One Sick Mother

Taking a Break

I am taking a much-needed break from the computer. I won't be blogging or answering OSM e-mail for the next ten days or so.

I will be back in early September (09), hopefully refreshed and ready to take on some new topics.

In the meantime:  Stay safe.

OSM

Two Surprises

My Inbox contained two surprises today:

One was from a man who actually obtained a refund from Gordon's Herbal Research Center!  Hurray!  This is the first time I have heard of someone receiving a refund from ...well, any of the scammers I have listed, actually.

The second e-mail was from an outraged lady who thought I had e-mailed her about a scam (I think it was the Gordon's one again).  I had never heard of her, and I never e-mail people links to my stuff unless they contact me first and ask questions. This makes me wonder if someone is spoofing my e-mail address?

I checked my recent hits and there are an unusual number of hits to the Gordon's piece through Windows Live.  A Microsoft bug, perhaps?

Now, that so wouldn't be a first.  Or a surprise.

Why I Care

As most people who have read this site for more than three seconds will know, I have directed a lot of my time and energy to tracking down and outing scammers.  My ultimate goal is to shut these guys down, which is proving a lot more difficult than it should.

Why is it so hard?

Multiple reasons. For one, the Internet isn't a place. So who has jurisdiction on the Internet?

No-one.

Different countries have jurisdiction over their own "bit" of the Internet (and their own rules regarding it). There is some international co-operation regarding Internet use for very serious stuff, such as child pornography rings or human / human organ trafficking.  However, something as relatively "minor" as healthcare scams is way down the list of priorities for these guys.

So we look at the local enforcers.  Let's imagine a hypothetical situation:

Say you live in New Jersey and buy a product from a company that claims to be based in Norway. The product never arrives or doesn't work. Who do you contact?  The company. If they don't respond, to whom do you then turn? The FDA?  They won't get you your money back and they don't regulate supplements. Also, the company was based in Norway, right?  So the FDA will probably tell you to contact whoever in Norway regulates these guys.

Buy you don't happen speak or write Norwegian.

Nonetheless, you persevere and contact the Norwegian peeps, who do have English speakers on hand. They do a pretty rudimentary investigation on your missing $90, which is small potatoes to them, tell you that no such company as Oslo Health Solutions is registered in Norway, regardless what the internet says. But a search they did on the domain registration points to a US Domain site. You need to contact the US authorities.

You contact the US authorities with the domain information you got from the Norwegian folks. The US people check and they say the the US domain registration is a holding site, masking the real domain (many registration sites will offer this service). However, because the company who scammed you is based in Norway (or maybe Pakistan, from whence the dodgy product arrived), but not in the US, they have no grounds on which to investigate the real domain information. You need to go back to the Norwegians.

So you contact the Norwegians (again) and they insist that the domain company is a US one, and they have no jurisdiction. You need to contact the US authorities.

And so you are stuck.  You just went in a great big circle to end up precisely nowhere. For someone with a chronic health condition, this is probably familiar territory after dealing with the medical world.  But "familiar" does not mean "good".

So to whom do you turn?  Your credit card company. They are global too, and they will fight to get you back your money.

And so you eventually get back your money and you go on your way. 

However, no complaint has been registered that stuck, so the scammers are free to defraud indefinitely. 

But OSM. I hear you say  The imaginary person got their money back. So why do you care about all of this?

I care because the primary issue here isn't about the money. It's about the exploitation and mistreatment of sick people.

I care because people have their hopes raised (and you know how I feel about hope) and then dashed by callous predatory subhumans.

I care because if I don't care, and don't try to do something, it won't stop. More and more people will have their hopes raised and dashed.

I care because someone is profiting from their pain and desperation.

I care because the longer I do this, the less these medical conditions are lists of unpronounceable words, and the more they are associated with real people with real lives and families. Like:

• My friend, whose son has Muscular Dystrophy
• My stepmother, who has Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Stephen Deal, who also has MD
• Elizabeth, who has MSA
• Blake, who has SMA
• Janice who suffers very badly with Syringomyelia
• My friend Betsy who had Pseudotumor Cerebri
• The woman from whom we bought this house, who had Parkinson's Disease
• My friend's ex, who had Bell's Palsy
• Another friend's child, who was born with severe Cerebral Palsy and requires 24/7 care
• Another friend who has alopcea, which has impacted his self-esteem for years
• My great-aunt Nora, who went blind from Glaucoma

...and then all the people who have contacted me because they were scammed or almost scammed:

• A lady  in England with painful ganglion
• A man whose girlfriend has been blinded by Retinitis Pigmentosa
• A woman in Australia who has Melasma
• A man in Europe whose girlfriend has narcolepsy, and who has bad side effects from the conventional drugs used to treat it
• A man with Myasthenia Gravis in the States
• a very nice person -not sure wherefrom, who e-mailed me to ask me if I had any information on Scleroderma treatment, as the one product which had seemed to show promise had been outed as a scam by me.

