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Is it Migraine or Tension Headache? Comparison Chart

Migraine Headaches, , ,

Do you always know if you’re experiencing migraine or tension headache symptoms? Both can occur from extreme stress and fatigue. To prevent rebound headache and find the best treatment possible, it’s important to know exactly what’s causing your headache to begin with. Here is a handy chart to help you learn different symptoms and treatments for migraine and tension headaches.

Is it Migraine or Tension Headache? Comparison Chart

Migraine or Tension Headache: Quick reference

  • Migraines are a neurological disorder causing a vast array of symptoms, including debilitating head pain that last for hours, sometimes days. In addition, sufferers experience tiredness, nausea, stomach pain, dizziness, and the need to vomit.
  • Tension headaches are primarily caused by stress and fatigue. Headaches from tense muscles are much easier to treat than migraines, as they respond to medication much better.

Head pain type

Tension headache: Dull pressure, the sensation of a band strapped tightly across the head or neck. Pain is mild or moderate.

Migraine: Throbbing, intense pounding on one side of the head, often at the temple or eye areas. Pain is moderate to extreme, making it difficult to concentrate or think about anything else.

Location of head pain

Tension headache: Scalp, forehead, neck, temples.

Migraine: Temples, eyes.

Pain duration

Tension headache: Pain increases and subsides over the course of the day, or for several days.

Migraine: Headache comes on strong, stays intense for hours. For people with chronic migraines, headaches return repeatedly- more than 15 times per month.

Comorbid symptoms

Tension headache: Insomnia, neck stiffness, stress.

Migraine: Sensitivity to lights (photophobia), scents, and noise; nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, vertigo, distorted speech, partial paralysis, feebleness, loss of consciousness, visual distortions.

Headache triggers

Tension headache triggers: Stress, tiredness, bad posture, eye strain, hunger.

Migraine headache triggers: Food ingredients, scents, noise, bright lights, weather, allergies, air pressure, stress, tension headaches, hunger, irregular sleep patterns, dehydration, cigarette smoke, hormonal fluctuations.

Warning signs

Tension headache: None.

Migraine (with aura): Prodrome phase that occurs hours before, causing symptoms such as euphoria, olfactory hallucinations, unusual cravings, and edginess. Minutes before, some migraineurs experience aura- strange visual disturbances and stroke-like symptoms.

Migraine Aura and Prodrome- What’s the Difference?

Prevalence

Most headache sufferers- from tension type and migraine combined- are female.

Treatment

Tension headache: Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are usually sufficient to get rid of a tension headache, although it may take a few days.

Migraine: There are many different types of migraines, so only your doctor can prescribe the best possible course of treatment for symptoms of migraine attacks.

There is no cure for migraine illness, but by using daily migraine preventative treatments, many are able to thwart off the majority of migraine headaches and symptoms of nausea, dizziness, and fatigue.

Popular natural herbs and vitamins for migraine help include PA-free butterbur root, magnesium, riboflavin, and coenzyme Q10. Find them here.

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Vitamin B12 Deficiency and Menopause Symptoms

Vitamin B12 Deficiency,

Vitamin B12 deficiency and menopause: Signs and symptoms of menopause are sometimes associated with vitamin B12 deficiency, or malabsorption of vitamin B12 from the foods you eat. To boost energy, sleep better, and balance your mood, it’s important to take extra doses of vitamin B12 during the menopause years.

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Vitamin B12 deficiency and Menopause: symptoms, treatment

Menopause is a phase that may stretch for several years; many women experience their first signs of peri-menopause (early menopause) in their 40’s, while still menstruating.

During the early stages, you experience fluctuation hormone levels that cause mood swings, headaches, hot flashes, memory loss, and brain fog.

All of these are symptoms that may also indicate depleted levels of vitamin B12!

Hidden vitamin B12 deficiency

Vitamin B12 deficiency is difficult to catch and treat, as the symptoms are masked by conditions such as menopause, clinical depression, hypothyroidism, or hypoglycemia- all of which cause ailments that are strikingly similar to the ones you experience when your vitamin B12 levels drop to a dangerous low, either from malabsorption issues or change in diet.

