Does Finasteride use cause Vitamin B12 deficiency ?

[droit]

Vanish,

I would go through the materials posted in this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=27&t=7178

The podcast is the quickest way to get caught up.

[vanish]

droit,

I’ve actually been working my way though both the Chris Kresser and Robb Wolf podcast archives. They are full of useful information.

But I hadn’t heard this one yet, thanks for the pointer. Very interesting info from Chris Kresser, definitely an area to research further.

Are you going to try and get the Methylation Pathways Panel or the other tests that he recommends?

[no_hope]

has anyone here been diagnosed with pernicious anemia? I have a good 2/3rds of these symptoms, even down to the early greying of hair.

Common symptoms include anemia,[7] fatigue,[7] depression,[8] low-grade fevers,[6] nausea,[6] gastrointestinal symptoms (heartburn,[6] diarrhoea,[8] dyspepsia[8]), weight loss,[6] neuropathic pain, jaundice, glossitis (swollen, red and smooth appearance of the tongue),[9] angular cheilitis (sores at the corner of the mouth),[8] dehydrated/cracked and pale lips and dark circles around the eyes (look of exhaustion),[8] brittle nails,[9] and thinning and early greying of the hair.[9] Because PA may affect the nervous system, symptoms may also include difficulty in proprioception,[10] memory changes,[8] mild cognitive impairment (including difficulty concentrating and sluggish responses, colloquially referred to as brain fog), impaired urination,[6] loss of sensation in the feet, unsteady gait,[10] difficulty in walking,[9] muscle weakness[7] and clumsiness.[6] Anemia may cause tachycardia (rapid heartbeat)[6] and cardiac murmurs, along with a yellow waxy pallor,[9] low blood pressure, high blood pressure and shortness of breath[7] (known as ‘the sighs’). The deficiency may present with thyroid disorders.[7] In severe cases, the anemia may cause evidence of congestive heart failure.[8] A complication of severe chronic PA is subacute combined degeneration of spinal cord, which leads to distal sensory loss (posterior column), absent ankle reflex, increased knee reflex response, and extensor plantar response.[11] Other than anemia, hematological symptoms may include cytopenias, intramedullary hemolysis and pseudothrombotic microangiopathy.[12]

this would also explain why people are having a positive response to sublingual b12 in the various methylation threads. sexual sides could be explained by demyelineation in the spinal cord. also falls in nicely with this post in the “finasteride and neurological damage” thread if you think of pernicious anemia as a pre-existing demyelinating disease that became manifest when the protective aspects of allo and other neurosteriods were inhibited by fin.

@mbasile

The only way that finasteride could possibly be a catalyst for demyelination is if you have a demyelinating disease of some sort. You see, myelin may wear down due to genetics (alzheimer’s disease/autoimmune response), infection, or a traumatic injury and if you take finasteride with any of these hallmarks, you will be aiding in demyelination and degeneration of the cells since allopreganalone would not be able to serve its myelin repair function.

really hope this isn’t the case as it’s irreversible, but yeah, no idea, just curious.

[xptriado]

Hi no hope, can you please show us your Haemogram and other red blood cells results?

I’m curious as this was the first thing I thought when I looked at my results!

Thanks!

And yes, there’s people here with demyelination, but I think even that is recoverable to a big extent.

[no_hope]

unfortunately i don’t have any results. i pushed for them when i first went to my gp but he flat out refused, only agreed to a basic thyroid test which i never managed to get the results from.

and yeah, i know mario was diagnosed at least at one point with demyelination. i know others have had mris etc and they’ve come up negative. still though, has anyone been diagnosed with pernicious anemia?

[xptriado]

If you look at the results from methylation panels people have been doing you’ll find the activated form of b12 is consistently low.

But I’m also curious if someone was diagnosed with pernicious anemia? Anyone?

[5_alpha_victim]

Guys we need to start seriously looking into how many members have low vitamin b12 levels.

I just found out I had Low b12 levels at the time my pfs started.

I’m going to start a new thread about a possible link of pre existing low vitamin b12 levels making guys more likely to get pfs after taking a DHT inhibiter.