There are many, many more.

So to me now, when I see these scams operating, I don't see words on a screen. I see my stepmother's hands, Or Elizabeth's vivid imagery. I see my friend pushing her son in a wheelchair, turning away from the Memorial Day parade because she cannot look at so many able-bodied kids parading down the main drag, while hers is the only one in town in a wheelchair.

I see evil, money-grubbing, bastards preying on and playing with my friends.

Behind these long disease names and behind every one of the links, there are real people with real challenges, who have to face each day and carry on. I care about that. I care about them, which is why I won't rest until the scammers are shut down,

The really sad thing is this: 

I seem to be the only one who cares this much.

Those Little Things We Say....

My sister had five children in as many years. So for several years,  her house was like some kind of cross between a daycare, a zoo, and an asylum. For most of these years, I lived in a different country so my main communication with her was over the phone.

So there we would be on the phone, chatting normally, when suddenly I would be deafened as my sis would break up a fight or something. Here is an example of what our phone conversations were like for several years.

Sis "...well, there he was, standing all alone, so I wen... GET OFF HIS HEAD!!!  YOU'LL HURT HIM(?)  GET OFF HIS HEAD NOW!!!  ...t over to him and sai...  LET GO OF HIS TAIL!!! NOW! HE'LL BITE YOU!!!  LET GO!!  RIGHT NOW!!! ...d "are you lost, luvvy?  Do you need me to help you find your mum?"

Yes. I was lost. And somewhat deaf in one ear.

I thought, after listening to my sis for years, that I was somewhat prepared for the kinds of things you say when you have kids. I also made sure I had a cordless phone and many handsets, which definitely cuts down on the yelling aspect (In fairness: my sis didn't actually yell that much normally, but while on the phone back then, she was tied to one location).

Today, as I found myself calmly telling Grace "don't suck the cat's blood" I realized that yes, there are definitely some phrases that pop out of my mouth; some combinations of words that I NEVER thought I would say in that order, and it makes me shake my head. Or smile. Usually both.  And sometimes the things I say make me wonder if I have been transported into some kind of bizarro world, or am somehow the star of my very own "Truman show"?  The "cat's blood" thing was totally innocuous, BTW. They were playing a vampire game, and poor George had been designated a 'victim'.

Now, I had expected some strange expressions to come out of my mouth. Here are a few I had expected (and got):

• We don't bring worms/ bugs/ snails/ dead birds into the house"
• We don't run out into traffic
• We don't threaten to kill our sister/brother.
• We don't pick the neighbour's flowers, not even as a gift for Mom.
• We don't go visiting the neighbours without permission (Grace)
• No. You may not drive the car
• See! I TOLD you Teddy can't go in the bath!
• This is what happens when you don't put your gum in the trash!

...and then some things I NEVER thought I would ever hear myself say; especially not in the calm, matter-of-fact voice I perfected about a year or so after Joe's special needs became apparent.

• We don't growl at friends/ strangers/ anybody
• We don't attack other kid's moms (/dads) in the zoo  ...Or anywhere, for that matter.
• We keep our clothes and shoes on in the restaurant, please
• We don't sniff the pizza delivery guy
• We don't tunnel behind the boxes on the supermarket shelf  (I distinctly remember wondering where Joe was, and then when looking down the aisle, I watched a progression of cereal boxes fall off the shelf, one after another, away from me, allowing me to track his progress down the back of the shelf. He was pretty fast! There was a long line of boxes by the time I got to him.)
• Do you always pick on disabled four-year olds? Or have you waited your whole life to meet your intellectual equal? (this to a man in K-mart, who was being mean to Joe.  ...and that one wasn't said in a calm voice!)
• Please don't sniff the food you are given in Kyle's house. His mom's feeling might be hurt.
• What show is that from? (this in response to a clearly echolalic utterance) 
• You need to tell people who you are when you call them on the regular phone. it's not like Skype.  They can't see you.
• No sweetheart. Zombies won't get into the house while we are sleeping. The alarm is set.
• I know the guy was fat, but you can't say that to his face.  You have to use other words, like 'big" ... better yet: Don't mention it at all...

...and there are a few non-parenting-related  phrases I never thought I would hear myself utter, either.

• "Don't call 911. It's only been 40 minutes" (since the seizure began) Don't try that one at home, kids.
• "I think we can get it back in. Just pull my arm straight out -don't twist, whatever you do.  On my count..."

