For those of u that inject yourself the b12, how do you do it?
-Type of b12,
-Needle type
-Place in body where you inject
yourself?
I have read people use insulin needles buy do you use the instramuscular b12 liquid, or some special b12 made for that needles?
Tx,
7
Hi Inester7,
I use 5/16" (short needle) 31 gauge insulin syringes. I use the 1ml. Since I wrap the vial and the syringe in foil, I use the 1ml syringe for 1/2ml of 20mg/ml fluid. The shaft of the plunger has a notch in it such that when it is at the edge of the barrel it is at the 0.5ml level. I can draw by feel. MeCbl is damaged quickly by light, photolyticaly breaking down to some level of HyCbl in equilibrium solution with AquaCbl. This gives me acne type lesions within 2-3 days after it starts. AdoCbl breaks down even faster from light, and even in the fridge. I have never found it to be stable enough to use for injection. In one country it is available for injection it comes as dry crystals in the vial and a vial of saline, and it is mixed on the spot and instructions to discard after 5 days. The solution for IM or SC is the same.
The IM protocol originated with docs injecting CyCbl (which back in the 50s was broken down to typically about 35% HyCbl - H2OCbl). The always did IM. With an inactive cobalamin if there is an advantage to slowing down absorption, I've never heard of it. An IM injection of B12 is typically 100% absorbed in 30 minutes. Then the serum half life is 20-50 minutes, slowing down to 4.9 hours serum half life at 12 hours and to 12.9 hours half life from 12 to 48 hours. By 48 hours the B12 injected is 99% or more excreted, typically unchanged except when cyanide and a few other items are in the body. All this is from a collection of studies that did half life studies, usually as part of other studies. Numbers vary a little but not significantly. The 20-50 minutes range gets most of the variability seen between studies.
The subcutaneous use of MeCbl was, as far as I know, originated, or popularized, by Dr Neubrander for autism to make each injection last longer for the specifically MeCbl and/or AdoCbl deficient, find that MeCbl only lasts a short while. Symptoms can come back in 1-3 days after injection. For those of us with specific CNS cobalamin deficiencies as is characteristic of CFS, FMS, MS. Parkinson's, ALS, Supra Nuclear Palsy and others may do so because it is either difficult to get it into the CSF or is removed to quickly or both, an IM injection may last only 2 hours whereas for some a 15mg SC injection will work for 12 hours, or 10mg SC injection working for 8 hours. With my 3x 10mg per day it releases as about 1.25mg/hr, like a 1.25mg IM injection each hour. That maintains my serum level at an estimated minimum of 100,000pg/ml, which is what I need to keep my neurology from breaking down very rapidly. That is what it takes to penetrate the BBB by diffusion it would appear. This comes from Japanese studies with 50mg doses. They did not look for the minimum threshold dose.
So how you do the injection can make it more effective for some people.