I have a genetic problem that I inherited from my mother – for some reason I am always in need of iron supplementation or I become anemic.  Anemia may be something that people think is no big deal, but the reality is that chronic, long-term anemia creates irreversible damage.  In my mom’s case, the lack of oxygen-rich blood due to her anemia probably contributed significantly to her Alzheimers.

A few years back, I had extensive blood work done and found out I was low in iron.  My first course of action was to supplement with it.  But where to get it from?  Alternative medical pioneers such as the famous Dr. Sebi claim that the only minerals your body can absorb are those predigested by plants.  This sounds very wise, but in reality your body can use the mineral “straight-up.”  I mean, I wouldn’t go scrape rust off steel girders, but you can use cast-iron cookware or salt from a volcano rich in iron.

The trouble with iron is that it is constipating.  So my choice is non-binding iron that I buy at the Vitamin Shoppe.  It’s inexpensive, it works – and it is easier then drinking blackstrap molasses.

Once you are getting enough iron, you have to add 2 more things to make sure your red blood cells get as jacked as possible:

1.Folic acid (800 mcg/day)

2.B12

The thing with B12 is that the only way to get it into your system in significant amounts is via injection.  Now, the word out there is that sublingual B12 supplements are just as effective as B12 injections.  Logically it makes sense since you can get into the bloodstream under the tongue and bypass the digestive system which would destroy the B12.  However, I had the thought that even though I get an “experience” when I take 5,000 mcg of sublingual B12, I might be missing out on something…

…so I went online and looked for a big multi-use bottle of the injectable stuff.  I found this company selling vitamin B12 injection kits.  I’ll admit I didn’t spend much time shopping around as I usually do, but the price is pretty inexpensive and they send you all the syringes and alcohol swabs and stuff too.  They ship really fast and are super-professional.

You will notice they also sell another form of B12 which is supposedly superior to the one I linked to, but it costs 10x the price and I doubt it is 10x as effective?

Either way, today I darted myself in my shoulder for the first time.   My shoulder felt uncomfortable for a few hours – probably because I have 1ml of liquid sloshing about in there, and I did feel a little dizzy which is one of the side-effects the website warns about.  But I didn’t find the dizzyness very disconcerting and went out right after the shot to get a hamburger.

But what is interesting is the difference between a shot of B12 via intramuscular injection vs. sublingual administration: the two cannot compare!

So in my quest to not end up like my mom, I will stick with injections!