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Why is the dosage of vitamin B12 so high for ME/CFS treatment?

Gavman

Senior Member
Messages
316
Location
Sydney
I agree with the riboflavin business. My intuition is pretty cluey on what im missing alot of the time and i tested riboflavin using kinesiology-like methods and it was off the chart. Just trying to balance it with the b-vitamins and everything else.
I got a MASSIVE headache from taking SAM-e, so i went to my room and lay there, feeling the headache.. once I let it be there and feel the pain, it passed. And the SAM-e since has given me alot more energy. I'm trying to taper off the effexor i'm on as the only reason i'm on it is for energy. The b vitamins, TMG, l-methione and inositol should all help to keep my energy going as i come off im hoping. Dropped from 150 - 75mgs and will test that for a couple of months as stripping the effexor can sometimes leave me bedbound.
 

rydra_wong

Guest
Messages
514
Originally Posted by Dog Person
...In my opinion it is ever good to do a shotgun approach with B vitamins.

As to Pam and her migraine. By taking what she "thinks" she needs has obviously thrown her nutritional balance off to a greater stress response. Research out of New York's migraine center shows that the vast majority of migraines are due to low magnesium. Taking magnesium will not fix the problem, you must determine what is causing the loss of magnesium from the body. What is causing the stress response and which nutrient or nutrients are specifically needed to remedy the problem.

---

Sometimes it is just a magnesium shortage - people dont realize that it needs to be in a ratio with calcium and things like milk contain calcium but not much magnesium. The main place we get magnesium is from fruits and veggies which the average American barely eats. Magnesium is the central ion in chlorophyll so generally if it's green it has magnesium. The food pyramid nows says we should eat 8-10 fruits and veggies / day for health, but te average American eats 3 or less.

But - yes - supplementing magnesium does not always do the trick. It never helped my migraines. My migraines were due to 3 genes causing high blood pressure... which I am sure I had during PMS my whole life but never caught it until I was 50 (at that time it was also only during PMS). Capsaicin helped me and now I read that the reason is that it increases NO (which is what we with high bp are deficient in).

But there was another guy at the other board who was low in magnesium, and his doctor would supplement him and retest - still low. It turns out he was eating too much protein. The breakdown product of protein is ammonia and to excrete ammonia magnesium is needed. Needless to say that guy had NMDA issues as well as ammonia will strip magnesium from the NMDA receptors to get enough.

So - there are lots of reasons for deficienncies. Some really are poor diet though.

Rydra

P.S. I also agree that B vitamins work synergistically and should be supplemented together. Also I am amazed at how the younger generation believe they should not take a multi or anything preventative, but wait until they are sick and then try to take the only 1 thing (ha! it will never be one thing) that will fix them. It is hard to figure out what few things are missing (very, very) and hard to fix them (maybe impossible) once one is ill...prevention is the better way IMHO.
 

Adster

Senior Member
Messages
600
Location
Australia
It sometimes seems with supplementation it's just an endless cycle of creating new deficiencies and reactions as different processes start and balances shift. Stability seems impossible to achieve!

Dog Person, you seem to know a lot about riboflavin etc. Are you a medical professional or a professor or do you have this illness also?
 

adreno

PR activist
Messages
4,841
http://www.prof-donaldmccormick.com/Nutrition Pg. 2.html
"Also most of such micronutrients when chronically taken in excess, become toxic and, again, in some instances can be lethal. Hence, we need to consume those amounts, usually micro- to milligram quantities per day, that help us maintain growth, health, and normal reproductive function, but avoid such excesses as may be deleterious. Most of the peer-reviewed literature on this subject has been summarized in volumes that collate information within periodically updated chapters that are especially appropriate for nutritional professionals."

Handbook of Vitamins, Third Edition Revised and Expanded, edited by Robert B. Rucker, John W. Suttie, Donald B. McCormick, Lawrence J. Machlin, copyright 2001 Pages 255-270

"A number of metals and drugs form chelates or complexes with riboflavin and riboflavin-5-phosphate that may affect their bioavailability (30). Among the agents in this category are the metals copper, zinc and iron; the drugs caffeine, theophylline and saccharin; and the vitamins nicotinamide and ascorbic acid; as well as tryptophan and urea. The clinical significance of this binding is not known with certainty in most instances and deserves further study."
30. D.B. McCormick, Riboflavin, in Present Knowledge in Nutrition, 6th ed. (M.L. Brown, ed), International Life Sciences Institute, Washington DC, 1990, p 146.

I don't see this as a serious problem. "May affect bioavailablility" is not the same as no absorption at all.

When we mix foods, we also have no knowledge of the full nutrient content and their interactions. Lots of factors impact bioavability, and excretion rates.

I will claim that it is impossible to micro manage your nutrient intake. There is no way we can calculate exactly how much of each nutrient we need at a given time, considering bioavability factors, interactions, excretion rates aso. I say let biology do this job for you.
 
Messages
78
Hello Adster,

Yes, I am a professional. I am president of a company that interprets hair mineral testing. I have been doing research with hair testing to evaluate a persons status of each b vitamin based on the heavy metal levels and ability of the body to make carrier proteins for zinc, copper, iron, manganese, and chromium and adequately use them. I am in the process of publishing a paper with a professor of animal nutrition, because much of the research was done with dogs; (plus I have a great pasion for dogs) liver biopsies and blood work to correlate to the results of the hair charts.