I'm sure there are many more, but I can hear the kids start to get wild in the background, and I suspect I will have to go and use some of my phrases in a minute.

What about you?  Are there any particular phrases you never thought you would use that stand out in your mind?

Some Worrying Developments

One day, a few weeks ago, Joe and I went to IHOP (that's International House of Pancakes in case you don't live over here) for breakfast and some mother-son time.  Grace had spent the night at a friend's house and Himself wanted to sleep. So it was just the two of us. When I asked Joe what he would like for breakfast, a little gleam came into his eye:
"Actually, I was thinking I'd like to go out for breakfast."
"OK" said I (walking straight into his litle trap), Where would you like to go"
"I was thinking I'd like to go to IHOP" he said, a tad over-casually. 

So we went to IHOP.  I'm a sucker, I know.  But Joe doesn't actually ask for much, so I do like to indulge him every now and again. And I like some of the food at IHOP.

Joe discovered they have crepes with nutella and banana, which he ordered "without the strawberry stuff" (quite right too. strawberry stuff is complete overkill, if you ask me).

We put away rather a large, sugar laden breakfast. On the way home, I wanted to pop into Trader Joe's to pick something up.  I was searching for a parking space when Joe said -out of the blue, in a serious voice:
"Oh. It's starting"
I glanced back at him and he looked uncomfortable. "What's starting?"  I asked him.
"Sometimes, when I eat a big meal, I get very sleepy."

Uh-oh.

That was my first symptom. It progressed into after a big meal, I feel horrible and fall asleep. and then to after a big meal, I feel horrible and have a massive fit and people call 911.

OK: Maybe it is common-or garden food coma, and I am over-reracting. But I resolved to watch him more closely.

Then I noticed another thing a few times: At dinnertime, Joe has been emptying and refilling his cup a LOT. He mentioned it to me in passing one evening: "I get very, very thirsty at night".

So do I. Intermittent polydipsia (excessive thirst and fluid intake) and polyuria (what goes in exessively, must come out excessively) have been ongoing and unexplained problems of mine for the past couple of years.

Of course, all this could be coincidental. It could be an active child forgetting to drink in the heat of summer and then at dinertime, his body strongly reminds him.

But my radar has been tripped and I am going to watch him closely.

And hope that whatever is going on with him: He doesn't have whatever-it-is that I have.

Fat and Happy?

I have a childhood memory of someone -probably an aunt, telling people "I'm fat, but I'm happy".  It is an expression that stuck with me, because it seems so contrary to all of the perceptions and indeed, most of the published data on obesity.

But my aunt's words have been resonating in my brain a lot recently, because:

1. I have gained weight. 
2. I have been feeling better; having fewer seizures and other neuro symptoms.  Therefore, I have been "happier". 

Now, the above two facts may not be related. They could be completely coincidental.  However, I don't think they are. I have written numerous times that I KNOW my fits are related to food and eating. I was wondering if maybe when my body is in "fat storing" mode, rather than "fat burning" mode; if there is something; -some chemical reaction, which does or does not occur that might trigger a seizure event?

It is an interesting question.

Unfortunately, I am not sure how to answer it:  How does one test for that stuff? To whom would I turn?  I am stuck in the old space, where I will ask an endocrinologist, only to be told to see  neurologist, and if I ask the neurologist, he will tell me to see an endocrinologist.

And there is the other dilemma.  Unlike my aunt, who may or may not have been lying: I am NOT happy to be fat. I am the heaviest I have been since pregnant with my second child, and I hate it.  But the fear is there: if I go back to low carb: -the only way I can successfully reduce and maintain my weight: will the fits return in earnest? 

Actually, scratch that. I know they WILL return. There is not  shadow of doubt in my mind. It will just be a question of when will they return?  And then what?

Dilemmas, dilemmas. 

*sigh*

They never end.

Ode To Joe

I wish I had the video to accompany this story, but apparently the kids were supposed to bring in a tape on the day of filming in order to get a copy.  They didn't think to tell me this.  They didn't think I would want a copy. More likely, they didn't want me to have a copy.  Either way, I am stuck, now. Opportunity missed.

*shrug*

Kids.  What are you gonna do?

Backtrack a bit:

Joe and Grace took a course in TV and radio at summer school this year.  I was a little concerned about them being in the same class, that they might cling to each other and wouldn't mingle with the other kids or conversely, that they would fight (or both!). I instructed them to stay separate and be individuals.

In hindsight, maybe this was a mistake.

Most of the work involved in making little commercials or movies is team work.  Joe doesn't do well with people he doesn't know well, and some of the kids tried to take advantage of him ("Mom, I would rather be back in elementary school and bullied by M than in Summer school being bullied by K. At least I'm used to M."). 

