Man calls for Vitamin B12 deficiency awareness after being wrongly diagnosed

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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.

Transcript

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.

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