Elevated B12- What Does This Mean

[jesscarmel]

hi

i had blood work yesterday and when i looked up the results online it says my b12 levels are elevated. normal is 240-900 and mine is 1123. ususally im anemic. what does this mean- im really scared.

thanks

Jess

[Nancym]

Nothing bad, it means you have lots of B12 in your system. Do you take a supplement? You want to be scared when it falls to the low end, not the upper end!

There's more than one sort of anemia, there's anemia you can have that is an iron deficiency and there's anemia you can have when you have a B12 or folate deficiency. So it looks like you don't have a B12 deficiency.

[ravenwoodglass]

hi

i had blood work yesterday and when i looked up the results online it says my b12 levels are elevated. normal is 240-900 and mine is 1123. ususally im anemic. what does this mean- im really scared.

thanks

Jess

Don't be scared but do ask your doctor if you are not taking supplements. If you are taking them you may want stop for a couple of months and then retest the levels. If they have gone down substantially you can restart the supplements. Your intestines may have healed enough for you to be able to "absorb" B12 again and build up the stores your body needs. To my knowledge, but you should check for yourself to be positive, excess B12 is not harmful to the body like excess iron or vitamin A would be.

[mamabear]

I did some research on B12 levels in the past few months, and there is basically no toxic level . I believe that you have started absorbing again, and you can alternate your B12's every other day. You might request other levels be drawn of major nutrients like folic acid,iron, ferritin..all these are necessary in producing red blood cells. If iron or ferritn become elevated, then you NEED to stop them right away. Did you say which vitamin amount you were on and for how long??

[NicoleAJ]

As others have mentioned, B12 doesn't have a toxicity level. It is important that your levels are high enough. That being said, I'm not sure which lab your doctor uses, but I get my B12 checked frequently for Pernicia anemia (low B12) and the test have always said that normal is 200-1100, so you are only slightly elevated. B12 can stay in your system for decades. If you are taking sublingual B12, then discontinue it completely, you don't need it. Otherwise, it shouldn't cause a major concern for you.