He struggled with each project.

By the time they got to the last project, a music video, Joe was on his own. No-one volunteered to work with him, and he didn't know how to ask to be included in any group. How do you make a music video with just one person? (I was oblivious while all this was going on BTW. Neither kid told me. What happens in Summer School stays in Summer School, apparently. I found all this out after the fact.).

So Joe come home from school.  "Mom?  Can you put the 'OIde to Joy' on my iPod?"  All the other kids were singing or dancing, and he decided -all on his own- that his video was going to be just him conducting the "Ode to Joy" to camera. I thought it was an excellent idea.

We watched some You tube footage of conductors, starting with Rowan Atkinson's "The Conductor" (did you ever notice that Rowan Atkinson is hypermobile?), I thought he could play it for laughs (Joe is naurally quite funny), but Joe decided that he was going to play it straight and I respected that.

He went in on the day they shot the music videos, all dressed up in the suit that we had bought (but he hadn't worn), for elementary school graduation, and despite dropping his baton (a chopstick) once during the shoot, he stuck with it and did it. 

I went in today for parent's day, and  saw all the films the kids had made, and -although I know I am biased, I thought his conductor music video was the most memorable one there. 

I'm well proud of him.

I Had To Laugh

I was re-reading yesterdays post on Towards Natural Health, nit-picking as usual to see what mistakes I had made, or what bits I forgot to mention. I forgot to mention the glossaries on the sites. In addition to the links pages, the glossaries pages are all just part of the window dressing to make these people look earnest and believable. Don't be taken in. They are neither.

And I forgot to mention that both Towards Natural Health addresses listed, although one is supposedly in Scotland and the other is purportedly in Copenhagen, sported the exact same photograph. Here it is. Nice place, isn't it?  I would like to go there. I wondered where it is? I knew it isn't Paisley (Paisley, while not a kip, isn't the next Monte Carlo, either), and I was pretty sure it isn't Copenhagen -no need to even e-mail my friends who live there and ask them.

It looked very familiar, wherever it is.  That niggled at me.  

And then today, when I looked with a clearer head; the penny dropped. Of COURSE that view looked familiar to me!  I used to live right near there. I had to laugh. Seriously, I lived a few blocks from where this photo was taken.

 

It's New York City. a view of the Pan-Am Building (it will never be the Metlife building to me!) and the Chrysler building as taken from the Empire State Building.  It has been Photoshopped, the main logo removed and the Chrysler building has been churchified.I can't believe it took me so long to figure that out!

How can anyone PhotoShop the Chrysler Building?  Are there no depths to which Towards Natural Heath will stoop?

And another question occurred to me: Is there a single piece of information on their website which is NOT a lie?

Go on: Try and find one. For a laugh...

Towards Natural Health: Scam

Do you know where the expression "Let the cat out of the bag" came from? 

Well, it came from the practice in Old England of selling piglets in a bag (i.e. "a pig in a poke") at the market or fair. Sometimes, people would buy a piglet only to find when they got home that the wriggling animal inside the bag was actually a worthless cat. So if you were wise, you would open the bag before you hand over any money and  "let the cat out of the bag". That is, you would reveal the scam.

Many pig sellers would leave the pig's tail sticking out of the bag, so you would know it was a piglet and not a cat. However, in a less well-known variation on the old scam, some unscrupulous bastards would cut off the piglets' tails and tie them onto bags, which each contained a cat.

So there was a 'level II' on the pig scam, if you like.

I see Towards Natural Health as a Level II internet scam.  They went through all the trouble to cut the tails off the poor piggies. But it is still a freaking scam; albeit a much prettier one than some the previous scams uncovered here on OSM.  And  keeping in a porcine vein, the expression "putting lipstick on a pig" very much comes to mind here.

Here is an example of one of their sites:

 

 

Wait a sec: To get the full impact you have to load it. Click here and come right back

It's really gorgeous lipstick,  isn't it?  The zooming graphics, the spinning-around globe thingy, the leaves, the starry things, the slick "shick" sound when you roll over a menu item, the persuasive language (although I am never sure what might "suite" me best.  A bathroom installed on my ass, perhaps...?), all the links that they post... 

But look at those links again. Notice they are all general. There are never specific links to the actual condition for which you seek relief. The links are the pig's tail.

Don't be fooled: It's a scam.  They try to cover their asses  by saying things like "This particular website is aimed at helping Motor Neuron Disease patients..."  I guess if you happen to come across the exact same site for ...say Grave's Disease, or one of the 62 or so other sites that I have found (so far), they think their asses are covered.  

