABC interview years ago, I heard him say he wouldn't operate on an heart patient who smokes. I'm not sure I care for such a judgmental doctor. I also find the show too simplistic. However, I've always loved his graphics. They are amazing.

An aside: I also viewed his colonoscopy experience on YouTube in order to prepare myself psychologically for my own procedure.  Imagine how surprised I was to learn a few new things which I do want to mention in a future post.  So I have softened my views about Oz lately and I see that he has softened his approach.  He's no longer as gloom and doom as before and much more "positive."  There IS a place for him on TV after all - as millions of Americans have shown us.  But back to the subject at hand.

Last week, I happened to turn the TV on as the show was ending and I heard him say something about "make sure you drink your beet juice to see if you have low acid in your stomach!"  I hit "record" and thanked the DVR goddess.

Bingo!  I loved the beet test in the past to assess gastrointestinal motility (how do you like that phrasing?). But it has another use.  It can tell you whether or not you may have Vitamin B-12 deficiency.  If your urine turns pink after consuming a beet or beet juice, it may mean that your stomach acid is low but if it remains yellow, it means your stomach acid level is good.  You need stomach acid ("juices" is what my rheumy/immunologist who often vets my pieces has corrected me saying, "juices"!) to absorb and metabolize B-12, the "energy vitamin."  (Again, in full disclosure, my immunologist has a problem with "energy vitamin" and likes to add the quotes.  He is a very fussy fellow!)  It, B-12, adds oxygen to your body, giving the red cells the power to do that.  Without enough B-12, these are some of the problems you encounter, according to Dr. Oz (and with additions by my rheumy/immunologist):

• Anemia (B-12 deficiency can cause pernicious anemia, a megaloblastic anemia) 
• Poor memory (first sign in B-12 deficiency)
• Depression (the poor woman on the show didn't seem to agree with the depression!)
• No appetite (forgetting to eat)
• Tired (walking bent over, "literally down to the ground" as Dr. Oz says)
• Weak (feeling listless)
• Foggy (the mental "prowess isn't there")

Now, all of the above problems are very non-specific and can go along with many different illnesses, except for the anemia, of course.  So, doing the beet test and/or consulting your doctor to have your B-12 level checked would be a good way to go to rule out an eminently treatable problem.

I had our "vinigret," the traditional beet and potato salad on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, as described in my Christmas post.  My urine was pink and I've started back on my daily B-12 shots.

Tada!  So, here IS one easy way to tell if you may be vitamin B-12 deficient, the beet test!  Eat one beet (or drink a glass of beet juice if you don't like beets, though I'm not quite sure how one drinks the juice if you can't tolerate a small beet) and see what happens!

Before I end, I did want to mention that with me, because I've been sick for so long and because I'm AM so severely ill, I need the shots.  We tried every Vitamin B-12 pill and liquid, even the nasal spray, for years with nothing bringing my level to normal, so I need the shots.   The nutritional IV bag also helps me absorb the B-12 more efficiently.

Can you guess what one of my resolutions will be for the New Year?

Here is Dr. Oz's Family Salad to getting you started on beets if you so wish. I happen to think it's a much maligned veggie in the States! 

Ingredients:

• Beets
• Olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar
• Garlic
• Salt
• Pepper
• Gorgonzola cheese

Directions:

Boil the beets until they become tender. Pull off skin under cold running water. Chop them and toss lightly with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper. Crumble Gorgonzola cheese on top for extra flavor.

Note: I prefer to bake or roast beets; I have always used mild feta cheese in this sort of quick salad. Nothing like a sweet and salt combination! Adding sliced onions is something I might try next!

And if I get my act together I'll post my "Vinigret" recipe.  If you like beets you'll find this especially delicious.

As always, I hope everyone is feeling their very best, only better.  Ciao and paka!

*I realized that there were at least two more ER runs which I described in this blog but totally forgot!  Where's my scorecard?


