B12 Deficiency Patient Support Group A forgotten illness - Getting your life back

The speaker list was impressive: Sally Pacholok (of "Could it be B12?"), Alfred Austermann ("The Surviving Twin"), Hans Reijnen, Dr Chandy of course, and ably chaired by Paul Heijer, held at a beautiful site in the protected forest area outside Amsterdam.  
The conference was hosted by VitOrtho, who supply nutritional supplements to alternative medicine therapists.  It appears that the continent of Europe freely accepts both mainstream medicine and alternative medicine, since many health care systems are insurance-based with co-payments and many patients prefer to go to alternative practitioners.
How did the conference go?
Sally Pacholok gave two presentations, one an overview of B12 deficiency, and the second on the costs of not treating.
Sally has an enormous amount of knowledge, even more than was in her excellent book Could It Be B12?: An Epidemic of Misdiagnoses.  She recognised the potential language barrier and spoke clearly about the facts of B12 deficiency, including why it is so often mis-diagnosed and why treated inappropriately.  Since the first edition of the book, Sally has reviewed thousands more cases and added to her knowledge, and given numerous interviews and talks; she was able to give a whole second presentation on the cost of misdiagnosis for those clinicians and policy-makers who think of medical care in terms of hard cash.  It would be difficult not to get caught up in her enthusiasm (we were enthusiastic) and the audience found plenty to talk about.  Second edition of her book (extensively updated) available from March 2011.
Dr Chandy's presentation focussed on the difference B12 makes.  We showed that B12 deficiency runs in families, that the problem has been known about for centuries but only recently has it become contentious (people in developed countries can't suffer from nutritional deficiencies - can they?), and just how widespread it is.  We mentioned the signs and symptoms and directed people towards the web calculator.  We didn't touch on the Cost of Misdiagnosis because that is available from the web site.  It's all based on experience, so people were very interested.
Dr Austermann was also excellent - i really enjoyed his explanation and realised that this probably applies to my own daughter.  We're examining his book
Two other speakers were alternative therapists in Holland, and I admit we were concerned.  Dr Chandy and I cannot recommend or even support their methods, nor the theory behind modern-day (since 1796) homeopathy - the theory seems to go that if something causes a symptom, then when you potentialise a solution by removing that substance, it will automatically and even magically cure that symptom.  It sounds an awful lot like the bastardised child of the theory of vaccinations - somewhere in the distant past there was truth, but the present day version has lost the thread and produced something completely different.  B12 is an obvious addition to these forms of therapy, since a great many people feel better, more full of energy, after a dose of B12 regardless of whether they are well or ill.
So - an excellent learning experience, but not necessarily one we'll repeat.