Too often, severe vitamin B12 deficiency, a.k.a., pernicious anemia, slips right off your doctor’s radar, especially during the menopause years. And it’s easy to understand why, especially when you consider that the most common symptoms- fatigue, achiness, poor memory, dizziness, and depression- are present in both vitamin B12 deficiency anemia and the many stages of menopause.

For that reason, premenopausal women and females already experiencing menopause are advised to test often for vitamin B12 deficiency, and recognize the symptoms, before their B12 levels drop to a dangerous low.

Symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency

Untreated, vitamin B12 deficiency from pernicious anemia can lead to neurological disorders, chronic fatigue, mood problems, and increased risk for heart attack and stroke.

That’s because vitamin B12 is essential for so many biological functions necessary for good health- reproduction, nervous system functioning, cognitive integrity, and metabolic energy.

So, when vitamin B12 levels plummet, you begin to experience a variety of health problems that affect all parts of your body, including those already ailing from symptoms of menopause.

Vitamin B12 Deficiency Symptoms that Mimic Aging

Symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency that mimic menopause include:

  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Chronic fatigue
  • Short-term memory loss
  • Disorientation
  • Brain fog
  • Hot and cold flashes
  • Headache
  • Irritability
  • Heart palpitations
  • Frequent breathlessness
  • Diarrhea
  • Stomach cramps
  • Difficulty sleeping
  • Muscle weakness and pain

Treatment

The B12, B6 and folic acid help with mood and to ease you through the transition.

The Linus Pauling Institute recommends 100 to 400 mcg per day of supplemental vitamin B-12 orally if you’re older than 50, an age that includes many menopausal women.

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Your turn!

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16 Tinnitus Facts You Didn’t Know

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Tinnitus facts to consider. Whether you’ve been recently diagnosed with tinnitus or struggling with tinnitus noises for years, it helps to know the facts. Scientists are constantly researching new ways to treat tinnitus, so it’s important to stay up to date on the facts about tinnitus.

16 Tinnitus Facts You Didn’t Know

Tinnitus facts and myth-busters

  1. Tinnitus is Latin for to tinkle or to ring like a bell. It is pronounced ti-night-us or tin-ni-tus, and either way is correct.
  2. Tinnitus can occur in one or both ears, or it can occur in the head.
  3. Tinnitus is a real neurological condition, not a mental or emotional problem. Even though subjective tinnitus ringing sounds perceived by the brain don’t actually occur in your external-ear environment, they are not an acoustic hallucination.
  4. Tinnitus is not an illness, but rather a condition caused by an underlying illness. For that reason, the best tinnitus treatments are those that target the disease causing tinnitus, rather than just alleviating the symptoms.
  5. Tinnitus can sometimes be triggered by stress, loss of sleep, and sodium.
  6. Smoking cigarettes can also worsen tinnitus, as it reduces the amount of oxygen reaching your brain and the nerve cells of your inner ear.
  7. Tinnitus sounds vary per individual; they are described as hissing, roaring, whistling, ringing, whooshing, clicking, chirping or any of a number of unusual noises.
  8. Tinnitus noises can range from high to low pitches, loud to whispering, or multi-tonal to noise-alike.
  9. Tinnitus is very common; about 10% to 15% of adults experience tinnitus. About 50 million US citizens have tinnitus to some degree, out of which about 12 million have it badly enough to seek medical help.
  10. In most cases, only the tinnitus patient can hear tinnitus sounds. In rare cases, tinnitus noises can be heard observed by a physician. Objective tinnitus occurs in 1% of all tinnitus patients.
  11.  Forty percent of tinnitus patients have hyperacusis, meaning that they are hypersensitive to certain sounds, or that all sound is over-amplified, perceived as uncomfortably loud.
  12. Tinnitus and hearing loss usually occur together. Only about 18% of tinnitus patients have no degree of hearing impairment.
  13. Noise-induced hearing impairment is the most common type of tinnitus is people who are not senior citizens.
  14. Tinnitus and hearing loss sometimes result from a vestibular disorder causing dizziness, vertigo, and nausea. Meniere’s disease is one such disorder.
  15. Many drugs can cause or worsen tinnitus. Ototoxic medications include NSAIDs, antibiotics, diuretics, aspirin, quinine, and others.
  16. Pulsatile tinnitus causes a rhythmic pulsing noise in your ears that beats in tune with your heart; what you are hearing is the sound of your blood vessels. Pulsatile tinnitus can result from hypertension
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Unexpected Symptoms of Vitamin B12 Deficiency