I suffered many problems in my life that the medical community could never understand or help with. One was severe, life threatening nickel allergy. However, every time I traveled overseas and lived there for a year, my "allergy" would go away. So I knew at an early age that our bodies had ways of removing excess metals. It's just when you are not adequately using your minerals properly, you will accumulate heavy metals to substitute in various enzyme reactions. You don't function well, as we all know, but at least we don't die - like a car out of gas. So once you put back the correct B's that you need, in the correct ratios based on your hair, the metals away, and you use your own minerals that have been stuck in your liver. Iron is for fight, copper if for flight and manganese is for strength. Zinc brings calm.
 
Messages
21
Location
New York
Hello Adster,

Yes, I am a professional. I am president of a company that interprets hair mineral testing. I have been doing research with hair testing to evaluate a persons status of each b vitamin based on the heavy metal levels and ability of the body to make carrier proteins for zinc, copper, iron, manganese, and chromium and adequately use them. I am in the process of publishing a paper with a professor of animal nutrition, because much of the research was done with dogs; (plus I have a great pasion for dogs) liver biopsies and blood work to correlate to the results of the hair charts.

I suffered many problems in my life that the medical community could never understand or help with. One was severe, life threatening nickel allergy. However, every time I traveled overseas and lived there for a year, my "allergy" would go away. So I knew at an early age that our bodies had ways of removing excess metals. It's just when you are not adequately using your minerals properly, you will accumulate heavy metals to substitute in various enzyme reactions. You don't function well, as we all know, but at least we don't die - like a car out of gas. So once you put back the correct B's that you need, in the correct ratios based on your hair, the metals away, and you use your own minerals that have been stuck in your liver. Iron is for fight, copper if for flight and manganese is for strength. Zinc brings calm.

I would love to have a hair analysis done. Where would I go for this? and about how much would it cost?
 

Adster

Senior Member
Messages
600
Location
Australia
Thanks DP. I've had 2 hair tests done in the last while, both ended up being quite different, which left me a little confused and not convinced it was entirely reliable as a basis for treatment. I assume you are aware of Culter's work in this area?


Hello Adster,

Yes, I am a professional. I am president of a company that interprets hair mineral testing. I have been doing research with hair testing to evaluate a persons status of each b vitamin based on the heavy metal levels and ability of the body to make carrier proteins for zinc, copper, iron, manganese, and chromium and adequately use them. I am in the process of publishing a paper with a professor of animal nutrition, because much of the research was done with dogs; (plus I have a great pasion for dogs) liver biopsies and blood work to correlate to the results of the hair charts.

I suffered many problems in my life that the medical community could never understand or help with. One was severe, life threatening nickel allergy. However, every time I traveled overseas and lived there for a year, my "allergy" would go away. So I knew at an early age that our bodies had ways of removing excess metals. It's just when you are not adequately using your minerals properly, you will accumulate heavy metals to substitute in various enzyme reactions. You don't function well, as we all know, but at least we don't die - like a car out of gas. So once you put back the correct B's that you need, in the correct ratios based on your hair, the metals away, and you use your own minerals that have been stuck in your liver. Iron is for fight, copper if for flight and manganese is for strength. Zinc brings calm.
 

bertiedog

Senior Member
Messages
1,738
Location
South East England, UK
Originally Posted by Dog Person
...In my opinion it is ever good to do a shotgun approach with B vitamins.

As to Pam and her migraine. By taking what she "thinks" she needs has obviously thrown her nutritional balance off to a greater stress response. Research out of New York's migraine center shows that the vast majority of migraines are due to low magnesium. Taking magnesium will not fix the problem, you must determine what is causing the loss of magnesium from the body. What is causing the stress response and which nutrient or nutrients are specifically needed to remedy the problem.

---

Sometimes it is just a magnesium shortage - people dont realize that it needs to be in a ratio with calcium and things like milk contain calcium but not much magnesium. The main place we get magnesium is from fruits and veggies which the average American barely eats. Magnesium is the central ion in chlorophyll so generally if it's green it has magnesium. The food pyramid nows says we should eat 8-10 fruits and veggies / day for health, but te average American eats 3 or less.

But - yes - supplementing magnesium does not always do the trick. It never helped my migraines. My migraines were due to 3 genes causing high blood pressure... which I am sure I had during PMS my whole life but never caught it until I was 50 (at that time it was also only during PMS). Capsaicin helped me and now I read that the reason is that it increases NO (which is what we with high bp are deficient in).

But there was another guy at the other board who was low in magnesium, and his doctor would supplement him and retest - still low. It turns out he was eating too much protein. The breakdown product of protein is ammonia and to excrete ammonia magnesium is needed. Needless to say that guy had NMDA issues as well as ammonia will strip magnesium from the NMDA receptors to get enough.

So - there are lots of reasons for deficienncies. Some really are poor diet though.

Rydra

P.S. I also agree that B vitamins work synergistically and should be supplemented together. Also I am amazed at how the younger generation believe they should not take a multi or anything preventative, but wait until they are sick and then try to take the only 1 thing (ha! it will never be one thing) that will fix them. It is hard to figure out what few things are missing (very, very) and hard to fix them (maybe impossible) once one is ill...prevention is the better way IMHO.

The problem with what you are saying above is now that I have stopped the Lipoceutical Glutathione I haven't had a migraine. I haven't changed anything else at all and still taking lots of other supplements to help methylation plus Patricia Kane protocol so it is a definite negative reaction to glutathione and as the article said this can convert to glutamate a known excitory toxin in some migraneuous individuals.
Pam