Now, unlike SPAH, or Herbal Product Reviews, which are identical scams to this one; Towards Natural Health even has a main site, that goes on about their humanitarian mission to save the world or some such hogwash.

But it is all bullshit. A total and complete scam.  A con. A fraud. Please don't waste your time and money on these guys or on any of the products that they recommend.

Here's how I know they are a fraud:

First off,  all of the products that they recommend are either by Solutions by Nature, Gordon's  Herbal Research Center or Healing Plants, Ltd.  ALL of which have been outed here on OSM as scams.

Often, Towards Natural Health (TNH) will recommend the Solutions by Nature Product.  Hmmm.  I wonder why? 

Well, Here is TNH's address, taken from their main site. It is also the address to which all their  domains are registered (the ones I checked, anyway). PO Box 2175, Paleagade 7, DK-1231, KBH K, Denmark

Here is Solutions by Nature's Address:

 

PO Box 2175, Paleagade 7, DK-1231, KBH K, Denmark

I included both screen grabs so you can see for yourself that they are exactly the same, with no sleight of hand by this Sick Mother. 

 

Towards Natural solutions does list a different address on some of their sites.

Does that address: 115 Abercorn St, M0013, Paisley, PA3 4AT, Scotland; look familiar to you?  

It should.

It is the exact same one as is listed on the domain registration for Herbal  Product Reviews,  which OSM has previously outed as a scam.

 Don't listen to a word that tortoise says.

He is a lying wee bastard. 

And he wants to trample your ice cream, apparently.

Now some of you; -the more trusting among you- may be thinking "It can't possibly be a scam! Why would people go through all this trouble for a scam? "

For the same reason that people would mutilate baby pigs. Because it might make them money. These guys OWN all of these fake herbal sites. There are hundreds of them because they are carpet-bombing the "sick people" market with fake solutions in the hope that some of us will be sick or desperate enough to fall for the ploy. They  are professional con artists. Scamming people it is what they do, and -judging from the number of e-mails I get from people who were scammed or who narrowly escaped because of this site; -they are pretty good at it.

And maybe there is another reason:

Maybe they like it.

Maybe they have such disdain for people with illness and disabilities, that they get some kind of kick out of messing with our heads and our wallets.

And that is really sick.  

 

Help though creating awareness?  Yes. It's what I plan to do. Thanks for the tagline.  It works far better when applied to One Sick Mother than when applied to Towards Natural Health.

Here is the list of TNH scam sites that I have found (updated Sept 6th 2009):

Abdominal Adhesions	http://www.adhesionshelp.org
Achlasia	http://www.achalasiahelp.org
Actinic Keratosis	http://www.actinickeratosishelp.org
Alopecia	http://www.alopeciahelp.org
Atrial Fibrillatin	http://www.fibrillationhelp.org
Bell's palsy	http://www.palsyhelp.org
Benign essential tremor	http://www.tremorhelp.org
Blepharitis	http://www.blepharitishelp.org
Bronchiectasis	http://www.bronchiectasishelp.org
Bullous pemphigoid	http://www.pemphigoidhelp.org
Burning mouth syndrome	http://www.bmshelp.org
Cellulitis	http://www.cellulitishelp.org
Costochrondritis	http://www.costochondritishelp.org
Delayed Ejaculation	http://www.delayedejaculationhelp.org
Emphysema	http://www.emphysemahelp.org
Epididymitis	http://www.epididymitishelp.org
Eye Bags	http://www.eyebagshelp.org
Flatulence	http://www.flatulence-help.org
Folliculitis	http://www.folliculitishelp.org
Ganglion cyst	http://www.ganglionhelp.org
Gastroparesis	http://www.gastroparesishelp.org
Granuloma annulare	http://www.garanulomahelp.org
Grave's disease	http://www.graveshelp.org
Grover's Disease	http://www.grovershelp.org
Guillain-Barre Syndrome	http://www.gbshelp.org
Hand tremors	http://www.handtremorshelp.org
Hernias	http://www.herniashelp.org
Hidradenitis Suppurativa	http://www.hidradenitishelp.org
Hydrocele	http://www.hydrocelehelp.org
Hyperhidrosis	http://www.hyperhidrosishelp.org
Ichthyosis	http://www.ichthyosishelp.org
Inclusion body myositis (IBM)	http://www.myositishelp.org
Keloids	http://www.keloidshelp.org
Keratosis  Pilaris	http://www.keratosishelp.org
Lichen Planus	http://www.lichenplanushelp.org
Lipoma	http://www.lipomahelp.org
Melasma	http://www.melasmahelp.org
Motor Neuron Disease	http://www.mndhelp.org
Myasthenia Gravis	http://www.myastheniahelp.org
Myelitis	http://www.myelitishelp.org
Narcolepsy	http://www.narcolepsyhelp.org
Osteomyelitis	http://www.osteomyelitishelp.org
Pemphigus	http://www.pemphigushelp.org
Peripheral Neuropathy	http://www.neuropathy-help.org
Peyronie's Disease	http://www.peyronieshelp.org
Polycystic Kidney Disease	http://www.pkdhelp.org
Polycythemia Vera	http://www.polycythemiahelp.org
Polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR)	http://www.polymyalgiahelp.org
Porphyria (All 6 kinds?)	http://www.porphyriahelp.org
Post-Polio Syndrome	http://www.postpoliohelp.org
Premature Gray Hair	http://www.grayhairhelp.org
Prickly heat	http://www.pricklyheathelp.org
Rectal prolapse	http://www.rectalprolapsehelp.org
Retinal Vein Occlusion	http://www.rvohelp.org
Retinitis Pigmentosa	http://www.retinitispigmentosahelp.org
Scleroderma	http://www.sclerodermahelp.org
Sebaceous Cyst	http://www.cysthelp.org
Seborrheic Keratosis	http://www.seborrheickeratosishelp.org
Sjogrens Syndrome	http://www.sjorgenshelp.org
Tinea Versicolor	http://www.tineahelp.org
Trigenimenal Neuralgia	http://www.trigeminalneuralgiahelp.org
Urethritis	http://www.urethritishelp.org
Uveitis	http://www.uveitishelp.org
Vocal Cord Nodules	http://www.vcnhelp.org
Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia	http://www.wmghelp.org

