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Very noticeable improvements in brain fog using Dr Greg Russell-Jones's transdermal B12 oils (which provide a similar dose to B12 injections)

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
I have to take B2 separately from Life Extension Two-Per-Day tablets?

The Life Extension tablets contain the vitamin B2 dose you need, contain the minerals you need, and contain a vitamin B complex. In Greg's protocol, you do not need anything else other than these Life Extension tablets and the vitamin B12 oils.
 

dannybex

Senior Member
Messages
3,561
Location
Seattle
The Life Extension tablets contain the vitamin B2 dose you need, contain the minerals you need, and contain a vitamin B complex. In Greg's protocol, you do not need anything else other than these Life Extension tablets and the vitamin B12 oils.

@Hip you may not be aware that Greg recommends iron, to help with the krebs cycle, etc., and there's no iron in the Life Extension supp. I believe though that he recommends food -- or heme -- sources of iron.
 

nryanh94

Senior Member
Messages
165
For the last few months I have been using the methylcobalamin + adenosylcobalamin vitamin B12 transdermal oil developed by Dr Greg Russell-Jones in Australia, which he recommends for ME/CFS.

This transdermal B12 oil has made very noticeable improvements in my brain fog and cognitive clarity.

The cognitive clarity effects of this B12 oil kick in fast: I find within 2 or 3 hours of rubbing the B12 oil into my skin, I start to feel increased cognitive clarity; and this mental clarity lasts for around 3 days on just one transdermal dose of the B12 oil.

So you may only need to apply the B12 oil once every 2 or 3 days — though Greg recommends the B12 oil should be used daily if you are aiming for sustained improvements in your ME/CFS.

Greg has a PhD in biochemistry, and an in-depth knowledge of B12. Greg's website on which sells his various B12 oils is here: www.b12oils.com



This is the first time I've obtained cognitive improvements from B12. Some years ago, I tried B12 hydroxocobalamin injections, but without noticing any benefits. And I did not get this type of cognitive boost from sublingual methylcobalamin (although I never tried methylcobalamin injections). However I found the methylcobalamin and adenosylcobalamin forms of B12 in Greg's product have a clearcut beneficial effect on my brain fog.

Methylcobalamin and adenosylcobalamin are the 2 active forms of B12, whereas hydroxocobalamin is an inactive form that has to be converted to the active forms in the body.

I found it easy to notice the cognitive benefits of this B12 oil, because they kick in within hours. So I can be feeling pretty brain fogged at the beginning of the day, then apply the B12 oil, and within a few hours I am in a state of significantly increased cognitive clarity.



Greg I believe uses a microemulsion skin penetration enhancer technology in his B12 oils that allows B12 to efficiently penetrate across the skin and into the body (he authored a paper on microemulsion transdermal delivery, and has expertise in such penetration enhancers).

Greg estimates that with this penetration enhancer, around 80% of the B12 in his oil is absorbed when rubbed into the skin, which means the B12 doses you get from this oil are comparable to B12 injections.

In fact Greg says B12 oil may be better than injections, because the B12 oil provides a slow release mechanism as it penetrates the skin, allowing the body to better utilize the B12, compared to the short-lived spike in B12 levels that you get from a B12 injection.



Greg's Adenosyl/Methyl B12 oil comes in a pump bottle, and the pump measures out a dose of 0.25 ml of oil, which contains adenosylcobalamin 1.8 mg and methylcobalamin 0.7 mg — a total of 2.5 mg (2500 mcg) of vitamin B12. You pump a dose of this oil into your hand, and then rub into your skin.

Remember, it's estimated around 80% of this B12 is absorbed, so you can see that you are getting high doses into your system: you are going get the equivalent of a 80% x 2.5 = 2 mg B12 injection from one dose of the B12 oil.

The cost is $50 for one bottle containing up to 60 x 2.5 mg B12 doses (or $40 a bottle if you buy 3 or more); it sounds a little expensive, but if you compare that to the cost of sixty B12 injections, it's quite good value.

The skin should not be wet or damp when you apply the B12 oil, because Greg says this will reduce absorption. With B12 oils containing methylcobalamin, it may be best to apply to skin areas that are covered by clothes and so not exposed to light (eg, your belly), as methylcobalamin breaks down under light exposure.

Bottle of B12 transdermal oil (left). Single dose of B12 oil on hand (right).
View attachment 31551 View attachment 31552



I noticed two side effects from the B12 oil, though (but both have solutions):

(1) Sometimes around 2 hours after applying the B12 oil, I would get hit with a wave of increased tiredness and increased brain fog that would last for around 4 hours before clearing up. I think this may be due to a transient hypokalemia (low blood potassium), which high doses of B12 are known to sometimes cause.

But I found that if I take around 400 mg or so of oral potassium at the same time as applying the B12 oil, this prevents the wave of tiredness (you get around 400 mg of potassium in a banana). I contacted Greg about this, and he thinks the hypokalemia arises from B12's effect on aldosterone, a hormone which controls the blood sodium/potassium balance.

