Vitamin B12 For Stroke Recovery: Understanding The Benefits & Safety Tips
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the FlintRehab web site.
I have posted the link, as I was talking to a doctor earlier and they might like to look at it.
Consider.
- I am coeliac on a strict gluten-free diet.
- Since the coeliac diagnosis in 1997, I have had a B12 injection every three months.
- I had a serious stroke ten year ago.
- Some doctors feel, I have made an excellent recovery from my stroke.
Could my regular B12 injections have aided my recovery?
Note, that I have cleaned up the Vitamin B12 tag in this blog.
I Was Struggling In The Heat
Early last week, I was struggling in the heat.
On Wednesday, I had my three-monthly B12 injection injection and since then I’ve been feeling a lot better.
Yesterday, when I went to see the Oxted Viaduct, I climbed a couple of short hills in the heat and had no problem.
I have my B12 injections because I’m coeliac and I was at one time low on B12.
Given too, that some web sites report than B12 helps stroke recovery, does that explain, why I made a better than some recovery from my stroke?
At least three doctors, I’ve met, have used the word remarkable when talking about my stroke recovery.
I certainly would create a fuss, if the GP, thought I should stop taking B12. But then I’ve been taking it for at least thirty years.
Increased Risk Of Atrial Fibrillation In Patients With Coeliac Disease: A Nationwide Cohort Study
I was looking for something else and found this medical paper on the web site of Professor Joe West at Nottingham University.
As I am coeliac, have atrial fibrillation and had a severe stroke from which have made a good recovery. I thought I would post the link, so that others might read what is said.
If my GP or myself had known of the link, my life would probably have been very different.
My Strange Relationship With Vitamin B12
For the last couple of days my eyesight has not been its best.
My typing has been not of its usual quality for a one handed typist and I even have had difficulty with doing up my shoe laces. So much so, that yesterday, I wore my best slip-on shoes with a royal warrant from the Queen.
My INR yesterday was 2.2, which is within range.
Last night, I decided to give myself a pseudo injection of B12 – a tin of sardines and two eggs baked in the oven. Serial Cooking -Sardines And Baked Eggs gives the recipe and full instructions.
- My typing this morning is so much better.
- I just tied my shoe laces with alacrity.
- But my INR has risen to 3.3.
I do wonder, if after my stroke, that my brain directs the B12 to the damaged areas and that those, who advocate B12 after stroke are right!
As to the INR, I’ve just found this page on Valve Replacement.org.
But as a Control Engineer, I have the solution. Test my INR every day.
A Danish Study On Links Between Coeliac Disease And Blood Clots
I am a coeliac on a long-term gluten-free diet.
I am worried that the covids might prey on people like me, so I am researching hard to find out the truth.
Note that in much of Europe, North America and Australasia, coeliacs are at least 1-in-100 of the population and could be higher. The NHS quotes the 1-in-100 figure on this web page, which also says reported cases of coeliac disease are higher in women than men.
This morning I found on the Internet, a peer-reviewed Danish study which was entitled
Coeliac Disease And Risk Of Venous Thromboembolism: A Nationwide Population-Based Case-Control Study
The nation in the study was Denmark.
This was the introductory paragraph.
Patients with coeliac disease (CD) may be at increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), i.e. deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and its complication pulmonary embolism (PE), because they are reported to have hyperhomocysteinaemia, low levels of K-vitamin-dependent anticoagulant proteins, and increased levels of thrombin-activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor.
One thing in this summary screams at me. The mention of vitamin-K!
Ten years ago, I had a serious stroke, that because of modern clot-busting drugs failed to kill me.
I am now on long-term Warfarin and know I have to eat a diet without Vitamin-K.
Given that in a nation like Germany with a population of eighty-three million, there could be nearly a million coeliacs, many of whom will be undiagnosed, this Danish study should be taken seriously, as it should be able to predict the number of clots down to coeliac disease in Germany. But I’m just an engineer and statistician and no medic. Although after the medical troubles of my family, I know a lot more medical knowledge than I did twenty years ago.
An article in The Times, also says that all but two who suffered clots after having the AstraZeneca vaccine were women.
It should be noted that the NHS states on its web site, that women are more likely to suffer coeliac disease than men.
I am absolutely certain, that more research needs to be done.
Are Coeliacs More Risk-Averse?
I am coeliac, which means, that I am allergic to gluten!
So I have to be very careful about what I eat.
I have perhaps been glutened two or three times in the twenty years since I was diagnosed. With me it is nothing serious, but it does mean being close to a toilet for some hours.
If I look at my behaviour generally, I sometimes wonder, if I have become more risk-averse since my diagnosis.
I think too, that I’ve probably become more risk-averse since my stroke, after which, one of the world’s leading cardiologists told me, that if I got the Warfarin right, I’d never have another stroke.
I intend to prove him right! So I watch my INR like a Control Engineer would monitor reactor temperature in a nuclear power station.
I would assume that my risk-averse behaviour is fairly normal.
So if you have had a serious illness or near-death experience from which you have been able to almost fully recover, are you doing your best to make sure that you avoid COVID-19?
Twice-Yearly Jab Could Replace Statins For Millions
This is an article in today’s Times.
