I have just been told to take b12 by my ms nurse as my level was 300 and she thought this may help fatigue. I have
Looked on everyday living and am just confused on how much to take. I have got Swanson methylcobalamin tablets that dissolve. Is this right and how much should I take. Thanks zoe
As far as I know, 300 is considered normal in the UK so I doubt your GP will be a lot of use, but given that your MS nurse recommended them, you might get lucky. Did the nurse give you any indication of what level you should aim for? If yes, you could work with your GP to monitor levels via blood tests and adjust the supplements accordingly. (This is what I’m doing with vitamin D.) Sorry I can’t advise on dosage. Karen x
Thanks Karen, my ms nurse just said to start taking tablets and they would check my levels at my next neuro appointment on the 7th Feb. The tablets I have here are 5 mg but I have no idea if this is OK. I didn’t spend long on the phone to her as she made me feel as if I just needed to buck up on get on with it (I posted on everyday living 1 step forward 5 steps back) and now feel totally rubbish) and would love your advice as I always appreciate your view. Thanks zoe
I’m glad to hear the nurse is keeping an eye on it.
5mg is quite a high dose I think, but as far as I know, B12 doesn’t get stored in the body (the excess passes through urination) so I can’t imagine it would do you any harm. I don’t know a massive amount about it though, so please don’t just take my word for it.
I’ll be very interested to hear if it helps your fatigue. Let me know please?
If it doesn’t, have you asked about amantadine or modafinil? They don’t help everyone, but they can make a big difference for some.
Kx
Hi Zoe,
I take B12 and I think that it really helps. I think that 5 mg (5000mcg) is too much though. I take 300mcg (ug). I had a really horrible attack last year, I started taking B12 and my symptoms cleared up in two weeks. I initially started on 100 ug and ended on 1200 ug. I had to stop as I started getting an allergic reaction to it. I would start on a reasonable dose 500 ug and work up from there. I think that a lot of people take 1000 ug.
I hope that this helps.
Adrian x
Thanks could you tell me where you get these, as can’t seem to find the right type, dissolvable ones at this strenght. Thanks
Why not try the ones you have and see how you get on? If you get side effects, then try to find lower dose dissolvable ones? These high strength ones are widely available so I wouldn’t have thought they were believed to be harmful, probably because B12 is water absorbant so anything your body doesn’t need should (I think!) go straight through your system.
Supplements generally have other ingredients in them so a reaction to a supplement does not necessarily mean that it was the active ingredient that caused it. (E.g. lactose is used in loads of pills and can cause reactions in people who are lactose intolerant.)
I think you’ll find that the dissolvable (under your tongue?) type don’t come in low doses. Could be wrong though!
Kx