(2) Often this B12 oil containing methylcobalamin and adenosylcobalamin would cause an overstimulation effect. My hunch was this might be due to over-methylation, so I started experimenting with taking oral niacinamide 500 mg at the same time as applying the B12 oil (niacinamide supposedly inhibits methylation, I've read), and it seems to counter the overstimulation.
Hip, curious if you’ve tried the b12 ice with the THC and vitamin D in it or if you have any thoughts on it. I’m interested in the thc as an antiinflammtory
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
Hip, curious if you’ve tried the b12 ice with the THC and vitamin D in it or if you have any thoughts on it. I’m interested in the thc as an antiinflammtory

I have not tried tetrahydrocurcumin as a supplement, so could not comment on how effective it might be. I've not noticed much from curcumin.
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
Just want to update on my progress with B12 oils:

After using these oils for around 4 months or so, I felt that their brain fog-clearing effect had ceased to work for me, or at least the improvement in brain fog became much less.

When I first started these oils, I'd apply the oil once every 3 or 4 days, and on each application, within a few hours, I'd notice a very definite and obvious increase in mental clarity, which would last for about 3 days.

But now when I apply the oil, it's hard to notice any effect.


However, one confounding factor is that caught a virus in March 2019 that caused a cough and a tickly sore throat that took a few weeks to fully clear.

Ever since catching that virus, I have been noticeably more tired, and I wonder if I may have contracted another pathogen that is sticking around in my body, worsening the ME/CFS a little. Potentially this might also explain why the B12 oils seem to have lost their effect for me, because the benefits of the oils disappeared roughly around in March, I think.


The other thing is that it's possible that my brain fog has permanently improved as a result of the many months of B12 oil protocol (I do sense that my brain fog is a bit better). So this may be why I am not noticing the effects of B12, because my brain fog has become better anyway.
 
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Cipher

Administrator
Messages
838
Just want to update on my progress with B12 oils:

After using these oils for around 4 months or so, I felt that their brain fog-clearing effect had ceased to work for me, or at least the improvement in brain fog became much less.

When I first started these oils, I'd apply the oil once every 3 or 4 days, and on each application, within a few hours, I'd notice a very definite and obvious increase in mental clarity, which would last for about 3 days.

But now when I apply the oil, it's hard to notice any effect.


However, one confounding factor is that caught a virus in March 2019 that caused a cough and a tickly sore throat that took a few weeks to fully clear.

Ever since catching that virus, I have been noticeably more tired, and I wonder if I may have contracted another pathogen that is sticking around in my body, worsening the ME/CFS a little. Potentially this might also explain why the B12 oils seem to have lost their effect for me, because the benefits of the oils disappeared roughly around in March, I think.

Something that I've heard anecdotally from a ME/CFS patient is that B12 (injections in this case) loses its effects if taken continuously, but keeps working if cycled on/off.
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
Something that I've heard anecdotally from a ME/CFS patient is that B12 (injections in this case) loses its effects if taken continuously, but keeps working if cycled on/off.

That's interesting, perhaps I should give the B12 oil a break, and then return to it say a month or so later.
 

NotThisGuy

Senior Member
Messages
312
Something that I've heard anecdotally from a ME/CFS patient is that B12 (injections in this case) loses its effects if taken continuously, but keeps working if cycled on/off.
Do you have more info on that?
How long does the break need to be?
 

Bowser

Senior Member
Messages
141
Here in India B12 is available in capsules filled with granules called Matilda Forte

Is this less effective than sublingual B12? This type of capsule doesn't seem common elsewhere.
 
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CCC

Senior Member
Messages
457
I've got some lithium orotate in stock, so I'll have to try it out, taking at the same time as B12. Though I just found this paper which says lithium seems to promote B12 deficiency.

We've found it makes a huge difference - even at only 35 mcg a day of this one. 3 times that is too much.

There's also a bit around about needing I, Se and Mo for B12 to work, which we'd already done coincidentally. (from the B12 oils guy). Human biochemistry is so complicated.

Edit: I had a quick skim read of that paper - they were using subjects with mood disorders. The lithium doses were much, much higher than proposed here. Without checking their stats, I can see that high-dose Li could lead to B12 deficiency by the resulting imbalances it would cause.
 
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Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
We've found it makes a huge difference - even at only 35 mcg a day of this one.

That doesn't make much sense, since from what I can work out, the normal daily dietary intake of lithium is about 1000 mcg. So 35 mcg is negligible by comparison with how much lithium is absorbed from the diet.
 
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CCC

Senior Member
Messages
457
That does make much sense, since from what I can work out, the normal daily dietary intake of lithium is about 1000 mcg. So 35 mcg is negligible by comparison with how much lithium is absorbed from the diet.

It doesn't make much sense to us, either.

That said, the difference is measurable. We're also now up to 70 mcg (two drops).

It does need to be taken on the same day as the b12 oil (adenosyl only).

My ideas for why this might work are based on severe deficiency - so any amount will do. Possibly caused by:
  • using filtered water - the main source fo dietary lithium is in water (but there was improvement from filtered water)
  • Australian soils are deficient in quit a few minerals - comes with being an old continent
  • we've been on B12 for a few years - could we have exhausted any Li stores (if there are any)?
  • someone grew very quickly to reach 6' - perhaps that depleted something
Freddd uses 10-20 times that amount, I think up to 5mg or more, but he did take a long time to get to that dose.
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
In 2019 I have tried Greg's Adenosyl/Methyl B12 oil with cofactors on 2 different time periods (5-7 applications in total), but didn't notice any e

On Dr Myhill's website, she says about B12 injections that:
some patients will respond straight away, some need several doses before they see improvement. I would do at least two months of daily injections (i.e. 60) before giving up.

It may be an idea to also take some folate with the B12 oil, as this is normally taken with B12 when used to treat ME/CFS. Gottfries's study found that folic acid supplementation increased the probably that B12 would help ME/CFS patients.
 
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