B12 Supplements

[MongoMudd]

I have been thinking of buying a B12 supplement. They are not very expensive at all, and most provide upwards of 8000% of your daily value of B12. I have heard B12 is excellent for energy. My multivitamin has like 300% of my daily value of B12, so I am wondering if anyone can offer some advice as to whether or not I should try it....Thanks in advance.

 

[Rowan11088]

Honestly, 8000% is just a huge waste, if not potentially bad for you. B12 is one of the safer vitamins you can take in excess, but there is 0 evidence that taking more than you need will help you. That said, I think the "daily value" you'll usually see is a bit low, and there are people (such as myself, coincidentally) who have trouble absorbing/using B vitamins and need extra. But even I don't take 8000%, not even close. Just buy yourself a better quality multivitamin, most of them have around 500% to 1000% for B12, that's more than enough.

 

[Mathias]

If you eat a decent amount of meat, you'll be getting plenty of B12. Just remember that it's fat-soluble.

If you take it as a supplement, make damn sure that it is in fact B12 and not steroids. Roger Clemens seemed to have made that mistake

 

[Gold182]

i read somewhere that the RDA recommended by the goverment is the minimum amount of that vit a body needs to stay healthy. So you dont get stuff like scurvy. But 8000% of any vit seems abit excessive.

 

[joshetc]

Honestly, 8000% is just a huge waste, if not potentially bad for you. B12 is one of the safer vitamins you can take in excess, but there is 0 evidence that taking more than you need will help you. That said, I think the "daily value" you'll usually see is a bit low, and there are people (such as myself, coincidentally) who have trouble absorbing/using B vitamins and need extra. But even I don't take 8000%, not even close. Just buy yourself a better quality multivitamin, most of them have around 500% to 1000% for B12, that's more than enough.

People inject 2,000 mcg of B-12. The estimated daily value for B-12 is ~2.5 mcg. That means people safely inject 800 times the recommended food intake of B-12. (much much less overhead for injections than oral) Taking a vitamin with 500 mcg (~8,000% DV) is not dangerous.

If you eat a decent amount of meat, you'll be getting plenty of B12. Just remember that it's fat-soluble.

If you take it as a supplement, make damn sure that it is in fact B12 and not steroids. Roger Clemens seemed to have made that mistake

B-12 is water soluble.

 

[Orion]

I usually do an injection of methylcobolamine once a week and I can definitely feel the effects of it. It reset my biological clock and helped my fix my sleep schedule back to normal. I also feel more relaxed and have more energy.

 

[SteMc]

if you take excess wont you just urinate it out anyway?

 

[joshetc]

if you take excess wont you just urinate it out anyway?

Right. You would probably have to take at least 10mg/day for several days to notice any symptoms of an overdose. Unless you are pregnant or have kidney disease, I wouldn't worry about it.

To be honest, I'm not even completely sure being pregnant should matter, either. I think people are just overly cautious when it comes to pregnant women.

 

[Mathias]

B-12 is water soluble.

My mistake. It's A, D, E, and K that are fat-soluble. Another reason not to eat a low-fat diet.

 

[XTrainer]

Just throwing this out here: B12 injections are a common practice, but (supposing they work as well as they are supposed to), is there any research to show that mega-doses of B12 taken orally have a similar effect? I wouldn't be at all suprised if the oral vs. IV effects were much different.

 

[MongoMudd]

Just throwing this out here: B12 injections are a common practice, but (supposing they work as well as they are supposed to), is there any research to show that mega-doses of B12 taken orally have a similar effect? I wouldn't be at all suprised if the oral vs. IV effects were much different.

I'm sure injections are far more effective, but I don't have access to that. I believe some B12 has to be better than none. As far as too much, I think excess comes out in urin.

 

[TX911]

Just throwing this out here: B12 injections are a common practice, but (supposing they work as well as they are supposed to), is there any research to show that mega-doses of B12 taken orally have a similar effect? I wouldn't be at all suprised if the oral vs. IV effects were much different.

availability via the oral route is about 10% if i remember correctly. as opposed to 95% taken IM

 

[TX911]

looks like i may have put my foot in my mouth:

Oral vitamin B12 versus intramuscular vitamin B12 ...[Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2005] - PubMed Result

"The trials recruited a total of 108 participants and followed up 93 of these from 90 days to four months. High oral doses of B12 (1000 mcg and 2000 mcg) were as effective as intramuscular administration in achieving haematological and neurological responses. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: The evidence derived from these limited studies suggests that 2000 mcg doses of oral vitamin B12 daily and 1000 mcg doses initially daily and thereafter weekly and then monthly may be as effective as intramuscular administration in obtaining short term haematological and neurological responses in vitamin B12 deficient patients."

 

[ninjajesus]

I bought 2 bottles of B-12 vitamins that have 16 thousand percent of the daily value from GNC. I take one every day, but really don't notice any extra energy from it. At this point I'm taking them to just get rid of them. My pee is really yellow later in the day on my first pee afterwards, so I'm assuming most of it is getting wasted.