 

NOTE: While compiling this list, I realized that there are many More Solutions By Nature sites than I had  found previously. I will update that page when I get a chance. Really, there is too much out here for a single person to track  (I bet that is a large part of the plan)

The Secret Evils of a Healthy Diet.

(I'm probably going to get blasted for this one, but I am writing it anyway.)

 No-one wants to hear that a Healthy Diet has Evils. Actually, it was hard to find a clear definition of what constitutes a Healthy Diet, let alone what constitutes Good and Evil therein. But I found a definition and I have found two Evils, which can work together, and -with a bit of assistance from your well-intended and unsuspecting primary physician, can cause a pretty serious problem over time.

WTF are you talking about, OSM? I hear you ask.

I'm talking about B12 deficiency.

Don't be daft, OSM, (I hear you say) there is plenty of B12 in a healthy, balanced diet.

Is there? Show me. OK. scratch that. I'll show you that there might not be sufficient B12 in a healthy diet.

...what exactly constitutes a healthy, balanced diet, anyway?  I tried to find a definition or example online, and could find very little. I did find this:

 

Clinical nutrition definition: Any diet based on sound nutritional principles; the HD philosophy is often coupled with the  belief that organic and/or unprocessed foods–ie, produced without pesticides and chemical preservatives, are superior to adulterated foods

Healthy diets, features of

• High consumption of fruits & vegetables

• Low consumption of red meat & fatty foods

• Raw foods & whole grains are preferred to processed or refined foods

• Protein primarily from fish, dairy products, nuts

• Consumption of salt, pepper, sugar, coffee & other caffeinated beverages, and alcohol, is discouraged

 

OK that sound fair enough, it echoes what most of me doctors have told me: Lots of vegetables and whole grains, low on red meats, fats and chemicals.

Here is a list of some B12 sfood sources from the National Institute of Health (NIH). I figure they should know, right?

Table 1: Selected food sources of vitamin B₁₂

Food	Micrograms (μg) per serving	Percent DV*
Mollusks, clam, mixed species, cooked, 3 ounces	84.1	1400
Liver, beef, braised, 1 slice	47.9	780
Fortified breakfast cereals, (100%) fortified), ¾ cup	6.0	100
Trout, rainbow, wild, cooked, 3 ounces	5.4	90
Salmon, sockeye, cooked, 3 ounces	4.9	80
Trout, rainbow, farmed, cooked, 3 ounces	4.2	50
Beef, top sirloin, lean, choice, broiled, 3 ounces	2.4	40
Fast Food, Cheeseburger, regular, double patty & bun, 1 sandwich	1.9	30
Fast Food, Taco, 1 large	1.6	25
Fortified breakfast cereals (25% fortified), ¾ cup	1.5	25
Yogurt, plain, skim, with 13 grams protein per cup, 1 cup	1.4	25
Haddock, cooked, 3 ounces	1.2	20
Clams, breaded & fried, ¾ cup	1.1	20
Tuna, white, canned in water, drained solids, 3 ounces	1.0	15
Milk, 1 cup	0.9	15
Pork, cured, ham, lean only, canned, roasted, 3 ounces	0.6	10
Egg, whole, hard boiled, 1	0.6	10
American pasteurized cheese food, 1 ounces	0.3	6
Chicken, breast, meat only, roasted, ½ breast	0.3	6

