Health update - Vitamin B12 is GREAT for you!

And if you don't have them, it can be a bad time indeed!

Ah, well, it seems like it's time for another Zaney Report...(obscure comedian Bob Zaney reference...sorry. :0) )

Juan/Nacho's health. A thing of mystery. An object of wonderment. A source of amazement. A true sideshow of medicine.

Geez...where did all this sarcasm come from today? Anyway, I am in the middle of a new dietary experiment, and as usual, those are never very fun.

However, this experiment has the potential to yield an actionable answer with regard to one of the many mysteries surrounding this inscrutable thing called my health.

For a while now we have been worried about: rheumatoid/autoimmune problems because of a plethora of new symptoms that we were simply unable to explain with other means.

Recently, however, we spent a little more time dissecting the similarities and differences between my brother and myself, to try to elucidate any hidden patterns emerging between our similarities/dissimilarities.

One of the things that emerged is that while the insulin resistance and weight problem that derives from said resistance has been dead-on as far as following the same progression of pathology, some of the "icing on the cake" additional ailments have not struck him nearly as acutely over the years.

Principally, my brother has not had a large problem with gout, joint pain, extremities numbness, rheumatic-like symptoms, constant digestive problems, or progressing anemia and abnormal red blood cells.

If the root of our problem is the same, and progressing the same, why have the ancillary things not developed in my brother to the same extent that they have in me? He has experienced acute episodes of these symptoms, without having them slip into a chronic pathway.

This led to analyzing the differences in diet and medication...and lo and behold, the first piece of "good" news we have had in a while.

My brother ended up many, many times more sensitive to a medicine used to control the insulin problem, and he was unable to remain on it for very long. Meanwhile, I was kept on extremely high doses combined with other medications, for years.

One of the side-effects of this medicine is the possible damage to the B12 absorption mechanisms in the gut.

In some people, who take the medicine long enough without relizing this has happened, the damage can be catastrophic and irreversible.

Non-dangerously low B12 can still manifest symptoms (* by the ones I have experienced for at least 6 months):

*Pain/Numbness in the joints

*Nerve damage

*Pain in the lower back due to this nerve damage

*An altered gait, usually due from the pain in the lower back during walking

*Strong intestinal problems

*Depression

*Progressing anemia

*Enlargement of red blood cells/abnormally shaped cells

Loss of balance (then again, who knows, I haven't been doing enough things that require fine balance for me to know for sure)

Seeing a pattern?

So, now I have been on a B12 replacement regimen for a little over a week, and the results are promising.

First of all, I have begun to experience gouty-like pain again. I haven't had a gout-like attack in 11 months, and one of the side-effects of replacing B12 in a system that has gotten very low on B12 is the possible onset of gout. Apparently I need more supplements like calcium in my diet. The other possible effect is the onset of thrombi...but I have no good way to check for that, so let's just hope we can ignore that possibility. :- )

Secondly, my stomach has been doing much better - when I do the vitamin regimen in a certain way. If I take my vitamins in the morning along with a VERY light breakfast (juice and a muffin or cereal bar), then I tend to do much, much better the rest of the day when it comes to my digestive problems. It's still not perfect, but then again, it's only been a little over a week.

A control experiment had me taking my vitamins AFTER a principal meal in the morning or in the afternoon. The more meals I took before I "primed" my gut with B12, the worse it was...in fact, it was almost worse than taking no vitamins at all. I tasted blood for an entire day when I did those. There is some limited evidence that I bleed internally during my really really bad days of digestion.

So, after another month, we'll be able to have a better idea of whether this B12 idea will pan out.

If it is a B12 problem caused by my medication, a few questions will remain:

Is this really permanent damage now? If it is damaged permanently, will it remain static and be able to be controlled with B12 supplements, or will it get progressively worse? Is there something that can be done to reverse the damage?

Once again, thanks to all of you who are praying - please pray for my parents more than you do for me. This has all been much harder on them than it has on me, and they are wonderful people who need to be able to feel God's comfort as they continue their awesome work in Mexico.

Stay tuned...same channel, maybe...at some arbitrary time in the future...by some random blogger who may or may not be me...for additional updates on "Nacho's Endless Medical Mysteries!"