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Friday Tidbits: My Three Daily Shots

Needles: I thoroughly hate them - I have a true phobia. I think that the Guy Upstairs has a very funny sense of humor because I need three shots daily. Or, perhaps, I lived a very strange sort of existence in a former life and my punishment is having to get so many shots in this lifetime.

People seem to be curious about medications our fellow sick ones take and I'm private about some things, yet share others.  A lot also has to do with how much I think others might want to hear, preferring not to bore people to death.  But it's Friday, I'm feeling cruddy with all that's going on, still with the nausea, recovering somewhat with the swelling and bloating, pain, you-know-the-drill, much of it still where I was last week.  I've had a few other problems that are getting to me but I'm still sitting on the fence as to whether anyone would want to hear about it or not.  Other things are driving me nuts: I'm trying to hold out and see if there is any rhyme or reason - hint: rashes and hives amongst other annoyances.

Hubs is out of town for a long weekend, I'm forced to give myself my own shots and so I finally decided I'd "go there" - that is, tell you about the three shots I dread so much that everyone but in the family but myself knows how to administer.  I should say that I'm so bad about needles that back in the day when the only way to get over a migraine - besides waiting it out - was a shot, my 13-years old daughter came to her dad and said, "it's about time you teach me how to give mom her migraine shot. You're not always around to do it, you know."  Or words to that effect.  That summer, bossy daughter and I were going to fly to Oxford and she wanted to make sure I was covered.  Have I mentioned lately that the girl's got guts?

Luckily, needles are not the only way to go in order to treat migraines any longer.  Those little pills are such a convenience!  I'm so bad that I prefer going through life with migraines than have a shot - or the occasional DHE-45 IV given over an extended period of time in the ER with hit-and-miss results.  See how ancient I am? It's as if I lived in the age before antibiotics were invented!  Not quite, but almost.

But the Guy Upstairs still has His joke with me on a daily basis with:

• Vitamin B-12  Yes, I could go with the pill form, even the sublingual form, but that didn't work for me.  Despite getting B-12 the way the rest of us get it, back in 1997 my test results showed that suddenly I was extremely deficient in B-12.  In fact, I was low despite the IV nutritionals I was getting weekly at the holistic clinic I went to over two hours away by car, each week for a year.  The funny thing - not haha but strange - is that it takes two years for your body to make up the deficiency. Therefore, though the tests may come back with your level of B-12 - registering in normal amounts - and though the blood tests may reassure you, guess what!  Your cellular level of B-12 may still be low.  I now get a daily shot of B-12 and do get tested periodically to make sure that my levels are in the normal range, not too high, not too low.

• Pitocin   I'm sure many out there with Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFS/ME), fibromyalgia and many other autoimmune illnesses have problems with vision changing day-to-day and even hour-to-hour.  But it's not a vision problem, per se.  Instead, it's the brain not able to interpret what the eyes see.  This makes sense to me (my case, that is) because of two factors. On my worst days, my vision is kaput. I can't get anything to focus right.  On my better days, my vision is not annoying, although unlike Goldilocks, it's never just right. 

Which leads me into a smooth transition. The second reason I get a daily pitocin shot is because "some" believe that it may be a pituitary problem. It's a bit much to go into today, so I'll address this in a future posting, soon.  It's a truly amazing thing that we've discovered, so it perhaps deserves its own post!  (Am I getting good at ya'll anticipating a post?  I'm tryin'!)

• HGH (Human Growth Hormone)  I think I've gone on and on about this, more than most ever want to hear.  These  HGH posts are found here (weight gain),  here (impact on fibromyalgia) and here (hormonal impact/levels).  But as I've mentioned once before, my rheumy is really worried that the HGH deficiencies he's seeing in his practice are almost epidemic.  (I'm adding the "almost," and underplaying his concern and alarm.)

 

And off we go into another weekend!  As always, I hope everyone's doing their very best, only better!  Wishing you a wonderful weekend.  Ciao and paka! 


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