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B12 - I got tested and am deficient

just wanted to let everyone know that it IS possible to develop a b12 deficieny fairly quickly. Ive been raw for 11 months now – just got some blood results back and B12 came up very low. Ive been eating spirulina and sea veg almost everyday for 8 months but that hasnt seemed to make a difference.

It is possible that i was deficient in B12 before going raw and didn’t have any symptoms. I definitely do now – fatigue, thinner hair, slow wound healing, sore gums. My zinc also came up low.

so just to warn people – if you are feeling shitty, its not “JUST DETOX” – you are probably deficient in something. according to Dr Jubb this happens because the body goes into internal shock from cellular cleansing.

hope this info helps someone.

PS - the holisitic doctor ive been seeing says that the only b12 that actually absorbs are the sublingual tabs or injections.

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Comments

  • RawVoiceRawVoice Raw Newbie

    I was recently diagnosed a slightly deficient in B12 after having blood work done. My initial bloodwork showed I was slightly anemic which is why the doctor ordered more bloodwork. I am only slightly anemic and deficient in B12. My doctor told me to start taking 1000mg of B12 a day. I know from raw food lectures that the best kind of B12 is the one that starts with “ethyl” not “cyan.” I bought sublinqual B12. I’ve had some hair thinning, so I’m hoping it will help.

  • DREAM and RV thanks so much. I will definately check out that anylsis site. My friend was telling me about a test that you can do with saliva tha ttells you about your vitamin/mineral levels.

  • Just read up a bit on B12 and everything that I saw says that it takes years…5-6, to have a deficiency show up because our body stores it long term. This is assuming that you are not lactating :)

    The good. Ewe, assuming this is all accurate, is that raw is not the cause!

  • shgadwashgadwa Raw Newbie

    Interesting…

    A few things. Nutritional yeast is an excellent proven source for B12. Also, as wiki says, test for vitamin B12 have been shown recently to be inaccurate. Furthermore, a lot of meat eaters HAVE a low level of B12 in their body. I do not remember the exact percentage. They say that a urine test is much more effective than a blood test. Also, your body stores B12 and needs only a VERY little amount of it. They say it takes anywhere between 11 months to 3-5 years to show signs of a deficiency. Though you might be deficient (I was to look at both sides of the story here), it could be that you are tired and weak and have thin hair because of other reasons possibly. Maybe you are not eating enough fruits and veggies?? I dunno.

    Lastly, BEWARE of vitamin and mineral supplements as almost ALL of them are very harmful to the human body and will only make matters worse while we waste our money. There might be some good ones out there as I have called around and one said that they use yeast which is better than Synthetics, Cow livers or even worse, intestinal bacterial from human fecal matter! I believe that there are not many now that use fecal matter but as Dr Richard Schulze says, some vitamin companies used that. As a good supplement if you really think that you need one, stay away from Cyanacabolomin. Dr. Schulze sells his Superfood at www.herdoc.com. This stuff is amazing! It never fails to give me a lot of energy. It has like 543% B12. He uses b12 from yeast. All of the ingredients are 100% organic or wildly harvested. He also gives out recipes online here, http://healingtools.tripod.com/thn8.html. He gives the recipes out because he wants people to get well and is not a salesperson.

    Hope that helps,

    Shawn

  • ZoeZoe Raw Newbie

    Spirulina and sea vegetables don’t contian the right kind of B12. In fact eating some sea vegetables and maybe ever spirulina damages our body’s ability to absorp B12. See this article for further info on that:

    http://www.living-foods.com/articles/b12article…

    There is no vegan source of B12. Nutritional yeast is a cooked product which contains B12 because it is put in there as a supplement. Bee pollen contians B12, vegan or not is up to the indivdual’s ethics.

    I spoke to a Doctor who told me in her experience B12 deficiency is NOT a specifically vegetarian or vegan problem, it occurs throughout society, meat eaters and vegans alike.

    I take a nibble off a B12 pill now and then – it is stored in your body, we don’t need much. David Wolfe doesn’t take the ants off his wild honey and eats them when they get in the way…he gets his B12 that way. Storm is a 30 year raw vegan who does not supplement, he is OK, likewise his 5 kids who are raw vegan and regularily tested for deifiencies.

    It is not a simple issue.

  • Hi dream brother. I was tested for deficiencies last April and was deficient in B12. I was given a b12 shot and now I make sure I get tested every three months just for my own peace of mind. So far my b12 levels are normal.

