Disclaimer: The information following isn’t medical advice. I have zero medical education. While some of the information might be based on certain studies, I don’t know anything about those studies. I do think that the medical establishment can be slow to incorporate new knowledge, and that is why I am writing this, to help people who are in need like I was in need before I found these supplements. Elliot Overton is a great resource concerning these issues. He is a Nutritional Therapist and a Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner. Here is his website, www.eonutrition.co.uk. This was the guy whom my very good friend found on YouTube. What followed was radical healing for my friends and myself.
“Children of Zion, delight and rejoice in the Lord, your God! For he has faithfully given you the early rain, sending rain down on you, the early and the late rains as before. The threshing floors will be full of grain, the vats spilling over with new wine and oil.” Joel 2
“Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You too must be patient. Make your hearts firm, because the coming of the Lord is at hand.” James 5
I have been receiving repeated little messages from St. Therese. She has manifested to me again and again in the last couple of weeks. To respond to her I am saying my current novena to her and asking for healing for many people in my family. When I wrote last, I spoke about Thiamine supplementation. Thiamine helped me tremendously and continues to help me, but it isn’t the only supplement I take that has made a huge difference in my life. Thiamine helped relax my muscles after almost two decades of chronic muscle tightness and atrophy. But until I started on vitamin B12 I didn’t see optimal results. When I first got a B12 injection at a med spa I noticed almost immediate cascading relaxation in the muscles throughout my body. I figured this was probably psychosomatic or something. Then I got another injection a couple of weeks later and I had the same results. After my third injection led to the same sensation, I was certain B12 was helping me tremendously.
It seems that my genetic beriberi also comes with a B12 transport disorder. A transport disorder is when your body struggles to transport a vitamin through the cell wall so that it can arrive in the cell and support cellular processes. A megadose of the nutrient containing metabolically active forms of the vitamin is necessary to adequately administer the supplement to the cells of a diseased body. I found a supplement that contains a megadose of vitamin B12 in lozenge form. It is called B12 extreme from Pro Health. The lozenge has thirty-five thousand micrograms of the vitamin. By comparison, the typical B12 injection contains about four to five thousand micrograms, but the injection is absorbed at about thirty percent while the lozenge is absorbed at about five percent. I realized that one lozenge is roughly equivalent to one injection. However, the megadose of the B12 lozenge when we consider the absorption is about the same as getting an injection every day. Therefore, it isn’t advisable to take one lozenge per day. I was taking a whole lozenge, but I believe it was slightly interfering with my sleep. Now I take one half of a lozenge in the morning. This supplement should only be taken in the morning because it can cause sleeplessness. Also, such supplements cause very high B12 readings if your doctor tests your blood for the nutrient. This isn’t of much concern because a simple internet search reveals that like B1 (Thiamine), B12 isn’t toxic at high or excessive levels. Furthermore, a person with a B12 transport disorder needs very high B12 blood content to increase cellular absorption.
After my life was so dramatically changed by Thiamine supplementation, I began to wonder whether many health problems, both mental and physical, might be caused by these transport disorders that produce symptoms so eclectic that they aren’t understood by the typical research processes of western medicine. Furthermore, western medicine is heavily based on pharmaceutical research. Selling supplements, by comparison, is a far less lucrative medical industry. However, studies are underway, and I hope that humanity will eventually understand these disorders.
B12 is generally understood to help people who struggle with anxiety and depression, but the recommended daily dose is only about one thousand micrograms. A person who struggles with a B12 transport disorder would derive minimal benefit from such a small dose, and the daily recommendation is based on the needs of healthy people who don’t have transport issues. Furthermore, forms of the supplement that aren’t optimally metabolically active may not have much of an effect on the body of a person afflicted with a transport disorder. B12 extreme from Pro Health has four metabolically active forms of B12. My theory is that many who struggle with depression and anxiety could benefit from a metabolically active megadose of B12 if their mental problems are caused by a transport disorder. I was able to get this product to a good friend of mine who struggles with depression and anxiety. He reported a huge increase in energy and a feeling of being calm and alert. Unfortunately, he also struggles with insomnia and reported that the B12 caused sleep problems. We are in the process of searching for an appropriate dose, and I’m optimistic the B12 will help tremendously.
If you want to try B12 Extreme to see if it helps with your health problems, I recommend starting with a much smaller dose than the 35 thousand mcg lozenge. I have copied links for two Pro Health supplements below. The first link is the lozenge with the huge dose, and the second link contains a dose that is much smaller at 5000 mcg or 5mg. Both lozenges contain the four metabolically active forms of B12. Note that another supplement on their website has only one form of B12 and thus is likely not to be effective. I would start on the 5mg lozenge when you wake up in the morning. If you go for a couple of days and don’t notice sleep disturbances, I would increase to two 5mg lozenges in the morning and so on. Remember to only take this supplement when you wake up in the morning because it can cause sleeplessness. Allow the lozenge to dissolve under your tongue completely. For me the lozenge often takes up to about ten minutes to dissolve completely. Another thing is that you might need to watch out for B12 paradox or cellular refeeding syndrome. In my last post I forgot to mention that any aggressive supplementation of B vitamins must be accompanied by a good B complex vitamin. I have also copied a link below for the best B complex vitamin supplement on the market. It isn’t purely synthetic and is derived from plant extracts. It is made by Natural Factors, what they call biocoenzymated. My friends and I have noticed that the biocoenzymated products are very much superior to the purely synthetic products. Other supplements that can assist in managing B vitamin paradox symptoms are magnesium and potassium. For more information about managing paradox please visit the website of Eliot Overton copied in the above disclaimer section of this post. If you find that the 5mg lozenge helps I would continue to increase your dose after you discern that the B12 isn’t disturbing your sleep. I would experiment by trial and error until unwanted symptoms subside. If you take the B12 for quite a while and don’t notice any difference perhaps you do not have B12 transport issues. However, B12 is known to provide energy even for healthy people, and the American diet is generally deficient in adequate nutrition. Therefore, it might be advisable to continue supplementation even if you discern you likely don’t have a B12 transport disease.
Remember, in Scripture ten lepers were healed by Christ and only one, a foreigner, returned to him to give thanks. We humans are chronically selfish and ungrateful! If God heals you in this way make sure you give thanks and let others know about these miracles of budding medical science.
PS I have heard online that a supplement called acetyl L carnitine can help people who have insomnia. However, others report the same supplement can cause sleeplessness. If you know someone who struggles with insomnia possibly point them in the direction of carnitine! Also, if my friend is still struggling with insomnia even on a much lower dose of B12 I will attempt to find a supplement for him like this one that will resolve his insomnia so that he can benefit from the B12 supplementation that helps so much with depression.
PPS Please see this linked video all about the effect of various B vitamins on mental problems such as depression. If you struggle with depression, I recommend to start with B12, but the problem could be with another B vitamin as the video discusses. Seek guidance from Eliot Overton because I don’t know about whether the other B vitamins might be problematic at high doses.
Eliot Overton Video about B Vitamins and Depression
B-12 Extreme™ (35 mg, 30 Lozenges) | ProHealth.com