Vitamin B12 Deficiency, , ,

Fatigue, memory loss, and painful numbness and tingling are some of the earliest symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency. Yet many people with even moderate vitamin B12 deficiency or worse, pernicious anemia, are surprised to learn that a host of other underlying health problems can also be attributed to not having enough vitamin B12 in your blood supply. Listed are some startling symptoms associated with severely low vitamin B12 levels.

Unexpected Symptoms of Vitamin B12 Deficiency

 

Unexpected Symptoms of Vitamin B12 Deficiency

Vitamin B12 is such an important nutrient for survival; it should come as no surprise that a depletion of vitamin B12 should manifest itself in so many seemingly-unconnected ailments.

Scientists have seen where individuals may suffer for years from depression, heart palpitations, dizziness, or difficulty conceiving a baby without ever making the connection between that and vitamin B12 deficiency, where a few months of intense supplementation can reverse the symptoms.

Emotional difficulties, illness

Chronic depression, anxiety, and even paranoia are all listed as possible symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency.  In patients diagnosed with mental disorders such as bipolar or schizophrenia, researchers have noted that an underlying vitamin B12 deficiency can worsen their symptoms even more so.

This is not to say that your anxieties or bouts of depression aren’t real. Rather, get your vitamin B12 levels checked, and see if supplementing with extra vitamin B12 has a positive effect on your emotional state- which it very likely will.

Never discontinue taking any antidepressants, antipsychotic or other medications without your doctor’s consent.

Infertility

Vitamin B12 deficiency is directly linked with many ailments that interfere with family planning. From the beginning, before trying to conceive, depletion in vitamin B12 can increase your risk for complications during pregnancy and nerve damage in utero.

Researchers have noted that mothers who have severe vitamin B12 deficiency before, during, or after pregnancy are more likely to suffer miscarriage, deliver prematurely, or give birth to a baby with neural tube defects and inability to thrive.

If you are at risk for vitamin B12 deficiency, then it’s a good idea to take vitamin B12 injections or other non-dietary vitamin B12 supplementations before getting pregnant, during your pregnancy, and afterwards while breastfeeding.

For more, read Vitamin B12 and your Sex Drive

Heart disease

Vitamin B12 deficiency doesn’t cause heart disease, but it can inhibit your ability to synthesize homocysteine properly. Vitamin B12 is essential for digesting the amino acid homocysteine, keeping it in check and preventing hyperhomocysteinemia- elevated homocysteine in the blood supply.

Excess homocysteine is attributed to increased risk for heart attack, stroke, and possibly Alzheimer’s disease. Signs may include heart palpitations, fatigue, chest pain, or shortness of breath.

To keep homocysteine levels under control, it’s important to also maintain vitamin B12 levels in your bloodstream.

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Please tell us

Have you noticed constant tiredness, sadness, or brain fog? These are common signs of vitamin B12 deficiency.

Do you have questions about symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency? Please drop us a line below!

Vitamin B12 Deficiency and Insomnia

Vitamin B12 Deficiency, , ,

Vitamin B12 Deficiency and Insomnia: Can’t sleep? Often, sleeplessness stems from low vitamin B12 levels. Though nearly everyone experiences occasional trouble with falling asleep, chronic insomnia can be part of a range of symptoms attributed to dangerously low vitamin B12.

