Received e-mail from friend

Received e-mail from friend who cleared first time aaround 4 years ago stage 2 grade 3. Genotype 3A. She's been SVR 4 years now. Was told by her doctor no supplements. However he had given her an injection of B12 once a week for a year. Even after her tx was over her B12 injection were given. She was never anemic.

[Jeffyboy]

I am curious as to why Her Doctor said no supp's????

[honey11]

Yes,,I'm curious to why no supplements and why would he give B-12 shot if she is not anemic???

[Myown]

Hey honey, I get the b12 shots everytime I go to my PCP and I also take the sublingual B12. I was doing pretty good as far as hemo not dropping that bad, but it seems as soon as I slacked off on how many b12's I was taking, I started dropping as far as hemo count. Now I upped it and I will be seeing my PCP these last few weeks for labs and b12 shots. I may have brought the anemia on myself by taking too much Alpa Lipoic acid as I was trying to keep my iron level low so that the interferon would work its best. I may have done too much experimenting on myself cause now my iron is a little too low.

Why the doctor in this thread didn't want this girl to take supplements is beyond me, but as you know, most conventional  doctors feel if you eat properly you don't need supplements or,,, they tell you take a Centrum( TV advertisements work I guess) and nothing more. Maybe this doctor gave this girl the b12 shots knowing the riba would be causing the red count to drop. Some may(?) argue that this would only work if it wasn't drug induced anemia, but as far as I am concerned I always have plenty of energy from the shots, so I get them. The paragraph below points to how important the B's are in relation to DNA.


Hope all is well. Good to see you as always.

http://kidneydiseases.about.com/od/kidneys/a/redbloodcells.htm

How Are Red Blood Cells Made?
Red blood cells are made primarily in the bone marrow (inside the bones). A hormone called erythropoietin stimulates the bone to take some of its stem cells and make them repeatedly divide and accumulate hemoglobin. In order for the stem cells to divide, there needs to be enough Vitamin B12 and folic acid to make the necessary DNA to build the new cells. In order to make enough hemoglobin to fill up the red blood cells, there needs to be enough iron.

[Myown]

I agree that we should also get B12 from out diet (in addition to supplement), but some people have a problem with absorption (intrinsic factor) plus many people do try to stay from red meat these days and that has to be factored in. Of course there are other foods that can supply b12 besides meat -dairy and eggs but I would hope that the person is drinking hormone free milk and eating eggs from free range chickens that were antibiotic free. There is alot to factor in. Our grandparents ate all fresh foods and none of these cows were given injection of hormones, antibiotics etc, so maybe back then it wouldn't have been necessary to take the extra supplements. My grandmother did though. She used to listen to Dr. Carlton Fredricks on the radio years ago. He  was a pioneer in the natural foods and supplements. He was so far ahead of his time. But anyhow you may want to read the following

Take care..

http://www.vegsoc.org/info/b12.html


"When deficiency occurs, it is more commonly linked to a failure to effectively absorb B12 from the intestine rather than a dietary deficiency. Absorption of B12 requires the secretion from the cells lining the stomach of a glycoprotein, known as intrinsic factor. The B12-intrinsic factor complex is then absorbed in the ileum (part of the small intestine) in the presence of calcium. Certain people are unable to produce intrinsic factor and the subsequent pernicious anaemia is treated with injections of B12."

[Jeffyboy]

Well I can see why the B-12 I think it is a God send, but suppys need to be in your diet especially with threat of more Liver damage.

[sunspot]

Interesting subject. pernicious anemia is a b12 deficiency and people on tx usually suffer from Hemolytic anemia. Can the two of them make either condition worse?  Can the treatment of one help the other? I would imagine that anything to raise the HGB to near normal levels would help.

[Myown]

You're last statement sums up how I feel about this subject. I think the medical people do look at it as 2 different problems, but as far as I am concerned if B12 helps to build red blood cells, I would think it would be helpful for those cells that are destroyed from the riba (?) Of course I am only guessing, I would have to ask my doctor, but from what I have seen even on forum, those of us who have taken the extra supplements didn't take a nose dive as quickly as others, if at all. "Rocker" went thru tx fine without rescue drugs also. Who know why some get so sick on tx and others don't. I don't know if anybody really knows. I was told that geno 2 sails thru tx and compared to some I am sailing (except for depression, obsessive behavior at times and all that) but yet I have seen some geno 2's on forum that get very sick. I wonder if the amount of liver damage comes into play. Plus having other health problems prior to tx would definitely not help the situation,,, but then again some people mentioned they were athletic type and yet they got very sick on tx.  Who knows? I wish we had answers and wish that tx wasn't so hard on so many.