The REAL ugly that WILL happen if WE don't take OUR vitamins

A post from the main board earlier today.......

WARNING: Follow the Rules.... I don't & now Im going to pay the price the rest of my life


I just had my 5 year anniversary. I have successfuly kept off 140lbs. I had a 15 lb bounce back at about 2 1/2 years out but have maintined since then. For the first 2 years I saw my doctor exactly as required. I followed the rules.

Over the past year, I have been very sick. I have seen 3 Neurologist and have been tested for everything from Lupus to MS. MRI's, various scans, tests, you name it - I've been through it. I have quite a few cognative problems. My short-term memory is a mess, when I speak- sometimes the wrong words come out (I know what Im trying to say - it just doesn't want to make it from my head to my mouth), I have a lot of confussion now, I get very dizzy, I can't manuver my feet well enough to even walk down a flight of steps, I have numbness in my hands & feet... The list goes on..  I have racing heartbeats, I am always freezing cold - even if its 80 degrees out. I have absolutely no energy or strength at all and I use to go to the gym twice a day. Its been one of those "I know my body - I know something is wrong - please help me" feelings but we could never find out the cause. About 6 months ago my Neurologist said that MS comes with so many different signals that he was pretty sure that was what what happening to me.

This week I had my 5 year check up with my Bypass Doc & as soon as I walked int he door, I could tell he didn't look happy. I couldn't figure why... Well --- my bloodwork was a mess!!!!
My Iron should be in the 170-28 range and it is 12!
My B-12 should be near 180 and its 42!!!!!!
My Hemoglobin should be 15.5-11.5 and its 8
My folate should be 5.2 and its 8.6

I stopped taking my vits about 2 years out. I knew how the doctors stressed that it was a lifetime change but thought I was the exception. I figured that since I had reached goal and maintined that I could follow my own rules and now I have done perminant damage to myself. Its going to take months to try to get my levels up to where they should be & to see what neurological problems correct themselves. My doctor said that he has never seen a B12 as low as mine (yipee - I win the prize) and that he is afraid that with as long as I have been without my suppliments, the damage may all be perminant.

PLEEZE PLEEZE PLEEZE -  Be smarter then me!!! Listen to your doctor. Don't feel that you are the exception to the rule. Spend the extra few dollars each month for the correct suppliments and take care of yourself.

Here's the link:

http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/amos/a,messageboard/action ,replies/board_id,4856/cat_id,4456/topic_id,3763724/

 I can't see that pic in the post above number 2 and number 1 I though that was for you!!!!! I was like OMG I KNOW Boner knows what to do!!! Don't do that to us man sheesh! But that is really dangerous of that person to have done that...but God puts idiots on the earth for some reason...

FYI brain damage can start if your B12 is as low as 300..even though it's techinically in the "normal" range.

Much worse then all of the symptoms this person listed, a person can go into cardiac arrest, and/or their organs can shut down because of a lack of B vits.

Also what I'm sure this person hasn't thought about is getting a bone scan. ....if what he or she said is true, I'm sure the've had significant bone loss.

Scott

SOOOO TAKE YOUR VITS AND GET BLOOD WORK!!!!

My B12 was 248 at my last checkup. I started megadosing B12 and iron and zinc on doc orders. I have pernicious anemia now. I have had one deficiency. In that one I had to learn to walk again. Horrible with deficiencies. I still have short term memory loss.

And don't take Flintstones either.

  As my fellow DSer Cookieman has pointed out, some of those nutritional deficits can cause major neurological damage, blindness, and even death ..        Some of the nerve damage is reversible, and some isn't, depending on how bad it is and from which supp. deficiency it resulted ..  

   Now, for some possible solutions to keep this from happening in the future:

   (1) The Men's Forum (or possibly OH itself?) should maybe have a special page where we can each list the date we had our last labs done on, and when our next ones are due to be done, kinda like the "upcoming surgery dates" page ...  We can then remind each other when someone's is coming due, after having ours done just before ..  (sorta like the last guy notifies the next guy on the calendar he's up next) ..     Alternatively, one of us (me?) could volunteer to do a weekly post, reminding which members have test draws due that week ..  This buddy back-up system might prove very useful ..  

  (2) I have an Excel spreadsheet that I have used to easily log and track my blood test results since my surgery date.   It currently contains over 90 different types of tets, with the "normal ranges" for each (for a 46-47 y.o. white male) at the end of that particular column.     It has so many different types on it b/c some were already on it when I  "inherited" it from another fellow DSer that was 4+ years out ..  I have also added the tests my particular surgeon requires, as well as those of another prominent DS surgeon's that were not already included with those of mine  ..  Some of the test types listed on it are also follow-ups or more specific tests resulting from deficiencies showing from my earlier tests ..  You can delete out the ones not applicable to your type of surgery/surgeon ..      The spreadsheet is easy to use  --  just transfer in the data from the lab result sheets to it, and, as to any that are "out of range", put those results in red bold for easy identification ..  You then can tell at a glance which ones are currently out of whack and therefore you need to adjust your suppement intake in regard to ..  You also can see if each test result is improving, getting worse, or staying the same, with each re-take ..   I will email this spreadsheet to anyone who wants it , just PM me with your email address ..  

    K???   

 

Wife and I are both 3 years out, having been done 3 months apart. I am mostly compliant (I still cheat on the carbs from time to time); she is off the reservation completely.

Guess who has the greater health problems? Ain't nuttin' wrong with me that losing the last 30 pounds I've been obsessing over wouldn't fix. Her problems sound like Boner's repost, with the exception that she really does have lupus.

I'll be sticking with the program, thankyewverrymuch.

While there's some discussion of B12, here's a bit of trivia for y'all from the EMS world: our treatment protocol says that if we have to treat a hypoglycemic patient with IV dextrose, if they are  alcoholics or otherwise malnourished, we give them B1 (thiamine) first, then push the dextrose. Low thiamine in general inhibits sugar metabolization, and these 2 groups are most likely to have a B1 deficit.

Moral: take liquid B complex, not just liquid B12.

A friend of mine is about 8 months ahead of me, which puts him at about 18 months right now, and he's already had vision problems due to nervous damage from B12 deficiency. He totally lost his peripheral vision in one eye at about 15 months out. He's started getting B12 shots to correct it, but he's one of those who is gonna have life long problems due to his refusing to create good eating and supplement habits. He's lost from 505 down to about 220, but he already walks like an old man. I don't really know why, but I don't expect it to get any better. He looks damned good though.