Supps. to take if you don't eat meat, eggs, or dairy?

[Sushi]

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and ideas. I do eat a variety of fresh organic foods, eat nuts, beans, etc. so I'm trying to keep my diet healthy and varied withing the restrictions I have. My B12 has tested normal but maybe supplementing with small amounts would be useful to try. I think there are 2 different types of B12? Is there one that is preferable to another? In the past I tried sublingual methyl B12.

If your doctor did an ordinary B12 test is won't be reliable in that it lumps together all the B12 values--the ones that are functional and useful to our bodies and the ones that are not. If if is broken down into the different types, many of us who test normal or high on B12 are functionally deficient. Most doctors don't know the difference.

And yes there are many types of B12 you can take through different routes and doctors will usually give you cyanocobalamin which takes several conversions to become bioactive. Some of us have genetic errors that prevent those conversions. Also, cyano has a by-product of cyanide which some people can efficiently process and remove from the body.

So it is better to take one of the active forms of B12 and it cannot be swallowed (B complex pills have you swallow it) or most of it is lost in digestion. It needs to be taken sublingually or by injection.

There has been a lot of discussion here about whether to take methyl B12 or hydroxy B12 with good arguments on either side. My doctor has me injecting hydroxy as do many ME/CFS doctors.

You can read a great deal more about this on the very long B12 thread!

Best wishes,
Sushi

 

[xrunner]

An interesting thing I have seen here: Probably a much higher proportion of members here than the general public, have been or are vegetarian/and or vegan, for many years--me included. This is anecdotal of course, I just keep hearing it from members.

Some of us have decided we have to eat meat after looking at many lab tests (me included). This was a hard decision but one I and quite a few others felt that we had to make as, even with good supplementation, we weren't able to compensate for not eating animal protein.

It might even make an interesting poll! I am not suggesting that the vegans and vegetarians here change their diet, only that it is a tricky thing to deal with and some of the deficiencies we might have incurred over the years could be making getting well more difficult.

Best wishes,
Sushi

Amazing! I never realised that. I was vegan, and no grains also, for about three years prior to having health problems. I had never had any major (or minor) health issues before.

The sad thing was that I thought I was on a healthy diet! Despite tests showing nutritional deficiencies all over, it would take me another three years before I would see some sense and revert back to the diet that had me healthy for most of my life.
As soon as I switched back, I noticed pretty strong detox symptoms and then started to recover. Most of my nutritional deficiencies more or less normalised during a time when I could not take any supplements. Veganism is a closed chapter as far as I'm concerned.

Anyone committed to a vegetarian/vegan diet should have their aminoacids, minerals and functional b vitamins checked out regularly and compensate as required, in my opinion. PS: And if you eat seafood pls check your heavy metals.

 

[Ocean]

Amazing! I never realised that. I was vegan, and no grains also, for about three years prior to having health problems. I had never had any major (or minor) health issues before.

The sad thing was that I thought I was on a healthy diet! Despite tests showing nutritional deficiencies all over, it would take me another three years before I would see some sense and revert back to the diet that had me healthy for most of my life.
As soon as I switched back, I noticed pretty strong detox symptoms and then started to recover. Most of my nutritional deficiencies more or less normalised during a time when I could not take any supplements. Veganism is a closed chapter as far as I'm concerned.

Anyone committed to a vegetarian/vegan diet should have their aminoacids, minerals and functional b vitamins checked out regularly and compensate as required, in my opinion. PS: And if you eat seafood pls check your heavy metals.

I don't blame my diet at all. I have a close family member who is also ill who eats a regular healthy omnivore diet and always has. Given that we both are similarly sick but have had very different diets, lifestyles, and locations, if anything I blame genes. I also had health issues almost my whole life decades before embarking on that diet. But of course for some diet could be a causative factor. I guess it could be for me too, but I don't believe it is. Xrunner, good advice about the testing. And I'm glad you are doing much better on your new diet.

 

[Ocean]

If your doctor did an ordinary B12 test is won't be reliable in that it lumps together all the B12 values--the ones that are functional and useful to our bodies and the ones that are not. If if is broken down into the different types, many of us who test normal or high on B12 are functionally deficient. Most doctors don't know the difference.

And yes there are many types of B12 you can take through different routes and doctors will usually give you cyanocobalamin which takes several conversions to become bioactive. Some of us have genetic errors that prevent those conversions. Also, cyano has a by-product of cyanide which some people can efficiently process and remove from the body.

So it is better to take one of the active forms of B12 and it cannot be swallowed (B complex pills have you swallow it) or most of it is lost in digestion. It needs to be taken sublingually or by injection.

There has been a lot of discussion here about whether to take methyl B12 or hydroxy B12 with good arguments on either side. My doctor has me injecting hydroxy as do many ME/CFS doctors.

You can read a great deal more about this on the very long B12 thread!

Best wishes,
Sushi

That's why I thought supplementing can't hurt because I know the regular test is not necessarily that telling. I didn't know that there are other tests though for it, I will have to see if I can get those and maybe try the hydroxy since I haven't tried that kind. Thank you.