Help! Vitamin B12 tablets keep me awake!

Patchykat

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Sep 7, 2016
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Age
64
Location
British but live in Switzerland...
Lifestyle
  1. Vegan
I have a problem with vit B12....I drink soya milk which is fortified and also eat a fortified cereal. I'm worried if it's enough as I have a MAJOR problem with supplements. Even if I take a low dose vitB12 tablet or a combined tablet...I can't sleep! I sleep but wake up about every 20 mins cthroughout the night!!! Is t asking a supplement once a week enough...maybe on a Friday when I'm going out and wanna be awake till late???
 
I am bit skeptical that tablets would keep you awake?

In any case, try:
Take a once a week tablet, that way you are only going to have 1 day per week max.
Take it in the morning rather than before bed.
 
I also have a terrible time with supplements, and have for years. My body is highly sensitive to drugs and supplements. I have autoimmune hypothyroidism (and had endometriosis for years also) and I suspect this has something to do with it.

I can't tolerate B12 supplements well either. I only take it once per week (dose of 1000 mcg) and have done this for years. For about a day after I take it, my nerves feel like they are on fire lol. And I am jumpy as all heck. On weeks I eat fortified foods (I don't eat a lot of processed food but include it on occasion) such as vegan yogurts or a fortified plant milk, I don't take my supplement. I have been doing this since February 2011 when I went vegan, so over 5.5 years.

In march of this year, at five years vegan, I had my B12 checked along with thyroid, hemoglobin and vitamin D levels due to extreme fatigue. Usually for me the culprit when I have any unusual symptoms are always my thyroid, and sure enough that was the culprit in March. But I had the other stuff checked just because. My B12 was still a very healthy 691 pg/mL even just supplementing one time per week or very occasional fortified foods. So for me it's been enough. My hemoglobin was also very healthy at 13.7 by the way, and D levels were in the 50s. And keep in mind, for two of the five and a half years I have been vegan, I had relapsed into anorexia nervosa and my bmi was 14-15 and I STILL didn't have any major nutrient deficiencies going on, with the exception of drastic bone density loss. I have since recovered from that and am weight restored.

My B12 supplement is a liquid drop form, and I usually add it to food or a smoothie. It hits me less hard when I take it this way. Pills are a no no for me. I should add that I take the cyanocobalamin version, but have occasionally used the methylcobalamin version. As far as side effects or reaction, the methyl version hits me less hard, but I have heard that the cyano version is more readily absorbable so I have mostly stuck to that to be safe. My only other supplements are calcium and vegan D. I take calcium in liquid or powder form, and my D supplement is a liquid drop. I take those due to severely low bone density (I have no ovaries, have had hypothyroidism for 28 years which also contributes to bone loss, and then have had on again off again anorexia for years, all of which hurt my bones). My bone density has dramatically improved over the last few years since I have gotten to a normal weight (still staying strictly vegan the entire time) but I am also on a hard core prescribed osteoporosis shot I have to get at the doctors office. It stays in your body for six months at a time so you can imagine how terrified I was at getting my first shot, but thankfully I have not had a single side effect, and my bones no longer hurt all the time and my bone density has improved a lot. I can lift and carry a 42 lb 18 foot canoe a quarter of a mile now, and am so much stronger. At any rate, I can't tolerate a multi vitamin AT ALL, let alone pills, but have not had a need for those as a vegan. I've gotten everything I need from my diet, save the B12, and long story short lol, once per week supplementing has worked for me. :)
 
I've mentioned this elsewhere on the forum, but B12 makes me very irritable. I've got some that are half the dose and if I only have half the dose I'm fine. I try not to take any vitamins after lunchtime as they can keep me awake.