  • I’ve been a lacto vegetarian for over 4 years now and trying to be a raw vegan for 10 months. Even though I get a good amount of sleep, I have always been tired all the time even when I was 90% raw for 3 months. I figured that the tiredness is just how I am. I became more tired than ever, bone weary tired literally feeling the tiredness in my bones since 6 months or so ago. I started realizing this is not normal and maybe I have a B12 deficiency. I have never been tested. In the past, I tried multiple vitamins and spirulina but stopped because I never liked to take supplements and they didn’t seem to help. The issue of B12 deficiency was concerning me more and more and I read some more about the symptoms and sources. I had multiple symptoms of deficiency and multiple sources said that there is no vegan sources of B12…spirulina, sea vegetables, fermented products doesn’t give us the B12 we need. Our bowels make B12 but is too low in the digestive tract to be absorbed. B12 deficiency can cause serious neurological problems including brain damage and death.

    In light of this, I started taking vegetarian sublingual tablets. I felt improvements the next day and within a week I felt so much better it was amazing…the tiredness went away, I actually had energy upon waking and thoughout the day.

  • Laine – was there a particular brand that you are using?

    I am so glad I stumbled on this topic as I have been wondering why I am always exhausted and I receive a good 8-9 hours of sleep a night.

    Do you actually call your doctor for a B12 test or is there a test that will cover more ground?

  • ZoeZoe Raw Newbie

    hi Laine what is a sublingual tablet, which brand do you use?
    Does anyone know why the powest potency B12 I can find is 9000% more than the RDA?
    I read somewhere that too much B12 leads to cancer growth as cancer cells have recepticles for B12 so they hook on and make it grow. That’s why I only take a nibble off a pill once in a blue moon.

  • ajcajc Raw Newbie

    Sublingral, usually here in Australia, just means dissolve under the tongue.
    Some tablets are not meant to do that so be careful to read the label.
    I think about 250mcg…note mcg not mg is sufficient daily but others may argue with that.

  • Me too – I now take 1000mcg a day.

    I suggest reading the book – “Could it be B12?”

    http://www.amazon.com/Could-Be-B12-Epidemic-Mis…=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200580579&sr=8-1

    I was also deficient in Vitamin D.

    I suggest this book too – “Vitamin D Cure”

    http://www.amazon.com/Vitamin-D-Cure-James-Dowd…=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200580649&sr=1-1

    Getting enough B12 & Vit-D took care of fatigue, feeling down, and sleep problems.

    Vitamins really do matter & sometimes we really need FAR more than the RDA —in fact, many, many times more for optimal health.

  • namadetaberu, Zoe – The brand I use is TwinLabs vegetarian B12 ‘dots’. The tablet is very small and round hence ‘dot’. You put it under your tongue and it dissolves. I don’t remember how many micrograms each dot is but it’s alot more than the 10 or 100 mcg per day that has been suggested. It can be taken daily or weekly. I take it weekly.

  • itouristitourist Raw Newbie

    I eat seaweed salad about 3 times a week. And I have a cup of soup at a restaurant maybe 5 times a week (so I am not 100% raw, just 80% or so)

    My hair is thicker and shinier after going raw. There’s no picture of me on the internet, but the people I have seen who are raw look very, very healthy.

    I saw a Discovery Channel show where this one lady who ate meat and who did not have a gastric by-pass was B12 deficient—having a lot of serious health problems. It turned out that she consumes B12 but there is some bacteria preventing it’s absorption.
    There are some people that who cannot absorb B12. The lady ended up taking shots/andor pills.

    Maybe you should focus on a greater variety of raw fruits and vegetables, not just certain things. Juicing helps up the variety.

  • NuttgirlNuttgirl Raw Newbie

    Dreambrother,

    How much did your blood test cost and did you to a regular doctor or a nutritionist for that test? I would love to have something like that done but I am not sure where to go or if I could even afford it.

  • ZoeZoe Raw Newbie

    The test i cheap and easy. The most accurate test is a urine test, nt the blood test. You can send your sample off to a lab and they’ll put your results in the post. It costs

  • I agree with Zoe, Spirulina has B12 but also has something that prevents the body from absorbing the B12 which cancels it out. Besides nutritional yeast, ants and dirt, I don’t think there’s any other B12 option for vegans. I just take a B12 every now and then to be sure and when I get my hands on nutritional yeast I’ll have that too.

    Some people say that most vegans who become deficient have an absorbtion problem and not a lack of the vitamin in their foods. Whatever the case, it’s much more responsible to be safe than to be sorry, if optimal health is what you’re stiving to achieve.