B12 causes new cell and DNA production In are body’s . That’s a fact

Maybe are 5AR type 2 enzyme never replenished it’s self because we were low or low normal
On vitamin b12

[kjbigman]

my b12 levels are too high

[Lostinaustin]

I don’t think pfs would cause vitamin deficiency, we just might be prone to it already with our genetics like we are to pfs. I had extremely low vitamin d levels at 19 years old before I even touched fin

[mlhmatt]

I just want to give this thread some more light, because like many of you here, I also react poorly to methylated B vitamins. I’ve looked into methylation a lot before I took Fin, and reacting this way is definitely “rare” so we might be on to something with this correlation…

[hrihor]

Received my vitamin B12 results today. I am shocked to have such a low level. That’s only 108 pg / ml (180-914). Has anyone here had such a bad result? I have been wondering for a long time why I have been regularly getting worse (mainly brain fog) for several years. Maybe a strong B12 deficiency is the key for me, especially since I was eating meat (beef and chicken) and eggs 2-3 times a week. I did the first vitamin B12 test in 2012 and then my result was about 250-300 pg / ml, which several doctors considered correct. Now I know that some experts indicate 400, 500 or even 600 pg / ml as the minimum level of vitamin B12. Too bad a few years too late. Hopefully I am able to reverse neurological and cognitive problems after they have lasted so long (in other words, I wish this kind of damage wasn’t irreversible).I will check my folate levels next week.

I’m going to get injections of hydroxocobalamin next week. I had to order it from Germany because only cyanocobalamin is available as intramuscular treatment in my country. This form of vitamin B12 makes my symptoms worse, so I must avoid it.

[MZ2021]

I don’t know if mine was low but I took one shot and felt immediate relief and got better physically didn’t feel better sexually though

[hrihor]

Good news, I’m glad it helped you in some part. What form of vitamin B12 did you take? In my current situation (lack of strength, inhuman brain fog, anxiety, depression, etc., prevent me from returning to work) sexual side is a luxury. It would be enough for me to improve my mental and neurological problems.

[TFD]

I have low Vit B12 as well.

What a pile of crap this condition is, I was vegan for almost 2 years and my B12 was in range, and after PFS is below range despite I eat plenty of meat and eggs.

I was prescribed methylcobalamin, but I’m quite scared of sides.

Out of curiosity: why do you prefer injections over pills?

[MZ2021]

Pretty much the same symptoms you have plus vibrating sensation

I’m taking hydroxocobalamin once a week
Hope it works for you too

[TFD]

Do you think Idroxycobalamin is better than methylcobalamin or cianocobalamin?

I’m low in B12 as well and with several neurological symptoms, but I keep procrastinating because I’m afraid of sides.

[MZ2021]

I don’t know if there’s any difference tbh but hydroxycobalamin is what I tried
Also injections is more absorbable almost 100%

[TFD]

Do you still take it? Have the effects faded?

[MZ2021]

Yes It’s my 3rd week on it
I can’t say it’s faded but definitely got better and not as annoying

[hrihor]

Vitamin B12 injections are recommended for very severe deficiencies, such as mine. For me, B12 from dietary sources or tablets is insufficient because the digestibility is low. It is caused by the gastric intrinsic factor (see here: https://proveg.com/plant-based-food-and-lifestyle/vegan-nutrients/b12/). In other words, I would have to eat beef liver and take B12 tablets for months or years to get a good result. In the injection, you will find a much higher dose of vitamin B12, which is also better absorbed. For example, the bioavailability of 1 mg of intramuscular cyanocobalamin is around 10-30%, and the bioavailability of hydroxocobalamin is even 70% (please kill me, but I can’t find the sources right now). So you can get as much as 700 mcg per day from one injection, while oral sources can give you a maximum of 10-20 mcg per day (assuming you are taking B12 all day long at intervals of several hours). As a result, one method will allow you to replenish your B12 levels in a few weeks (assuming two injections a week), and the second method will probably allow you to get a few months or years. I would like to add that “the total amount of vitamin B12 stored in the body is about 2–5 mg in adults” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_B12). So, with a severe deficiency, intramuscular therapy appears to be necessary.

Oral liquid methylcobalamin doesn’t work for me, but that’s probably because I’m too deficient (and, of course, because of the low bioavailability of this form of B12). Besides, I would be wary of methylcobalamin as it is a methyl donor, which may be bad for some of us (look here: https://forum.propeciahelp.com/t/a-warning-about-same-methylcobalamin-and-high-dose -b-vitamins / 32044 and also here: https://ec.bioscientifica.com/view/journals/ec/8/8/EC-19-0199.xml).