Vitamin B12 Deficiency and Insomnia

Vitamin B12 Deficiency and Insomnia

Are you spending your nights tossing and turning, unable to get a restful night sleep? Acute insomnia has a short duration, while chronic insomnia will last longer – anywhere from days to months.

If you suffer from a vitamin B12 deficiency and insomnia—and a surprising number of people these days do—then taking extra vitamin B12 may promote good restful sleep at night, and it will also boost your energy during the day, increase your ability to focus, and promote digestive, cardiac, and immune health as well.

Suffering from Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue? B12 to the Rescue!

Please note: Insomnia can result from an underlying medical disorder, in addition to vitamin B12 deficiency. Consult your doctor if you suffer from chronic insomnia.

Here are some ways that vitamin B12 and insomnia are related.

The vitamin B12-melatonin connection

Vitamin B12 plays an important role in production of melatonin, the body’s “sleep hormone” which helps you fall asleep at night and get deep rest until morning. Melatonin is one of your best defenses against insomnia, but you need healthy amounts of vitamin B12 as well.

Melatonin in the blood rises sharply at sundown, making you feel sleepy, and will usually remain elevated for approximately 12 hours – essentially throughout the night – before the onset of sunrise.

As we get older, and vitamin B12 levels begin to plummet, it becomes more difficult to enjoy a good night’s sleep, due to a reciprocal decrease in melatonin. For that reason many senior citizens struggle with both vitamin B12 deficiency and insomnia.

Doctors have recently observed that a large percentage of Americans over age 60 suffer from a severe vitamin B12 deficiency.  Without vitamin B12, your body cannot produce sufficient melatonin, which is needed to help one sleep.

Many people who suffer from insomnia take melatonin pills to help them get to sleep. However, boosting the body’s ability to produce it by increasing vitamin B12 is a more naturally efficient option.

What is vitamin B12 good for?

Vitamin B-12, or cobalamin, is one of the B complex vitamins. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, Vitamin B-12 is instrumental for maintaining healthy nerve cells, synthesizing DNA and RNA, and regulating blood cells.  A vitamin B-12 deficiency can cause fatigue, irritability, digestive issues, and shortness of breath.

The elderly, vegetarians, and vegans tend to have a higher risk of developing a Vitamin B-12 deficiency.

Vitamin B12 for insomnia

If insomnia is caused by vitamin B12 deficiency, then it’s important to supplement with extra vitamin B12 immediately; untreated, vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to nerve cell deterioration and increased risk for heart attack and stroke. Ask your doctor for a vitamin B12 deficiency blood screening while discussing insomnia, and begin supplementation right away.

Take vitamin B12 with folic acid

Taking folic acid (vitamin B9) along with vitamin B12 is also helpful for insomnia, as vitamin B12 assists folate in building red blood cells and absorption of iron, both key components for good sleep health.

For some people, Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) is yet another cause of insomnia. Research has shown that RLS is related to a folic acid deficiency, and that taking more B vitamins can reduce RLS, helping to provide a full night of sleep, even in people with severe insomnia. It is thus recommended to take vitamin B12 along with vitamin B9 for maximum absorption.

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Your turn!

What do you do to prevent insomnia? Do you also struggle with vitamin B12 deficiency? Do you have any questions or suggestions?  Please leave your comments below.

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99 Vitamin B12 Deficiency Symptoms- the Definitive List

Vitamin B12 Deficiency, , ,

Vitamin B12 Deficiency Symptoms cannot be ignored! If you have any of the most common symptoms- fatigue, depression, memory loss, painful “pins and needles” in the hands and feet- then you’re in for a shock. There’s a lot more to vitamin B12 deficiency than you may realize.

99 Vitamin B12 Deficiency Symptoms- the Definitive List

Vitamin B12 Deficiency Symptoms

Vitamin B12 is essential for so many primary biological functions that are necessary for survival- your nervous system, hormonal balance, cognitive functioning, metabolism, cell formation, to name just a few. It’s no wonder that when vitamin B12 levels are even marginally low, the results can range from annoying and disturbing to debilitating and catastrophic.

