My Experience Taking a B12 Injection - Positivity and Optimism

I've been vegetarian for over three years now, and much of that time has been vegan. I've been supplementing the whole time with a good multivitamin, and often with an extra B12 sublingual vitamin. I also sometimes eat fortified foods, such as Clif Bars.

Despite this supplementation, there are times when I still feel deficient in something. I can feel tired, weak, and have a tingly sensation in my tongue and cheeks. This has led me to add some eggs, cheese and yogurt back into my diet which has really helped me feel better. I feel that yogurt especially has helped me survive as a vegetarian, and I think it's because of the higher B12 content.

As much as eating dairy products has helped me feel better, it also tends to give me acne and a bit of sinus congestion. Both of these problems are generally remedied by drinking green tea. Yet green tea, with all of its amazing benefits, can come with an afternoon caffeine crash. So I was searching for a better solution, and finally found a way to buy B12 shots over the counter in Hong Kong (I'm currently living in neighboring Shenzhen).

After buying the injections, I watched some YouTube videos on how to properly take them. It was a fairly painless shot to my thigh, and some small soreness lasted through the night but was gone the next day. I did get a temporary but sharp headache the next day, which may have been either from the injection or some processed and flavored chips I ate the night before.

Overall, the benefits of the B12 injection have so far strongly outweighed the negatives. I feel better emotionally than I have for months, even years. I have much more energy, optimism and overall excitement for life. I've been off dairy and green tea, and haven't really felt the deficiencies that have brought me to eat dairy or eggs yet.

I know that some people would probably attribute everything I just said to placebo effect. For these people, I would encourage them to research the experiences of Mahatmas Gandhi, who switched from a vegetarian diet to a vegan diet, and eventually ended up on a sick bed, too weak and depressed for his usual activities. Drinking milk brought him back to health and strength, and he was never a vegan again. His story and many other similar stories can be viewed here.

In conclusion, I strongly feel that the B12 injection has worked wonders on me. I feel more positive and energetic, and I'm hoping that I can continue taking them with positive results. I love the vegan diet, and so far, this seems like my best chance at being a vegan. That being said, I'm a realist. If I somehow did have a negative reaction to the B12 injections or fell into deficiencies again, I would likely return to eating eggs and yogurt to keep my B12 levels up (preferably two free range eggs a day).

How is Methylcobalamin (vitamin B12) Made?

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"These days vitamin B12 is produced commercially by direct fermentation, using 'Propionibacterium Shermanii' or 'Peracoccus Denitrificans':

1) P. Shermanii can be grown in anaerobic culture for 3 days and in aerobic culture for 4 days to produce vitamin B12. The growth medium contains glucose, cornsteep liquor (a waste product of starch manufacturer) and cobalt chloride, maintained at PH7.

2) For P. Denitrificans, the growth medium contains sucrose, betaine, glutamic acid, cobalt-chloride, 5-6 dimethyl-benzimidacole and salts; and it is grown for 2 days in aerated culture for B12 production". (Link)

- Note: "Animals and plants require cobalt in order to synthesize / produce B12. (B12 is called cobalamin because of the cobalt atom in it's center). In reply to 'where does the bacteria come from', one could maybe reply 'from cobalt', but this isn't totally 100% correct. It comes from a combination of microorganisms and cobalt...Commercial B12 production is partly based on growing B12 on the surface of molasses" (Link).

Vitamin B12 Rich Foods and Bioavailability

Vitamin B12 is an essential vitamin that is found in animal foods such as dairy, meat and eggs. B12 helps provide energy, reduce stress and regulate and rebuild your body's DNA. Because B12 is naturally found in animal foods, most vegans will end up needing to take B12 supplement. Vitamin B12 it is also often added in supplement form to many name-brand cereals. 

It is important to remember that, even though a certain food may have a lot of b12 within it, not all of the b12 within that food is bioavailable. For example, "Eggs contain a substance that inhibits absorption in the intestines. Although each egg contains 0.6 micrograms of vitamin B12, it is only 9% available, so the effective dose from eating one egg is only roughly 0.06 micrograms. The vitamin B12 within milk, cheese, and yogurt is only 65% bioavailable. Of the 1.5 micrograms in one cup of yogurt, only .98 micrograms gets absorbed." (Link) Also, "vitamin B12 bioavailability should decrease significantly with increases in the intake of vitamin B12 per meal" (Link).

Free range eggs have much  more B12 than eggs from factory farms (Link). So while a typical egg from a factory farm might have 0.6 micrograms of B12, a free range egg might have 1.3 micrograms.

"Good sources of vitamin B12 for vegetarians are dairy products or free-range eggs...Fermentation in the manufacture of yoghurt destroys much of the B12 present. Boiling milk can also destroy much of the B12" (link).

Note: For most adults, the recommended daily intake of Vitamin B12 is 2.4 micrograms per day (Link)

Food	B12 Content	Bioavailability
Beef Liver 1 slice Chicken Liver 100g 3 oz Salmon 1 large Egg 1 Organic Egg 1 Cup Cottage Cheese 1 Cup Yogurt 1 Cup Plain Yogurt 8 oz. Cup of Milk 1 Oz. Swiss Cheese 3 Oz. Chicken or Turkey	63 micrograms 21 micrograms   2.4 micrograms 0.6 micrograms 1.3 mg - 5 mg (link) 1.6 micrograms 1.5 micrograms 1.4 micrograms 0.9 micrograms 0.9 micrograms 0.3 micrograms	60% (% goes down  for larger servings) 60% (% goes down  for larger servings ) 42% 9% 9% 65% 65% 65% 65% 65% 60%

For a B12 calculator, check out this awesome link Here!

For an extensive B12 bioavailability list, check out this link Here!