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B12 Signs & Symptoms Assessment

Wed, 02/17/2010 - 23:20 — hugominney

The table below allows you to enter your signs and symptoms and immediately read off your B12 deficiency status (in the boxes at the start and end).

It was developed by Dr Chandy over decades of caring for patients, and has been found to be extremely reliable. We recommend that you follow up with a blood serum B12 test; this means that you can document your B12 deficiency status (threshold 200ng/L); on the occasions when the table below indicates B12 deficiency and yet total blood serum B12 test returns a reading above 200ng/L, we have observed that the blood serum B12 levels will fall soon after.  Total blood serum B12 is known to be a poor indicator of B12 deficiency status, and we are investigating a test for active-B12.

NOTES:

  1. the table may change colour from white to grey to yellow to red - this is meant to happen to illustrate changing status
  2. the table is written in JavaScript.  if you have disabled JavaScript then you should download the document in Adobe Acrobat format
  3. this page does not save your score. If you wish for a permanent record, please print off the form

    B12 Status so far

    please continue to check symptoms before confirming your B12 status

    B12 Status so far

    please continue to check symptoms before confirming your B12 status

     

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(Note this is also available in Adobe Acrobat PDF Format - please download the document and print it for use at home)

Most Recent Five Posts

Title Post date Teaser
Poem: B12 deficiency - a silent death Tue, 08/31/2010 - 20:28

I am, I see, I think and I feel why does no one recognise me.
I want to shout out in the darkness
'Why the loneliness, isolation and a desperate helplessness;
Please someone comfort me'.
Are you B12-deficient? Fri, 08/06/2010 - 11:24

The first stage is to check your Signs and Symptoms.  Symptoms of B12 deficiency are generally non-specific, that is, they could be caused by a number of different things.  It's only when you have a number of different symptoms, occurring at the same time, that it makes sense to look for a common cause such as B12 deficiency.
Why is B12 deficiency more common now? Fri, 08/06/2010 - 11:05

I have a theory.  Now I must tell you that I’m not a doctor and have no medical qualifications so I can’t advise you; but I can share my experience.  In the past, Caucasians (white Europeans and colonists) got our B12 from meat.  People living nearer the equator had more vegetables in their diet, so if they weren’t really efficient at “scavenging” B12 – recycling i
Entero-hepatic circulation of B12 – or Why don’t vegetarians get B12 deficiency? Wed, 08/04/2010 - 16:25

When you stop eating B12 in your diet (for example by becoming a vegetarian), you may not notice if it on your B12 level for 10 years or more.
Conversely, when you develop a condition like pernicious anaemia, the effects can be devastating and very fast. We wondered why this was?
Pernicious Anaemia and B12 deficiency Wed, 07/28/2010 - 10:55

 Dr Chandy and I travelled to Bridgend to provide video interviews for the Pernicious Anaemia society. They have assembled some really top-quality people for these interviews, including local GPs and many experts in the field -- we were delighted to be invited.