Pernicious anemia

In years past, pernicious anemia from severe vitamin B12 deficiency used to be fatal. Today, thanks to vitamin B12 supplementation, we are able to maintain normal levels of vitamin B12, even in spite of vitamin B12 malabsorption from autoimmune disorders and gastrointestinal illnesses.

But until you learn to recognize the earliest symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency, you’re at risk for pernicious anemia and all the damage that it can cause throughout your system.

Symptoms of low B12

Here are 99 ailments that often occur in people with moderate to severe vitamin B12 deficiency, including comorbid conditions and direct symptoms.

  1. Symptoms of anemia- peripheral (megaloblastic) anemia from vitamin B12 deficiency
  2. Painful tingling and numbness in extremities (hands, fingers, toes)- paresthesias
  3. Peripheral nerve damage from demyelination
  4. Poor motor control in arms and legs
  5. Constantly dropping things
  6. Dizziness, poor equilibrium
  7. Gait disturbances, difficulty walking straight
  8. Vertigo, sensation of spinning when at rest
  9. Confusion
  10. Slow thinking, brain fog
  11. Difficulty remembering words or names
  12. Agitation
  13. Depression
  14. Chronic overwhelming fatigue
  15. Poor concentration, attention problems
  16. Difficulty completing tasks
  17. Mood changes
  18. Memory loss
  19. Unusual sudden anger
  20. Psychosis
  21. Age-related dementia
  22. Paranoia
  23. Hallucinations
  24. Anxiety attacks, panic
  25. Sore muscles, painful burning
  26. Tremors, trembling
  27. Frequent muscle fatigue
  28. Difficulty building muscle tissue, even with exercise
  29. Exercise requires several days of recuperation
  30. Neck pain
  31. Headaches
  32. Tight muscle pain in the arms and legs
  33. Joint pain
  34. Morning muscular stiffness
  35. Muscle spasms, twitches
  36. Tender spots as evident in fibromyalgia
  37. Bursitis- pain in elbows, shoulders, and hips
  38. Extreme sensitivity to hot or cold foods- pain in mouth, teeth
  39. Sore tongue, burning sensation
  40. Red tongue that is abnormally smooth, without texture
  41. Canker sores, mouth pain
  42. Sores at corners of mouth
  43. Dry mouth
  44. Altered sense of taste
  45. Unusual thirst
  46. Metallic taste in mouth
  47. Olfactory hallucinations
  48. Pain in bladder without uterine infection
  49. Stomach pain
  50. Nausea
  51. Constant bloating
  52. Difficulty swallowing food
  53. “Frog in throat” sensation
  54. Acid reflux, GERD
  55. Heartburn
  56. Flatulence
  57. Loss of appetite
  58. Constipation
  59. Diarrhea
  60. Esophageal ulcers
  61. Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), Crohn’s disease
  62. Dairy sensitivity
  63. Unusual weight loss or weight gain
  64. Poor libido
  65. Hormonal problems
  66. Low sperm count
  67. Erectile dysfunction
  68. Infertility
  69. Post-partum depression
  70. Frequent miscarriage, early abortion
  71. Failure to thrive in infancy
  72. Language delays
  73. PMS, difficult menstrual periods
  74. Chronic yeast infections
  75. Early onset menopause
  76. Pale complexion
  77. Heart palpitations
  78. Shortness of breath
  79. Weak pulse
  80. Thyroid disorders– Hashimoto’s
  81. High levels of homocysteine
  82. Sensory issues- hypersensitivity to touch, scents, textures, tastes, bright lights  and noises
  83. Sleep problems, insomnia
  84. Sleep that does not restore energy
  85. Night terrors
  86. Vision problems- blurring, photosensitivity, poor night vision
  87. Optic neuritis
  88. Tinnitus – ringing in ears
  89. Hyperacusis- extreme sensitivity to sounds
  90. Low body temperature, always feeling chilled
  91. Neural tube defect in children
  92. “Electric shocks,” pain that shoots down arms and legs when you bend your neck
  93. Poor reflexes from impaired nerve cells
  94. Frequent bruising
  95. Constantly itchy skin
  96. Eczema
  97. Early graying of hair
  98. Hair loss
  99. Thin brittle nails with ridges

 Feeling low?

