Vitamin B12 Deficiency Support Group

The B12 Deficiency Support Group (B12d, for short) is a charity

The Charity's aims are to:

Raise awareness of this condition amongst doctors and the general public, so that people can be diagnosed appropriately.

Explain the signs and symptoms that a doctor or person who is diagnosing themselves should look out for, and how to make sure that you reach the right diagnosis and don’t confuse B12 deficiency with something else.

Ensure treatment is tailored to the needs of the patient, and where possible, make treatment available free at the point of need.

 

We rely entirely on donations

Signs and Symptoms

People with B12 deficiency exhibit a wide range of symptoms, including many that respond to B12 replacement therapy even though NHS hasn’t traditionally considered them caused by B12 deficiency.

We show this across the website and in our audits. A start point is to get a copy of the book

Note the book is written as a medical textbook, so it’s quite heavy going for an expert patient. We suggest you read the case studies first – there are 26 of these – to get to understand the range of presenting symptoms, before tackling the text itself.  Clinicians (doctors and nurses) can of course wade straight in, but warning it’s 299 pages and over 400 references.

This website also hosts a Signs and Symptoms Assessment Calculator. This calculator is designed to record symptoms and show how they change over time  so come back and record your symptoms periodically. We’re about to add a feature so you can record dosing, which will show how symptoms change with respect to dosing.

B12d book cover

Signs and Symptoms Assessment Calculator

b12 calculator form
Dr Joseph Chandy Portrait

Dr Chandy

It is with great sadness that we have to announce that Dr Joseph Chandy (Kayyalackakom) (16 January 1941 to 20 December 2023) has passed away

It was Dr Chandy’s inspiration that founded the charity and created this resource to help people.

Events

When lock-down started we moved our events from face-to-face coffee mornings in Peterlee and Horden to online evening (UK time) events. This was fortuitous since we’re now joined by people on multiple continents and time zones.

Please see this page where we’ve listed the events, dates and times, and the zoom links to join them.

Where we have a guest speaker, we’ve also recorded the speaker and the events page also lists where you can watch the recordings.

You are always invited to send requests to notifications@b12d.org. Dr Chandy is sadly no longer with us but our expert patient team of volunteers will answer.

Coffee Morning-Poppy Dene 24 February 2025

Coffee Morning-Poppy Dene 24 February 2025

11:00am - 12.30. Last Monday of the month An informal opportunity to learn a little bit more and gather some new and updated information. Coffee mornings are an informal opportunity to learn a little bit more about Vitamin B12 deficiency and to know that you are...

read more
Coffee Morning-Poppy Dene 24 March 2025

Coffee Morning-Poppy Dene 24 March 2025

11:00am - 12.30. Last Monday of the month An informal opportunity to learn a little bit more and gather some new and updated information. Coffee mornings are an informal opportunity to learn a little bit more about Vitamin B12 deficiency and to know that you are...

read more