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B2 I love you!

Messages
18
I have had nasty fatigue and muscle degeneration for 20 years and it turns out i have a mitochondrial disorder which riboflavin is meant to help greatly with. Yet within 24 hrs of taking even a small dose it my left hand side gets even weaker and symptoms flare up. With other people who take it. It helps them greatly. Why would my body react to b2 like this when its meant to be helpful.?
 

Kathevans

Senior Member
Messages
689
Location
Boston, Massachusetts
@DanCraig808 Have you read through this thread? One very knowledgeable person about B2 is PhD Biochemist Greg Russell-Jones, who runs/is affiliated with the B-12 Oils company. He says that without enough functional B2, ythe body doesn't recycle folate and , I believe B12. Having enough functional B2 requires adequate thyroid function and perhaps a bit of iodine, adequate selenium, and enough molybdenum.

It sounds easy enough, but for those of us who have reached this point, that is of developing deficiencies over decades, ramping up can take time and patience. I'm talking months here. Maybe for each one. I titrated up largely on BodyBio drops, which can be taken drop by drop. In the case of molybdenum, I started with a drop in a quarter of a cup of water and took a teaspoon or so so of that.

You get the picture. I've worked on B2 levels for a couple of years now, and after adding L-carnitine to my supplements, find that I am adding some of the sublingual back in, experimenting to see if levels shift everything else I've got going. As others have pointed out, these vitamins are interdependent, each one supports how the others get used...

Over two years ago, a fraction of a sublingual B12 gave me heart irregularities that put me in the emergency room. Now I use two or three squirts a day of the oil. But for me, there are still challenges!
 
Messages
18
@DanCraig808 Have you read through this thread? One very knowledgeable person about B2 is PhD Biochemist Greg Russell-Jones, who runs/is affiliated with the B-12 Oils company. He says that without enough functional B2, ythe body doesn't recycle folate and , I believe B12. Having enough functional B2 requires adequate thyroid function and perhaps a bit of iodine, adequate selenium, and enough molybdenum.

It sounds easy enough, but for those of us who have reached this point, that is of developing deficiencies over decades, ramping up can take time and patience. I'm talking months here. Maybe for each one. I titrated up largely on BodyBio drops, which can be taken drop by drop. In the case of molybdenum, I started with a drop in a quarter of a cup of water and took a teaspoon or so so of that.

You get the picture. I've worked on B2 levels for a couple of years now, and after adding L-carnitine to my supplements, find that I am adding some of the sublingual back in, experimenting to see if levels shift everything else I've got going. As others have pointed out, these vitamins are interdependent, each one supports how the others get used...

Over two years ago, a fraction of a sublingual B12 gave me heart irregularities that put me in the emergency room. Now I use two or three squirts a day of the oil. But for me, there are still challenges!

Thanks Kath,
B12, b1, b6, i never have had any issues with at all, been taking sub b-12 for best part of a decade, it's just the b2 that floors me. 10 years ago i tried b3 as some natropath recommended it and it had the same effect. maybe even worse. Muscles in face and left side of body aching and weaker then usual even. And an overall gross feeling in general.

Thing is for for my illness - Glutaric Acedemia type ii - it's specific treatment is to take b2. Yet nope, even a quarter of a 100 mg tablet kicks my butt within 24 hours.
 

Eastman

Senior Member
Messages
526
I have had nasty fatigue and muscle degeneration for 20 years and it turns out i have a mitochondrial disorder which riboflavin is meant to help greatly with. Yet within 24 hrs of taking even a small dose it my left hand side gets even weaker and symptoms flare up. With other people who take it. It helps them greatly. Why would my body react to b2 like this when its meant to be helpful.?

Thanks Kath,
B12, b1, b6, i never have had any issues with at all, been taking sub b-12 for best part of a decade, it's just the b2 that floors me. 10 years ago i tried b3 as some natropath recommended it and it had the same effect. maybe even worse. Muscles in face and left side of body aching and weaker then usual even. And an overall gross feeling in general.

Thing is for for my illness - Glutaric Acedemia type ii - it's specific treatment is to take b2. Yet nope, even a quarter of a 100 mg tablet kicks my butt within 24 hours.

It is possible that taking high doses of B2 or B3 induced a deficiency in other nutrients. Have you seen this thread warning about side effects from B2? Or this thread by Gondwanaland showing some of the nutrient linkages?
 