As I have four B12 injections year, that would fit well with my health care.
Soaring Demand For SUVs Exacerbates Climate Crisis
The title of this post is the same as that of this article in today’s copy of The Times.
This is the introductory paragraph.
The increasing demand for sports utility vehicles is eliminating the emissions savings made by those who have switched to electric cars, the global energy watchdog has warned.
According to the International Energy Agency, SUVs now account for forty percent of new car sales worldwide.
In some ways, I regard having my stroke as being one of the best things that ever happened to me.
- It was serious, but modern clot-busting drugs, left most of my brain intact.
- My eyesight was damaged, so that I am unable to drive, but I do occasionally ride a bicycle away from roads.
- Cars are now no part of my life and in the ten years, that I haven’t driven, I’ve only needed one on perhaps two or three times.
- My bank account is healthier.
- I can afford to take a black cab, as many times as I need.
You have to remember though, that my excess of survival genes; Devonian, Huguenot and Jewish, honed by living in Liverpool and Suffolk, always mean that I am up to the toughest challenge.
We all need to adjust our lifestyle to the modern world.
A Few Related Thoughts
In National Trust Looks At Car Ban In Lake District, I looked at the car problems of the Lake District.
SUVs and their owners are surely drawn to the wilder areas of the UK.
So perhaps, we should create SUV-free areas, except for residents who need one?
Extinction Rebellion want everybody to use electric cars. What would happen if kids refused to go in any car that wasn’t zero carbon?
If I put myself at say sixteen, with my father in his fifties in the present day, I would try to convince him to have an electric car. Knowing my father, he would have probably bought one on my pestering.
But can I convince my son to buy one?
No!
Getting To The Bottom Of My INR Results
Since the start of the hot weather my INR results have not been troublesome but just a bit wayward.
To get a hold on it, I have been testing my INR every day from the 1st of July.
Normally, I take a dose of 4 mg of Warfarin every day and this keeps my INR at around 2.5.
But in the hot weather the INR was drifting towards 2.0, so I was using a dose of 5 mg every so often to nudge it upwards.
I was also drinking heavily in the hot weather, but nothing was stronger than 0.5% alcohol Adnams beer, which I know doesn’t affect my INR and to my body, it is gluten-free. Most of the other drinks were still lemonade, tea and water.
I came to the conclusion, that the water was being boiled out of my body by the heat.
At least, the INR only hit 2.0 a couple of times and never went below it.
On the 14th of September I had the decompensation stroke, I wrote about in I Had A Decompensation Stroke On Saturday.
This is my INR values and Warfarin dose since that day.
- 14th September – 2.2 – 5
- 15th September – 2.2 – 5
- 16th September – 2.2 – 5
- 17th September – 2.3 – 5
- 18th September – 2.7 – 4
- 19th September – 2.9 – 4
- 20th September – 2.6 – 4
- 21st September – 2.7 – 4
- 22nd September – 2.7 – 4
- 23rd September – 2.5 – 4
- 24th September – 2.6 – 4
- 25th September – 2.6 – 4
- 26th September – 2.6 – 4
- 27th September – 2.7 – 4
- 28th September – 2.9 – 4
- 29th September – 2.8 – 4
- 30th September – 3.3 – 3
- 1st October – 2.6 – 4
Note.
- I usually measure my INR, when I have a bath at eight in the morning.
- I usually take my Warfarin around three in the afternoon.
I do this so that I don’t test my INR too close to taking the drugs.
Note too how the INR rose on the 28th of September and stayed high or higher for two days.
I don’t think I ate anything that would cause the INR to rise and the weather was getting more humid. So was that the cause, or was it the fact that I had a hair-cut on Friday night?
Why should I blame the haircut? After I came out of hospital my hair looked like Einstein’s and it felt very dry.
So do I normally lose water from my body through my hair? Trying to find a connection on the Internet is a nightmare, as they assume I’m asking about hair loss.
I’m not worried about myself, but suppose you are having regular INR tests in hospital every few weeks.
Would a false reading mean that you ended up on the wrong dose?
Conclusion
I will continue to test my own INR, as I feel it is easier.
I Had A Decompensation Stroke On Saturday
On Saturday, I went to the first half of the Spurs Crystal Palace match at White Hart Lane, so at least I saw all the goals.
But at half-time, I wasn’t feeling well, with stroke like symptoms, I suffered before, like bad eyesight on the left side and bad control of my left hand.
So I contacted a steward and he walked me to the medical room, where I was checked out.
They thought, I could be having a stroke, although, they seemed surprised I was so lucid and could remember details like my son’s phone number.
An ambulance was called and I was taken to University College Hospital.
They did a CT scan and cleared me to go home and then return on the Sunday to have an MRI scan.
They also said that I could stay overnight, which is what I did.
The MRI scan on Sunday ,morning, showed that I hadn’t had another stroke and they told me that it was a decompensation stroke.
The hospital fully checked me out, including doing the same mental check the doctors gave to Donald Trump, which I passed.
I was home by two.
But what is a decompensation stroke? There’s precious little on the Internet.
If nothing else, my small incident proves that the systems at Tottenham Hotspur, the London Ambulance Service and University College Hospital worked as everyone expects.
The Anonymous Widower 