    If you want to be hardcore, do as Wolfe and Juliano do, eat some dirt or ants :p

  • BluedolfinBluedolfin Raw Newbie

    There is another thread (or two or three…) that discuss this same issue (see B12 in raw food?). My understanding (correct me if I am wrong) is that the Red Star brand Vegetarian Formula of nutritional yeast is fortified with B12 and is the only nutritional yeast that has B12. B12 does not naturally occur in nutritional yeast.

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    I don’t know, bee pollen appeals to me much more than ants, since either one would be non-vegan :) Whatever works, I guess!

  • modhinamodhina Raw Newbie

    My eyes became more green too after going raw. Weird eh?

    So- do most of the people on this site think it’s better to take a lab created supplement for b12-which is derived from what? If it’s so hard to find in the natural form non animal product, why is it alright to take the sublingual or shots or whatever- unless it is veggie derived, I don’t know just asking.

    I think I’d rather find a humane goat cheese farmer and get some fresh goat cheese. I don’t know just need a solution too.

  • modhinamodhina Raw Newbie

    And I thought Nutr. yeast had b6 but not b12? Am I wrong?

  • TomsMomTomsMom Raw Newbie

    I don’t think it’s better to take a pill or shot for B12. I don’t think someone should eat meat or milk or eggs for it, either. Better off eating some ants or grasshoppers, and I’m not joking either. Much more natural for humans than meat/dairy/egg. (not that you’d see me sticking a grasshopper in my mouth; I just take a pill now and again, lol)

  • modhinamodhina Raw Newbie

    Let me ask you, were you raised on an inhumane farm or something? There are people out there who don’t mistreat their animals. Did you want goats running around in the streets? Milking a goat is not that cruel. Eating ants and grasshoppers is killing .

  • TomsMomTomsMom Raw Newbie

    Don’t talk to me like that. It’s not appreciated.

  • modhinamodhina Raw Newbie

    Like what exactly? I am not disrespecting you and you have a right to your opinion, I am just stating my own opinion. That was an honest question, because you seem very against eating meat or dairy, which I wholeheartedly understand, it’s not my thing either, but what of taking a pill, when we don’t even know where it’s coming from or what it is derived from. Seriously, eating ants and grasshoppers is not even vegetarian. Having a b12 deficiency that could be cured by having some sort of dairy product is vegetarian. That is why the Essene’s have raw dairy products in their diet. Since you are obviously sensitive about this I apologize for any harshness or sarcasm that came across, but it could be that you were raised on an inhumane farm and are ultra sensitive to the occurences on one, it is a possibility.
    but in NY case no disrespect meant right.

  • TomsMomTomsMom Raw Newbie

    I wasn’t condoning eating insects; I was just stating that early homids mostly likely got their “animal” source of B12 from this, as do all apes today. I’m sorry I was so tart. I’m in my 40s and started caring about animals on my own when I was just 11, not like today where most people seem to be in it because their favorite movie star is vegan or something. It irks and my stupid feelings got hurt. I”m sorry hon.

    Edit: I’m not against dairy or meat; it’s just not normal or natural or healthy to derive most nutrition from it, so I don’t. Not often, anyhow . . .

  • modhinamodhina Raw Newbie

    Cool. Sorry I do have a tendancy to be a bit sarcastic, really did not mean to hurt your or anyone’s feelings.

    I think most people care about animals, we as humans have a tendency to live by what we see, good or bad. We are human, the celebs being vegan are just being positive messengers. cool ok.

  • teadeteade Raw Newbie

    Figs!! lol.
    I saw this video once (from this site in fact) that showed how figwasps go inside the fig and lay their eggs then die…
    so, technically there is a dead wasp inside a fig… no cruelty, and tasty.
    can you get b12 from that?
    haha, I could only wish.
    This is meant for humor btw.

  • modhinamodhina Raw Newbie

    Thank u and a guilt free treat

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    Interesting about the eyes. I knew someone who had brown eyes, and the healthier & cleaner her body got, the lighter and bluer her eyes got!

  • I don’t know why bee pollen would not be listed as a vegan source of B12, because from what I can see in my research, it has sufficient for the body needs, and it is an excellent delivery system, being rich in the full spectrum of amino acids, as well as b complex, it is supposed to be a decent regulator of hemoglobin levels.

    Because it is a complete food, containing even myriads of enzymes according to several credible studies, (google Dr. Susan Percival, University of Florida) it can of itself, aid in the absorption of the b12 it contains as well as the hundreds of other minerals, amino acids and enzymes it contains. So much of the problem with b12 shortage in the body seems to be related not to lack of intake, but to lack of proper absorption.

    I think Bee Pollen does not get talked about enough in this regard.

    Regards, James Williams

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