Messages
18
It is possible that taking high doses of B2 or B3 induced a deficiency in other nutrients. Have you seen this thread warning about side effects from B2? Or this thread by Gondwanaland showing some of the nutrient linkages?
I am only able to take b2 or b3 for no longer then 2 days. Then i can barely move for a cpl of days. So it inducing deffciency in other vitamins wouldn't factor in.

Metabolic doc i saw cpl months ago said "just try riboflavin again". Aka not going back to him.
 

Violeta

Senior Member
Messages
2,895
I am only able to take b2 or b3 for no longer then 2 days. Then i can barely move for a cpl of days. So it inducing deffciency in other vitamins wouldn't factor in.

Metabolic doc i saw cpl months ago said "just try riboflavin again". Aka not going back to him.

25mg at a time is too much, can you get capsules, take a little sprinkle of it at a time, or crush the tablets. It made me very tired when I started taking it, and I needed it desperately, too. At times it would make my eyes itchy, too. Then after taking it for a couple of months I came down with the worst lung infection, my body wasn't dealing with the iron that the b2 was setting free, probably had a big buildup in my lungs. Thought I was going to die, I can't take drugs, had to figure it out on my own. I finally found apolactoferrin for dealing with the iron, took that until it cleared up, and haven't had a lung infection since then.

I never heard of that disease, I'll have to look it up.
 

Gondwanaland

Senior Member
Messages
5,092
At times it would make my eyes itchy, too. Then after taking it for a couple of months I came down with the worst lung infection, my body wasn't dealing with the iron that the b2 was setting free,
I am having further experiences in this field and this sounds like increased need for copper. For instance, mushrooms are high in copper and are recommended for strenghtening the immune system (e.g. Reishi), but unfortunately for me they are potent aromatase inhibitors (I am low in estrogen).

I also read somewhere (where?) that the fat soluble vitamins need copper! Makes sense from the immunity perspective.

ETA
http://www.acu-cell.com/crcu.html
http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=nutrient&dbid=53#foodchart
 
Last edited:

Violeta

Senior Member
Messages
2,895
I am having further experiences in this field and this sounds like increased need for copper. For instance, mushrooms are high in copper and are recommended for strenghtening the immune system (e.g. Reishi), but unfortunately for me they are potent aromatase inhibitors (I am low in estrogen).

I also read somewhere (where?) that the fat soluble vitamins need copper! Makes sense from the immunity perspective.

ETA
http://www.acu-cell.com/crcu.html
http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=nutrient&dbid=53#foodchart
Good point, I may not be using copper correctly due to weak adrenals, though. Need to fortify adrenals.
 

Gondwanaland

Senior Member
Messages
5,092
Good point, I may not be using copper correctly due to weak adrenals, though. Need to fortify adrenals.
In the past I have found the same problem, and realized there is a fine tunning with zinc and selenium.

If you intruduce Molybdenum to the equation, things get much more difficult to get in balance. Always go via foods whenever possible.
 

Violeta

Senior Member
Messages
2,895
T
In the past I have found the same problem, and realized there is a fine tunning with zinc and selenium.

If you intruduce Molybdenum to the equation, things get much more difficult to get in balance. Always go via foods whenever possible.

That's interesting, I have been trying zinc and selenium, and trying some b6 with the zinc, too. I guess making the copper more bioavailable is what I have to focus on.
 
Messages
18
Here's some information about the disease. Maybe someone can understand it and figure out what else might help.

So sad that your doctor knows nothing else besides "take some B2".

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/glutaric-acidemia-type-2


Yea the first geneticist who gave me the diagnosis didn't even tell me to take b2, suggested a muscle biopsy in the letter he wrote to my GP. I feel as though he just didn't have any clue about the illness and passed the buck. I googled it and read about how people who have this illness take B2 and it helps with their muscle weakness/ issues, Tried it and realized quickly that it was doing the opposite of helping me.

Saw some Metabolic specialist, told him i had tried B2, he ignorantly said "Try it again" , to which i said um i have tried, several times. "Try it again, That will be $400 thanks Dan"

I have one final doctor in my city i am waiting to get an apt with, and i will be bringing up this B2 stuff with her but i am not expecting much from the previous apt's with doctors and their lack of knowledge on this illness.
 
Messages
18
So can i ask, anybody the following

Am i wasting my time / money taking b1, b2, and b12 as long as i am not able to take b2 due to nasty reactions to it? As i read someone say that without b2 the other B vitamins don't have any effect, Is this accurate?