Man calls for Vitamin B12 deficiency awareness after being wrongly diagnosed
Vitamin deficiency can lead to fatigue and depression and worryingly, a recent survey found only half of UK adults remain aware of this issue. We meet a man who calls for the nation to be better educated.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Eventually, it got to a point where I felt like I just hit a brick wall and I just couldn't
00:05 do it anymore. I ended up going on sick leave for about four months before I managed to
00:11 summon the energy to go back to work. Even now, I'm still not getting the correct treatment
00:16 from my GP. I still find that I'm having days where I just can't do much, I'm physically
00:23 limited.
00:24 Jimmy Norman, 30, was forced to put his life on hold when he suddenly became ill. His health
00:29 gradually worsening, he persisted in seeking medical attention. Jimmy was told he could
00:33 increase his current B12 tablet intake, but if he wanted injections, he could only have
00:38 one a week for four weeks. Jimmy is now sharing his experience of vitamin B12 deficiency in
00:43 order to urge anyone experiencing symptoms to persist in seeking medical help.
00:49 The testing that we use, for example, it's not called standard test. You can be within
00:53 the normal range but still have symptoms. So the serum test that we use, for example,
00:58 that measures both active B12, which your body can use, and inactive B12, which it can't.
01:03 Up to 80% of the B12 in your blood can be inactive. It can be in that normal range,
01:09 but actually still be deficient. This is something that we need to get across to GPs. Don't just
01:13 rely on symptoms. Why is this happening? It's such a simple condition to treat, but that's
01:23 not happening.
01:24 Vitamin B12 is important in maintaining a healthy nervous system. Research shows up
01:30 to 25% of older adults can experience B12 deficiency, but the condition can appear to
01:36 people at any age. But what symptoms should you be on the lookout for? Fatigue, headaches,
01:43 depression and pins and needles are thought to be the most common signs, though 51% of
01:48 adults in the UK remain unaware of the effects of the deficiency.
01:52 Yeah, they tend to come on quite gradually. So you don't really notice it at first. At
01:59 least I didn't. I kept putting it down to the fatigue, especially, okay, I should have
02:03 got to bed a bit earlier or maybe it's just because I've been really busy. Eventually
02:07 it kind of gets to a point where I was thinking, why am I still this tired? This has been months
02:12 now. He said that he would repeat the test, confirm it, and it was exactly on the borderline
02:19 between low and normal. And he told me that because of that, he could only prescribe me
02:24 tablets, not injections. I took the tablets as prescribed and it's about two, maybe three
02:29 months later, I went back and I'm like, I'm still getting worse. I had a conversation
02:35 with my mum who had a lot of neurological symptoms when she was diagnosed. And I was
02:39 like connecting dots and thinking, I've got that symptom and I've got that one. I've read
02:42 up on the guidelines, pretty explicit, neurological symptoms, it must be treated with injections.
02:48 So I went and saw another GP, said they had to speak to a specialist first, but then I
02:53 never heard back from them after that. The latest NICE guidelines recommends that
02:57 a blood test should be offered by GPs if they see one symptom or one risk factor in any
03:03 adult patient.