- Messages
- 11
Hello everyone,
I've been reading this forum for few weeks now. I have few questions for people who know much more about biochemistry of vitB12 than I do - there's so much info on these board and I'm slowly finding my way through it, but have exams at the moment and not much time for reading and putting things together .
In March this year I got the diagnosis of fibromyalgia, after having progressive symptoms for at least 13 years (I'm 31). After doing a lot of reading on pubmed, I started taking CoQ10 and accidentally discovered that I need much higher dosage than any study suggests - 600mg a day. With this dosage I became pain free. However, once the chronic pain was gone, some other symptoms became much more prominent. In fact, I started getting much more CFS-like symptoms - very prominent PEMs (I do weight lifting. well...to the best of my ability ), 'crashes' where the sudden onset of physical and mental fatigue would be so strong that I couldn't make my arms do what I wanted, and worst of all, horrible and persistent brain fog. So I started reading more about CFS and learned about B12 being solution for some people. This rang a bell since, although I've never had a below range value of TOTAL B12, I was given injections of hydroxocobalamin twice in my life (few years ago) and that made me feel amazing (my symptoms weren't as severe than. They got much worse in the last 12 months). So I got three hydroxocobalamin injections (1mg/ml) and started taking sublingual drops of methylB12. Injections made some difference (I only started with drops a week before my last injection) but the real effect came with methylB12. I then tried to lower the dosae of CoQ10, thinking that I might not need as much now. Well, I lasted a week before all the pains came back. So, all I know so far is that I need 600mg/day CoQ10 and 1 - 2 mg/day methylB12. Here is a summary of the symptoms improved by each:
CoQ10:
- muscular pain
- chest tightness
- morning fatigue
- headache - I've been having headaches for years, almost every day, and at the end got very bad occipital neuralgia. All gone with CoQ10
MethylB12:
- memory
- 'processing speed' - one of the most annoying aspects of brain fog was when I get into state that I just do not understand what I'm hearing or reading - I mean, I understand words, but I feel like they are just flying around me and I can't catch them. With methylB12 I feel smart again
- dreams - I used to dream either about things that are happening to me in that period, or have long dreams that seemed like whole movies. In any case, I used to remember my dreams, few per night. But in the last 2 years I felt as if someone wrapped my dreams into a very thick fog, I completely lost them, couldn't remember anything. With methylb12, my dreams returned to what they used to be.
- laugh - I am laughing much more, genuinely finding things funny to the point where I have to laugh (see the next point)
- anxiety/depression - I spent the last three years being miserable (sometimes fully depressed) about how some aspects of my life turned out. I wasn't sure if it was my then-mysterious illness that's causing depression, or is depression ruining my health.
I can almost say that with CoQ10+Methylb12 I feel like my old self again.
Now the interesting bit: when I read about the methylation protocol I wanted to try it. Two days into taking FolaPro, Neurological Health Formula (NHF) and Phosphatidyl Serine Complex the brain fog came back. It came back very abruptly, I just suddenly found it much harder to find words, started mixing words and my short term memory went on strike again. Btw, I also started taking Source Naturals adbB12 but that doesn't seem to do anything (I am now waiting for Anabol brend, to try that one).
So I have a few questions I am not really expecting definite answers to, but would like to hear ideas:
- What could be the most likely cause for the return of brain fog? NAC in NHF? Folate?
- is it possible to be just activeB12 deficient without needing folate (in the form of metafolin)?
- how the need for high CoQ10 fits into this?
- Could the effects of CoQ10 and adbB12 be overlapping each other?
Thanks for reading such a long post
I've been reading this forum for few weeks now. I have few questions for people who know much more about biochemistry of vitB12 than I do - there's so much info on these board and I'm slowly finding my way through it, but have exams at the moment and not much time for reading and putting things together .
In March this year I got the diagnosis of fibromyalgia, after having progressive symptoms for at least 13 years (I'm 31). After doing a lot of reading on pubmed, I started taking CoQ10 and accidentally discovered that I need much higher dosage than any study suggests - 600mg a day. With this dosage I became pain free. However, once the chronic pain was gone, some other symptoms became much more prominent. In fact, I started getting much more CFS-like symptoms - very prominent PEMs (I do weight lifting. well...to the best of my ability ), 'crashes' where the sudden onset of physical and mental fatigue would be so strong that I couldn't make my arms do what I wanted, and worst of all, horrible and persistent brain fog. So I started reading more about CFS and learned about B12 being solution for some people. This rang a bell since, although I've never had a below range value of TOTAL B12, I was given injections of hydroxocobalamin twice in my life (few years ago) and that made me feel amazing (my symptoms weren't as severe than. They got much worse in the last 12 months). So I got three hydroxocobalamin injections (1mg/ml) and started taking sublingual drops of methylB12. Injections made some difference (I only started with drops a week before my last injection) but the real effect came with methylB12. I then tried to lower the dosae of CoQ10, thinking that I might not need as much now. Well, I lasted a week before all the pains came back. So, all I know so far is that I need 600mg/day CoQ10 and 1 - 2 mg/day methylB12. Here is a summary of the symptoms improved by each:
CoQ10:
- muscular pain
- chest tightness
- morning fatigue
- headache - I've been having headaches for years, almost every day, and at the end got very bad occipital neuralgia. All gone with CoQ10
MethylB12:
- memory
- 'processing speed' - one of the most annoying aspects of brain fog was when I get into state that I just do not understand what I'm hearing or reading - I mean, I understand words, but I feel like they are just flying around me and I can't catch them. With methylB12 I feel smart again
- dreams - I used to dream either about things that are happening to me in that period, or have long dreams that seemed like whole movies. In any case, I used to remember my dreams, few per night. But in the last 2 years I felt as if someone wrapped my dreams into a very thick fog, I completely lost them, couldn't remember anything. With methylb12, my dreams returned to what they used to be.
- laugh - I am laughing much more, genuinely finding things funny to the point where I have to laugh (see the next point)
- anxiety/depression - I spent the last three years being miserable (sometimes fully depressed) about how some aspects of my life turned out. I wasn't sure if it was my then-mysterious illness that's causing depression, or is depression ruining my health.
I can almost say that with CoQ10+Methylb12 I feel like my old self again.
Now the interesting bit: when I read about the methylation protocol I wanted to try it. Two days into taking FolaPro, Neurological Health Formula (NHF) and Phosphatidyl Serine Complex the brain fog came back. It came back very abruptly, I just suddenly found it much harder to find words, started mixing words and my short term memory went on strike again. Btw, I also started taking Source Naturals adbB12 but that doesn't seem to do anything (I am now waiting for Anabol brend, to try that one).
So I have a few questions I am not really expecting definite answers to, but would like to hear ideas:
- What could be the most likely cause for the return of brain fog? NAC in NHF? Folate?
- is it possible to be just activeB12 deficient without needing folate (in the form of metafolin)?
- how the need for high CoQ10 fits into this?
- Could the effects of CoQ10 and adbB12 be overlapping each other?
Thanks for reading such a long post