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How Long Does Vitamin B-12 Supplement Take To Show Effect?
Question: How long until vitamin B-12 supplement would reduce the tingling in my fingers and toes? I am overweight again at 66 following slow recovery from a knee tendon injury but blood tests rule out diabetes. My doctor is trying the vitamin track and says we could follow up with thyroid testing. My father had pain and tingling late in life in his fingers, my mother in her feet. I was diagnosed many years ago with neuromas in my feet and recent neurology tests show neuropathy.
Brief Answer:
B12
Detailed Answer:
Sorry to learn about the medical challenges you are dealing with.
B12 supplementation tends to be of help particularly when there is a deficiency of this vitamin in the body. So I check baseline levels of Vitamin B12 in my patients before I decide to prescribe B12.
Once treatment is begun improvements can be expected within weeks. Quicker results may occur with injections, if the levels are very low and we require them to be built up rapidly.
Sometimes neurologists use this vitamin 'empirically' ie even though there may be no grossly low levels in the blood but yet it is tried for whatever it is worth, especially because there may not be other treatment options.
I concur with your doctor to check the thyroid as well. It is good diabetes does not seem to be the cause of the tingling.
Neuropathy can be a complex condition to manage, and various treatment choices may need to be tried.
In my patients, I try capsaicin ointment (in progressively increasing strengths) and if that alone does not provide relief, I offer the capsaicin-lidociaine combination lotion.
If this does not help then I typically start various nerve-pain modulating agents. Speak with your neurologist if you are a candidate for these type of medications. Examples include: pregabalin, duloxetine, amytryptilline
B12
Detailed Answer:
Sorry to learn about the medical challenges you are dealing with.
B12 supplementation tends to be of help particularly when there is a deficiency of this vitamin in the body. So I check baseline levels of Vitamin B12 in my patients before I decide to prescribe B12.
Once treatment is begun improvements can be expected within weeks. Quicker results may occur with injections, if the levels are very low and we require them to be built up rapidly.
Sometimes neurologists use this vitamin 'empirically' ie even though there may be no grossly low levels in the blood but yet it is tried for whatever it is worth, especially because there may not be other treatment options.
I concur with your doctor to check the thyroid as well. It is good diabetes does not seem to be the cause of the tingling.
Neuropathy can be a complex condition to manage, and various treatment choices may need to be tried.
In my patients, I try capsaicin ointment (in progressively increasing strengths) and if that alone does not provide relief, I offer the capsaicin-lidociaine combination lotion.
If this does not help then I typically start various nerve-pain modulating agents. Speak with your neurologist if you are a candidate for these type of medications. Examples include: pregabalin, duloxetine, amytryptilline
Note: For further follow-up, discuss your blood glucose reports with our diabetologist. Click here.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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