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Just How Many Types of Migraine Are There?

Migraine Headaches, ,

Which types of migraine do you suffer? There are different types of migraine headaches, each requiring special treatment and migraine trigger avoidance strategies.

Just How Many Types of Migraine Are There?

Types of Migraine

Migraines are generally defined by the specific symptoms, plus the assumed migraine triggers or cause. Migraine attack symptoms vary for each individual, and can be inconsistent.

Migraines with Aura

Basically, migraines are divided into two groups: those that follow a “migraine aura” and those that don’t.

The migraine aura is a warning signal that happens mere seconds before a migraine strikes.  Symptoms can be frightening and debilitating: sudden vertigo, partial paralysis, distorted sense of spatial awareness, speech slurring, strange flashes of lights or colors, and sometimes brief loss of consciousness.

Sometimes a migraine aura gives you time to prepare and quickly take an abortive medication, but not always.

Ocular Migraine

An ocular migraine refers to a migraine with aura, and defines the specific phenomenon that occurs during this migraine phase. Other names includeophthalmic migraine or retinal migraine.

There are different types of ocular migraine, depending on which type of visual distortion you experience before a migraine attack occurs.

Symptoms of ocular migraine include blurred vision, bright specks of light, zigzagging lines, oscillating arcs, temporary partial blindness in one eye, floating lines, and dark void that increases.

Acephalgic Migraine

Also called “silent migraines,” an acephalgic migraine includes all the symptoms of a migraine attack, minus the headache.  Somebody suffering from acephalgic migraines may experience frequent dizziness, nausea, stomach cramps, visual distortions, vertigo, and extreme fatigue- all symptoms that occur often with migraines with aura.

Migraine Auras without Headache: Silent Migraines

Seasonal Migraines

Sometimes, your migraine headaches occur only with changes in climate. Migraines are characteristically hypersensitive to changes of any kind (e.g. hormones, blood sugar, and sleep schedules), so fluctuations in the weather that occur with the change of seasons can trigger strong headaches for many people who are predisposed to migraines.

Other reasons for season migraines can include allergens in the air, arid weather, or even seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a type of depression that afflicts some people in the winter.

Cyclic Migraine Syndrome

Also called unspecified migraine, cyclic migraines don’t follow any pattern that can be traced easily. You may go through a phase of chronic migraine headaches- more than 15 per month- and then experience a weeks-long respite, only to have the vicious cycle repeat all over again.

Abdominal Migraine

Abdominal migraines are usually the earliest sign of pediatric migraine, as they’re mostly common in children who have inherited migraines from their family. Still, abdominal migraines can occur with adults.

Symptoms of abdominal migraine include intense stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite.

Natural Options for Helping Migraines

Prescription migraine pills can help to reduce migraine attack frequency, but can also cause harmful side effects, such as memory loss, dizziness, change in appetite, and even headaches. Please ask your doctor about some natural ingredients that, when taken daily, can provide positive results without side effects, and can be taken safely with most migraine headache medications.

Vitamin B12 Deficiency and Depression- Explained

Mental Health,

Vitamin B12 deficiency and depression, anxiety and other mood disorders are a tragic combination. Most people who suffer the effects of low B12 don’t even know it- not until they start noticing unusual signs like extreme fatigue, memory loss, depression, and dizziness; symptoms that otherwise healthy individuals wouldn’t link to a mere vitamin deficiency, such as vitamin B12 anemia.

