B12: How much do you take?

I do mine in my thigh. Unless you have someone around that can do it for it, hubby, friend, etc. When my daughter is coming by and it's about time I have her do my hip, she is so good....she's an RN......

Your doctor will show you also.......

My surgeon told me to take my B12 shot once a month.  I did not know you could take more.  What are the other "B's" for?

Thanks,
JOY

I do 1,500mg B-12  Sublingual's daily.

IF - Intrinsic factor

mfd by the larger part of the stomach. For each thing we eat, there is a digestive mate. In theory. A person who is lactose intolerant probably makes too little lacTASE (or none at all) to break it down. Pepsin, trypsin, all kinds of things break down different items. It's called digestion. Absorption is a whole different thing. DIGESTED food is absorbed in the intestine.

So, we eat or swallow a B12 source, and it SHOULD mate with its IF and churn. Togeether they head off down the intestine, with ea*****h or so being in charge of different elements. B12 is one that gets delivered early on, or higher up in the duodenum. IF it has mated with IF.

So, for us, all of that is moot, since IF we had any IF, it's over --------------> there. And when we eat or swallow B12 food or pill, it goes <---------- over there. Never the twain shall meet. And of course, the duodenum is bypassed completely so poof, gone.

How do you know when you need B12? The day you have WLS! If you can feel the "power surge" when you get the shot, chances are you're running on the border all the time.

While docs will tell you to "cut back" when it is "too high" or now considered almost normal, I just freak out. It's hard enough to get it back once it's gone. If you get it back with sublinguals, yay. I won't do them, no chew, no lozenge, no liquids for me. I am lazy or something and prefer the shot. I do weekly unless it catches my eye then I give me an extra mid week. My levels are only minimally acceptable to me at 800.

Born at 2000, I'll never see that again, unless I'm tested the day after a shot! LOL

Michelle:

I've been taking one 500 mcg since a doctor told me I had periphereal neuropathy and kept asking if I was diabetic. I wasn't, but wondered if it had anything to do with low B12. Even though my levels always came back fine (I thought ... until this year I never saw them), I decided to add the B12 pills. Plus, I started getting very spacy (and still do).

This year, I saw the B12 levels were at high. I asked the bariatric PA about that, and she said you can never be too high on B12. So I was happy with that. I'll continue my B12 pill daily.

BTW, the neuropathy is more associated with the disc compression in my back. But since I started taking the B12, I have less tingling in my toes than I did before the B12. So maybe I'm doing something right.

a person can be symptomatic without having down-in-the-dirt numbers. As we know now, 400 can be way too low for many ppl.

Now, I personally refer to the 500's as a "waste of shelf space", but then, see what I see. People walking with a cane, can't even rememeber why and then finally lay hands on their labs and B12 was 120! Marked by their doc as basically "close enough".

To me, that's kinda like depositing my pay check in the grocery store next door to my bank. Close enough? Well, not really if what I need it to make my house payment! Close enough isn't, IMHO.

Thanks Vita,I just had major labs done last week. I will ask my doctor the digits in the B12...
Hmmm,the mating of our body with these B's,is this X rated???

Depends on who's watchin', now doesn't it?

I take 1,000's  sublingual in the morning and another one at night. My level has been greater than 2000 for about 8 months now.

Thanks for your great explanations of things

that's great! mine held near 2000 for about 6 yrs, then suddenly was at 300. If I had not been on yahoo grads, I'd never have even been watching it! whew. We alll help each other by sharing what has happened to us, what has not because one doc had a clue. Not all the docs know everything. and neither do we, but after 10 yrs on that board (had to be at least 1 yr to start), wow, there are a lot of archives!