Sally M. Pacholok, Jeffrey J. Stuart
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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Alternative Medicine -> Vitamins
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Disorders & Diseases -> General
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29
Average rating: 5.0 of 5
DON'T LET THIS BOOK BE YOUR ONLY SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT VITAMIN B 12 DEFICIENCY ! 4 out of 5 stars.
8 of 11 people found this review helpful.
If you have or suspect having a vitamin B 12 deficiency or if you need to learn about this deficiency for any reason, I recommend you read carefully the book " Could it be B 12 ? An epidemic of Misdiagnoses " by Sally M. Pacholok and Jeffrey J. Stuart. But don't let it be your only source of information about the deficiency. Because at least half of alternative reliable scientific reports about this subject strongly disagree with the major allegations of the authors of this book. You must also be aware of the alternative opinions before deciding on what to do about your vitamin B 12 deficiency. I am not a medical expert and do not say who is right or wrong. However, I am glad I researched other sources of information after I was diagnosed with B 12 deficiency and after I read this book. I couldn't find any other books on this subject but there are a lot of serious scientific reports published on the internet by credible hospitals, laboratories, medical journals etc. You don't have to be a medical expert to understand them, they are written for the general public. Some of the information on the internet is crap but a significant portion is reliable , very informative and based on sound scientific reasearch and experiments.
Search from Google under the headings of vitamin B12 deficiency, homocysteine, methyl malonic acid, intrinsic factor and pernicious anemia. A lot of articles will pop up among them by reliable hospitals such as the Mayo Clinic and some labs etc. Also search under the same headings from the websites of Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia, American Family Doctor and Lab test on line. There are many other websites that include reliable information on Vitamin B 12 deficiency. After reading the book " Could it be B 12 ? An epidemic of Misdiagnoses " my initial reaction was an anger towards my doctor who diagnosed me with a B 12 deficiency believing that he had given me false information. I also had written a very favorable review of this book immediately after having read it two and a half months ago on January 19 2008. I have hereby replaced on April 11th 2008 my previous review of the book with this one based on my subsequent research on the internet about the topic from about ten different reliable scientific reports from different sources. My initial review was based only on the book. The present review is based on both the book and my subsequent extensive research. About half of the medical literature agrees with the authors of this book on the method of diagnosing and treatment of the vitamin B 12 deficiency. The remaining 50 % that disagree also base their views on sound scientific studies.
The authors of the book claim that most doctors in the world are ignorant about vitamin B12 deficiency. After finishing the book I initially bought this argument. However, after conducting the research on the internet I mentioned above I disagree that most doctors are ignorant about it. Surely there are a lot of doctors who are in fact ignorant about it and who misdiagnose. Even my doctor told me some things about vitamin B 12 deficiency some of which I still think are wrong. However, not all doctors who disagree with the authors are ignorant ; there are many among the disagreeing doctors who are very knowledgeable about this subject. Their methods of diagnosing and treating the deficiency maybe different than that of the authors. That does not necessarily make them ignorant. You can see this for yourself by reading their reports on the internet where they express alternative opinions about vitamin B 12 deficiency. Yet the authors of the book accuse all doctors who disagree with them with ignorance. I feel that it is unfair and unconvincing to accuse everyone who disagrees with you with ignorance. I got suspicious about that and found the alternative opinions. I am glad I did not let this book be my only source, I almost went and expressed my disatisfaction with my doctor based on this book. I regret that after reading the book and before reading alternative reports I got into an argument with a neuropsychiatrist whose acquaintance I made in a sports club who challenged the views in the book when I mentioned them to her.
Fortunately I did not go and quarrel with my own doctor based on the book ( it scares me to think I almost did ) because I had the sanity to investigate the deficiency from alternative sources.
The major allegations by the authors about which there is approximately 50 % agreement and of course 50 % disagreement among medical experts throughout the whole world have to do with the method of diagnosis and treatment of vitamin B 12 deficiency.
The authors claim that a serum ( blood ) B 12 test for a deficiency is unreliable by itself and must be accompanied by urinary methyl malonic acid ( MMA ) and serum homocysteine tests. Because in some cases a vitamin B 12 deficiency may damage the nervous system many years before it shows up on blood tests. Doctors who rely on the vitamin B 12 blood test alone could miss a B 12 deficiency if it does not show up on the blood test. The authors allege very strongly that the best measure of B 12 deficiency is the urinary methyl malonic acid and creatinine ratio test done properly along with serum B 12 and serum homocysteine tests. In the medical literature I researched there is strong support for this view. But there are also equally strong arguments in favor of the alternative view, claiming that on the contrary urinary MMA test results are not a reliable indicator of vitamin B 12 deficiency and that serum B 12 tests are more reliable. This is exactly the opposite of what the authors of the book claim.The book mentions that there are doctors that claim this. And it claims that these doctors are ignorant. However, in the reports the doctors state the reasons why urinary or blood MMA tests are unreliable and explain the results of scientific studies in support of their view. They are by no means ignorant.
The other major disagreement is about the method of treatment. The authors of the book claim that Vitamin B 12 oral tablets even in high doses are very often ineffective in treatment of the deficiency and insist that pain free injections directly into the blood is indispensible as a treatment method. They claim that nobody should lose time and risk ineffective treatment with oral tablets. In some cases this maybe true for swallowed oral tablets which have to cross the digestive system. However, I came across many different reports on the internet that mention the effectiveness of sublingual ( under the tounge ) oral vitamin B 12 pills that are also absorbed directly into the bloodstream. Especially during the recent several years many independent studies throughout the world indicate that sublingual vitamin B 12 pills have been found to be as effective as injections into the blood, making the injections unnecessary in many cases. After discrediting the oral tablets and strongly promoting the injections throughout their book even the authors back off from their claims on page 153 under the heading : " A Final Word about Oral B 12 " where they admit the promising recent studies about the efficacy of oral tablets administered sublingually. After I took 1000 mg of swallowable oral tablets for four months my serum B 12 level shot through the roof rising from far below the lower limit to more than twice the upper limit ! My doctor told me to discontinue swallowing the pills.
So, read the book and read any serious other sources you can find on the internet and then decide with your doctor about how you will proceed to diagnose and treat your or your loved one(s)' vitamin B 12 deficiency. Just don't take everything the book or the reports say for granted. Make your own analysis and draw your own conclusions based on a varied rich source of reliable information about this subject. Good luck !
Editorial Review:
A silent crippler stalks millions of North Americans. It afflicts one person with tremors, makes another depressed or psychotic, and causes agonizing leg pains or paralysis in still another. It can mimic Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, early Parkinson’s disease, diabetic neuropathy, or chronic fatigue syndrome. It can make men or women infertile or cause development disabilities in their children. The disorder is vitamin B12 deficiency. This isn’t a new or fad disease. You’ll find it listed in the textbooks of any first-year medical student. Yet it may be the most misdiagnosed disease and, when this occurs, the consequences can be tragic.