Vitamin B12 Deficiency and Depression- Explained Fotolia_65478151_Subscription_Monthly_M.jpg

Reasons for Vitamin B12 Deficiency and Depression

Vitamin B12 and the brain

Vitamin B12 is one of the most important nutrients for the brain- it helps to maintain healthy red blood cells, which is needed for delivering oxygen to the brain and other parts of the body.

Vitamin B12 also helps to sustain myelin, a fatty substance that coats your nerve cells, increasing intercellular communication and protecting your nervous system from harm.

Thus, depleted levels of vitamin B12 puts your nervous system at risk for damage, as well as impairing your nerve cells’ ability to act efficiently and convey messages quickly to the brain.

Vitamin B12 deficiency also results in oxygen depletion (hypoxia), which causes symptoms such as fatigue, disorientation, and memory loss.

This may explain why many oft-cited scientific studies, doctors have noted a direct correlation between healthy vitamin B12 levels and reduced risk for depression, anxiety attacks, and other mood disorders.

In vegan-oriented societies, such as India, where B12-rich foods such as beef and seafood are shunned, depression and anxiety are epidemic.

Depression symptoms

Scientists have noted a variety of mental conditions, such as depression and anxiety, which often occur as a result of vitamin B12 deficiency, or may be exacerbated by plummeting levels of vitamin B12.

If you suffer from any of these symptoms, it’s important to have your vitamin B12 levels checked right away, in order to avoid misdiagnosis or prolonged symptoms caused by underlying vitamin B12 deficiency.

Emotional illness symptoms linked with vitamin B12 deficiency include:

  • Chronic depression
  • Anxiety
  • Bipolar disorder
  • Panic attacks
  • Paranoia
  • Hallucinations
  • Memory loss
  • Delusions
  • Irritability
  • Aggressive behavior
  • Brain fog
  • Inability to focus mentally
  • Altered sense of taste and smell

In addition to mood disorders, other signs of vitamin B12 may include painful numbness and tingling in the extremities, muscle spasms, learning disorders, difficulty walking, poor motor skills, and difficulty conceiving pregnancy.

Take charge!

Start feeling better, immediately. Most people with B12 deficiency notice dramatic improvements in energy levels and emotional wellness after increasing their vitamin B12 supplement intake.

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Your turn!

Have you noticed any of the early signs of vitamin B12 deficiency, such as extreme fatigue, brain fog, or memory loss?

If so, have you tested for vitamin B12 deficiency?

Do you have any questions or suggestions?  Please leave your comments below.

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Folate & B12 Deficiency Linked To Some Depression Subtypes

Treatment of depression: time to consider folic acid and vitamin B12.

15 Causes of Tinnitus

Help for Tinnitus, ,

Symptom Checker from Health Line has put together a resource of 15 possible causes of tinnitus, including head trauma, ear infections, and nerve damage.

15 Causes of Tinnitus

Common Causes of Tinnitus

If you’ve ever had tinnitus, then you know just how difficult life can be.  Constant merciless ringing in the ears that lasts for days, months or years is enough to drive anybody insane.

To treat tinnitus, first you have to know how you got it in the first place.

What is tinnitus?

Tinnitus is usually neurological- it happens from nerve damage to the cells of the inner ears (cochlea.) But like other ailments, there are several possible explanations for tinnitus.

What are the symptoms of tinnitus?

Basically, tinnitus is a constant noise that you hear in your head- nobody else can hear it. Tinnitus sounds differ for each individual. Variances include volume, pitch, severity, and location.

Tinnitus can occur in one ear constantly, or it can switch from one ear to the next. Many hear ringing or whistling sounds in both ears at the same time.

People often describe their tinnitus using the following adjectives:

  • Ringing
  • Whistling
  • Buzzing
  • Whooshing
  • Buzzing
  • Chirping
  • Static
  • Hissing

Causes of tinnitus

Vestibular disorders are some of the most common causes of tinnitus. Some other reasons for tinnitus may require immediate emergency care, so please visit a doctor if tinnitus becomes a constant problem.

Sometimes, tinnitus can be helped easily by addressing physical or psychological conditions that trigger tinnitus, such as high blood pressure, anxiety, or insomnia.

