Two Vitamin Questions

[shirleyujest]

Last night I took the same vitamins I've taken for the past 6 months and felt light-headed and nauseous. Took w/food of course. They're gluten-free and have had no bad reaction prior, no stomach pains like when I get gluttened.

Is it possible my absorption is improving hence the reaction?

Second question, have read here that sublingual b12 or shots are helpful. Is it not enough to take a regular b supplement?

Thank you.

[RiceGuy]

I don't have any answer to your first question. If it happened to me, I'd conclude it was something else, unless it continues to happen.

As for B12, if your absorption isn't up to it, then the type of B12 which you swallow may not be adequately absorbed. In addition, Pernicious Anemia means a reduction in the ability to derive B12 from food, thus you may need to get it from sublinguals/shots if that's the case. Even swallowing a co-enzyme form of B12 may not be enough, if it doesn't get through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream. A sublingual lozenge dissolves under the tongue, thus can pass directly into the bloodstream. The methylcobalamin form needs no conversion by the liver, so it may work better depending on your particulars.

But a decent B-complex will have co-enzyme forms for all the vitamins in it. Otherwise they may not do much if any good.

[shirleyujest]

Follow up ? about b12 for you RiceGuy or whomever... I read here somewhere that Now is a gluten-free brand, I got some liquid B12 today (all the sub. lozenges at my local health food store had lactose in them). Question about the dose... I haven't been tested but what is the "normal" dose for someone who needs it? It says a tspn but there are only 23 tspns in a bottle, I thought I read somewhere that not all the supplements are needed each day, some are 1-2x/week. Would someone set this straight for me? If someone is going to take a smaller dose would it be better to take a few drops once /day or a full dose weekly? Thank you.

[DreamWalker]

I'm not sure how much help this will be for you but here is what I'm currently taking for B12:

Country Life sub-lingual with folic acid 2x/per day. It has 500 mcg of B12 & 400 mcg of folic acid per tablet. It's free of yeast, wheat, soy, gluten, milk, salt, sugar, starch, preservatives, and artificial color. Although, it does contain sucralose which I've heard can be problematic. Um. Regarding dosage, I think it varies from person to person. For instance, if my levels haven't returned to normal, I'll start having vitamin B shots versus taking the sub-lingual supplements.

I'm still a little new at all this so hopefully someone else will have a bit more insight...

Also, I tried NatureMade Super B-complex when I first found out about the vitamin B deficiency - it did nothing for me. I also take 100mg of vitamin B6 made by Country Life yet it's not sub-lingual and although I intend to keep taking it until I have my B-levels retested, I'm not sure if it's helping since I started taking it at the same time as the sub-lingual B12. My energy has definitely improved with the B12 & B6 supplements though. So, something is working.