Have a serious look at that list. Now take out the breakfast cereal, because I am pretty sure that's a red herring and then honestly add up how much B12 you consume in a day. Notice that a serving of chicken breast: that vaunted staple of The Healthy Diet, contains only 6% of the Daily Value of B12. A cup of milk (8oz) only 10% and a cup of yogurt, which is two of those little 4oz carton thingys BTW, contains 25% of the DV. 

So -breakfast cereal aside (because I am going to come to that in a minute), were I to try and to get adequate B12 from food, according to this chart from the NIH,  I would need to eat all this:

Food	Percentage DV
2 eggs	20%
A pint of milk (2 8oz cups)	30%
3oz (one little can) of tuna	15%
Two half chicken breasts, roasted	12%
1 cup plain skim yogurt (which I hate)	25%
Total	102%

This brings me to 102% of the daily value. OK fine. Better to be slightly over than under. And remember, I would have to eat all this  in ADDITION to my veggies and wholegrains, which contain virtually no B12.

That's a lot of food. I don't eat three servings of protein AND two eggs AND all that milk and yogurt in one day! I don't know who does. And in order to get adequate B12 from food, I would need to eat like that every single day. Actually more for me. Because I am recovering from a B12 deficiency, I need more B12 than the average Joe.

I can raise my B12 intake by eating Unhealthy food; steak, a taco or a burger all have much higher B12 than the healthy food. But then me Healthy Diet is blown.

...and now we understand the title of this piece.

Yes,  there are better sources of B12 on the list and you may say that I deliberately ignored them. But I can't tell you the last time I served my children wild rainbow trout for dinner, or indeed when I was a Mean Mom and had the audacity to serve farmed rainbow trout for dinner on a school night. Oh wait. I suddenly remembered when:

It was Never.  On both counts. 

We do eat tuna, which is a pretty low source of B12,  but not too much salmon, which is a much better source.  And both kids would probably run a mile if presented with a mollusk (although Grace will eat scallops) or a piece of liver.

So that leaves "unhealthy" food.

Now, I know most of you have probably looked at this list, zeroed in on the 'fortified breakfast cereal', then relaxed, with the thought  I eat me Special K every day. I'm fine.

Are you?

Let's explore that for a minute.

I was quite amazed, when researching this subject to find differing opinions on the recommended daily amount of B12 a healthy adult should intake. Here is an excerpt from the NIH page where I got that daily value grid.

The DV for vitamin B₁₂ is 6.0 micrograms (μg).

This is from the next paragraph, on the exact same page:

Table 2: Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) for vitamin B₁₂ for children and adults [7]

Age (years)	Males and Females (μg/day)	Pregnancy (μg/day)	Lactation (μg/day)
1-3	0.9	N/A	N/A
4-8	1.2	N/A	N/A
9-13	1.8	N/A	N/A
14-18	2.4	2.6	2.8
19 and older	2.4	2.6	2.8

 

So which is it, NIH?  Is it 6 micrograms or 2.4 micrograms?   Because that is a big difference! The 6 mcg number comes from the FDA, BTW.  The 2.4 mcg number comes from the Institute of Medicine. Personally, I prefer the FDA number. I'm going with that one for me and my kids. But here's the problem I have now:  Which number was used in the food values table above?  The FDA number or  the IOM one?  As 0.6mcg=10% of DV on that table, it must be the FDA number.  OK fine.

Then I  looked at me box of special K:

	Cereal only	Cereal with ½ cup vit A&D fat-free milk
B12	100%	110%
Folic Acid	100%	100%

 

These are only percentages. There no values in micrograms. So I don't know if this figure is 100% of the FDA-recommended  6 mcg or of the IOM-recommended 2.4mcg. There is a big difference between the two, right?  Reading all the small print of the box I see "The Institute of Medicine suggests...." So I figure the numbers are IOM numbers. Therefore, the cereal does NOT provide 100% of my FDA recommended daily value.  And also, that first NIH table, with the food values:

Fortified breakfast cereals, (100%) fortified), ¾ cup

6.0

100

 

...is wrong! That's the FDA number, but Kellogg's are using the IOM one. Therefore, that line should read 2.4mcg and 40%.  For special K, at least.