  1. Meniere’s Disease (Disorder)
  2. Hypertension
  3. Excess earwax
  4. Concussion
  5. Head injury
  6. Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders
  7. Noise-induced hearing loss
  8. Labyrinthitis
  9. Bell’s palsy
  10. Burst eardrum
  11. Insertion of foreign object
  12. Preeclampsia
  13. Neurofibromatosis (NF)
  14. Acoustic neuromas (benign tumor)
  15. Traumatic brain injury (TBI)

Do you have any questions or suggestions? Please leave your comments below.

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Vitamin B12 Deficiency with Crohn’s Disease: 3 Risk Factors

Gastrointestinal (GI) Disorders,

Vitamin B12 Deficiency with Crohn’s: Vitamin B12 deficiency is a condition that is often comorbid with Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and other forms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). For prevention, it’s important to test for vitamin B12 deficiency in its earliest stages.

Vitamin B12 Deficiency with Crohn’s Disease

There are many risk factors that increase your odds for vitamin B12 malabsorption, the leading cause of vitamin B12 deficiency, and many of them occur with Crohn’s disease and other forms of gastrointestinal illnesses.

Here are three basic risk factors for vitamin B12 deficiency that correlate with Crohn’s disease:

Three basic risk factors are:

1) Digestive tract damage

With Crohn’s, damage to the digestive tract makes it difficult for the stomach cells to produce intrinsic factor (IF), a necessary enzyme for digesting vitamin B12 from the foods you eat. The less IF you have, the fewer vitamin B12 molecules make it into your blood stream. Instead, vitamin B12 passes through your digestive system, unabsorbed. Lack of intrinsic factor is the main cause of pernicious anemia, a condition that occurs with long-term vitamin B12 deficiency.

2) Gastro surgery

If you have had gastrointestinal surgery to treat Crohn’s disease, such as removal of the ileum, then you are also at risk for dangerously low vitamin B12. This is because the ileum plays a crucial role in the last step of vitamin B12 absorption- detaching the B12 molecules from intrinsic factor and depositing it into the blood stream. Bariatric surgeries such as gastric bypass are also high risk factors for vitamin B12 deficiency caused by corrective surgery.

3) Medications

Some of the medications used to treat Crohn’s disease can ultimately interfere with vitamin B12 absorption, as well.  Long-term antibiotics,protein pump inhibitors (PPIs), and other acid reflux medications are included in a list of drugs that interfere with vitamin B12 absorption, resulting in vitamin B12 deficiency.

Treating B12 deficiency

If you suspect you have vitamin B12 deficiency, then take the following steps.

Get tested

Don’t put off getting a blood test to check your vitamin B12 levels; in fact, you should be testing a few times per year, if you aren’t already. A routine blood test can tell you if you are have medium-low or severely low serum vitamin B12 levels.

Symptoms of B12 deficiency

Don’t rely on blood tests alone to determine if you are approaching vitamin B12 deficiency, as the tests are not always accurate, and don’t measure complete “active vitamin B12” molecules.

To catch vitamin B12 deficiency in its earliest stages, it’s good to recognize the symptoms:

  • Crushing fatigue
  • Dizziness
  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Brain fog
  • Memory problems
  • Painful numbness and tingling in the fingers, toes, hands, and feet

Take daily B12

With vitamin B12 malabsorption, you will not get enough vitamin B12 from foods or from pills that you swallow. Instead, your doctor will recommend taking large doses of vitamin B12 in a non-dietary form, such as vitamin B12 injections and/or similarly potent vitamin B12 supplements that are absorbed directly into your blood through the skin.

What’s your take?

If you’ve been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, has your doctor fully explained the risk factors for vitamin B12 deficiency?

Do you feel that you get just the right amount of vitamin B12 that you need to keep symptoms at bay, or do you feel that your prescription should allow for more vitamin B12 injections than you’re currently receiving?

In addition to getting vitamin B12 shots, what other forms of vitamin B12 do you use?

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