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NEWS - PA Society Spring Conference Sat 13 March 2010

Sun, 02/21/2010 - 14:37 — hugominney

PA Soc Spring 2009 Conference presentationThe Pernicious Anaemia Society Spring Conference is coming up on 13th March, and it took my mind back to last year's conference.

 

Dr Chandy spoke to an excited (and in some cases sceptical) audience about how widespread B12 deficiency may be, and the many different ways it manifests.  It was a real eye-opener to the medical community, who up to this point had believed that B12 deficiency was a haematological disease (blood condition) and led to PA, or the other way around, and that was the end of it.

Since then, mountains have been moved!

  • Early Day Motion (EDM) which highlights the problems of B12 deficiency has been signed by MPs
  • the National Institute for Healthcare Research (NIHR) has proposals on the table for studying B12 deficiency and its association with other, supposedly incurable, diseases
  • MPs have attended a "meet the constituents" event to discuss the need to recognise B12 deficiency and treat it more flexibly
  • NHS County Durham has relaxed the restrictions on treatment for existing sufferers of B12 deficiency in East Durham, so that they can be treated in line with BNF guidelines
  • Axis-Shield has made us aware of a test for Active-B12, or holotranscobalamin, which may prove to be the answer to our problems with total serum B12

Just as a reminder as we prepare Dr Chandy's presentation for this year, I thought it would be useful to post his presentation from last year.  We didn't post it earlier because of its size (it had a number of scanned papers in that have taken some time to convert to text).

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.