I had a quick look online at the B12 value for Cheerios and again, no hard numbers, just percentages. This time the precentage was 25% without milk and 35% with milk. This time there was neither reference to the FDA or the IOM that I could see, so I have no idea which guideline they are using. For me  the point is moot because we don't really eat fortified breakfast cereal in this house. The Special K box that I used as an example here had been sitting there for ages! But if anyone out there is using fortified cereal as a means to keep their B12 levels propped up, just be sure you understand what those numbers actually represent.

Regardless of whether the recommended amount is 6.0 or 2.4, I figure that many of us who are trying to eat a healthy diet are not getting our full quota of B12 every day, (while the people scarfing down steak, burgers and tacos are doing much better on the B12 front!).   But that's OK, right?  If any of us are B12 deficient, the doctor will catch it in the annual physical  (because we all go for our annual physical right after our birthday, right)?  That's our safety net.  The annual physical.

Maybe. Maybe not.

The Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV) test in the standard CBC is the method most doctors use to measure your B12 levels. It is an indirect measure:  The science behind it is relatively simple: If B12 levels are too low, the red blood cells (RBCs)  start coming out wonky. Instead of being a nice, neat doughnut shape,   like in this picture on the left, they are bigger and uneven with lumpy bits (that's a medical term!), like the picture on the right.  Personally I don't see too much of a difference, but that's probably why I don't work in a lab...

There are a few problems I see with this MCV approach for detecting dietary B12 deficiency:

1 Folic Acid (will explain in a tick).

2. The human liver can store up to four  years worth of B12, so by the time your red blood cells are coming out wrong, your diet will have been deficient for years.

3. Making red blood cell is not B12's only job. B12 also makes myelin, the stuff your nerve cells need in order to transmit signal properly:   Multiple Sclerosis is  disease in which myelin is effected;  so yeah. We need it. A lot. And by the time your blood cells start showing problems, the myelin could have been in trouble for a long time.

4. There is a perfectly good test  available that will directly measure blood serum levels of B12.

 

Sorry, wrong Superhero.

In 1998 the FDA required that certain manufacturers of grain staples like bread and cereal should  add Folic Acid to their product.  Folic Acid (B9)  is like a Vitamin Superhero.  It does lots of things in the body. It is most famous for preventing spina bifita  in babies if taken by women prior to conception and during pregnancy.  In fact, Folic Acid is such a superhero, that if your B12 levels are low, it will step in and help those little blood cells to stay healthy and doughnutty.

However, sending Folic Acid to do B12's job is problematic. Because if Folic Acid is a superhero,  it is like the Batman of Vitamins. Well meaning, with lots of tricks up it's sleeve,  but ultimately human. Batman can't fly. He can jump, glide and absail. He fakes it pretty well, but it isn't real flying.

B12 is more Like the Superman of vitamins. He doesn't need tricks or gadgets. He can fly.

B12's primary Superman trick is that it makes myelin.  Folic Acid just can't do that.  So if your B12 is low or missing, and your Folic Acid is high -and it often is  for those of us who like to eat healthy, because we pile on those leafy green vegetables-  Folic Acid will do it's very best to take over B12's job where it can: In the blood cell department.  Unfortunately, your myelin is on its own. Because Folic Acid can't fly.

So remember that blood test, the MCV that the doc will use to indirectly check your B12 levels?  It is now  actually useless for that purpose, and could even be dangerous, because Folic Acid is taking up the slack with the blood cells, but not with myelin.

That is the second secret evil of a healthy diet: Too much folic acid may mask B12 deficiency.

You need a serum B12 test to really know your B12 levels. Don't bother  faffing  around with MCVs for that purpose.  I'm serious.

What does B12 deficiency feel like?

Now all this -especially the folic-acid-masks-B12-deficiency thing this isn't scientifically proven. Yet. They are starting to find some stuff; see this,  this and this. It is relatively early days yet.  Most people can store about 4 year's supply of B12, so it will take a long time for a dietary deficiency to become apparent.  And B12 deficiency is sneaky and unobvious. For me, it started as fatigue and these hideous mouth ulcers that I used to intermittently get all along one side of my mouth and throat. 

I didn't notice that I was losing feeling in my hands until I burned my hand  and didn't feel it. -I didn't flinch at all, but I SAW my hand was burning and pulled it off the grill (ended up with a lovely blister about an inch across).  If that accident hadn't happened, I don't know when I would have realized there was a problem. Other people who have had B12 deficiency will say the same thing: That  it snuck up so slowly and they didn't realize there was a big problem until it was well advanced.

Because most people do what I did when I first started to feel tired. I blamed myself. I figured. I am unhealthy. I should eat better: More fruits and vegetables, less fast food and less red meat...

See the vicious cycle?

This is why we should go to the doctor, people.

... and ask for the correct test.