Vitamin deficiencies

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Janet E T

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hi everyone,
Following routine blood tests, it turns out that I’m extremely anaemic and deficient in vitamin D and B12. I’ve got iron tablets on prescription and been told to buy over the counter vitamin D, 2000 mg. My GP is refusing to treat the B12 deficiency, against NHS guidelines. I eat a relatively healthy diet, including lots of fruit, veg and salad, a variety of meats and I walk a lot. I’m undergoing investigations under the two week cancer pathway but I don’t expect that to come to anything. My question is, how do people manage the deficiencies caused by diabetes meds?
regards
Jan
 
Why is your doctor refusing to treat the B12 deficiency @Janet E T ? Can you find a doctor who will? There are B12 tablets but some people need injections, I believe.
 
If your B12 deficiency is caused by medication it is often a problem that you do not absorb B12 from foods so tablets will not usually be very successful and regular injections would be required. If it is very low then injections every other day for a couple of weeks then every 2-3 months.
I suspect Vit D tablets are one of the things removed from the prescribing list like some pain meds and anti histamines that can be bought over the counter as if you pay for your prescription they would be cheaper anyway.
 
Inka said:
Why is your doctor refusing to treat the B12 deficiency @Janet E T ? Can you find a doctor who will? There are B12 tablets but some people need injections, I believe.
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The doc says he won’t treat me until I get to 50. He doesn’t think 194 is low enough, despite the range being 200-900. I am very symptomatic though.
 
Leadinglights said:
If your B12 deficiency is caused by medication it is often a problem that you do not absorb B12 from foods so tablets will not usually be very successful and regular injections would be required. If it is very low then injections every other day for a couple of weeks then every 2-3 months.
I suspect Vit D tablets are one of the things removed from the prescribing list like some pain meds and anti histamines that can be bought over the counter as if you pay for your prescription they would be cheaper anyway.
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There is a local clinic that does B12 injections and have their own doctors, so I’m going to check them out tomorrow. I’m not going to actually do anything until after the phone consultation with my doc, for the results of the CT scan on my bowel/gut on Friday. I just need to feel that I’ve got options and some control.
 
Janet E T said:
There is a local clinic that does B12 injections and have their own doctors, so I’m going to check them out tomorrow. I’m not going to actually do anything until after the phone consultation with my doc, for the results of the CT scan on my bowel/gut on Friday. I just need to feel that I’ve got options and some control.
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My other half got Vit B12 deficiency, he believes from taking esomeprazole for gut issues which was eventually diagnosed as Crohn's, luckily largely asymptomatic apart from occasional flareups. So he now has injections every 3 months.
 
Hi @Janet E T

I have Pernicious Anaemia and B12 deficiency and have injections every 8 weeks (after the initial loading period where I had them every 2 days for 2 weeks). I cannot stress how important this is to avoid all manner of awful symptoms. In my own case the lack caused me to walk differently, dragging my feet, which caused me to have frequent falls and injure myself, sometimes badly like 2 broken ribs. I suggest you read up as much as possible on the subject. A good start is here on the NHS site
 
You say your very symptomatic, what kind of symptoms are you feeling. Being very anaemic will probably be causing the worst of your symptoms, but b12 and d also being low , you must be feeling quite dreadful ?
 
My GP is deeply uninterested in my symptoms, or was at my last visit. I’m hoping that once we have the results of the colonoscopy etc he will be more open to discussing other causes to all the deficiencies, instead of just talking about the diabetes and treating that. Obviously it’s hugely important to get good blood glucose control but with all these deficiencies my very healthy diet isn’t working for me. I’m hoping for a more in depth discussion, rather than just here, have some more diabetes meds that will throw me even more out of whack!
 
Leadinglights said:
My other half got Vit B12 deficiency, he believes from taking esomeprazole for gut issues which was eventually diagnosed as Crohn's, luckily largely asymptomatic apart from occasional flareups. So he now has injections every 3 months.
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Hi, yes omeprazole depletes Vit B12 too. These tablets are all connected to each other.
I get injections every 3months.
 
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