BOOK Vitamin B12 deficiency in clinical practice
At last - the book "Vitamin B12 deficiency in Clinical Practice" (subtitle "Doctor, you gave me my life back!" by Dr Joseph Alexander "Chandy" Kayyalackakom and Hugo Minney PhD is available from Amazon.
The book describes Dr Chandy's findings over 46 years of clinical practice, working as a GP in Horden, a village near Peterlee in County Durham. During that time, Dr Chandy looked after an average of 5760 people, many of whom had lived in Horden their whole lives, been born, grown up, got married, had their own children, all under the care and love of this local GP. In some cases, up to 5 generations fell under his care (obviously in that 40 years only the last few generations were born!)
Dr Chandy noticed that people were suffering from symptoms that looked to him like B12 deficiency. Whereas he'd seen it previously with Brahmin (who are strict vegetarians and don't eat any meat or dairy), here he was seeing it in British people who did eat meat. He asked for tests, and they were refused at first. When the tests eventually confirmed B12 deficiency, he began treatment and then saw how often the same symptoms came up, and how well it responded to treatment.
Dr Chandy was the first to notice that B12 deficiency can occur without macrocytosis - the view at the time was that this was a blood disease, whereas we now know that the main symptoms are in the nervous system but the cause(s) could be much more difficult to determine.
Dr C was also the first to note that folate levels in the blood are far more affected by B12 deficiency than by folate intake. With the same folate in the diet, blood levels of flate rose rapidly when a patient received B12 supplements by injection.
The book describes what B12 deficiency is, how to diagnose it, how to treat it, and then goes through body system by body system, how it manifests in different ways. We've illustrated it with 26 case studies of the more than 1000 patients who received treatment at the surgery.
Black and white copy https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vitamin-B12-Deficiency-Clinical-Practice/dp/1090400810 (ISBN 978-1090400819) is available for (prices approximate) £6.15 (US $8.05),
Colour copy https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vitamin-Deficiency-Clinical-Practice-colour/dp/109678291X/ (ISBN 978-1096782919) for £23.55. Note that although there is a lot of colour in the book, it is designed to be readable in the black and white version. I'm sorry but that really is the price difference and cost of printing - the charity doesn't get any money from selling these books.
It's 299 pages, which means that if you want a paper copy, it's almost certainly cheaper to buy from Amazon than to print at home unless you have a very expensive work printer which prints very cheaply.
Also see the Table of Case Studies, Tables and Figures to help you download the right chapter.
Download it
Because of its size, we recommend you download chapter by chapter. It's in A4 which is UK standard size for printing.
Title page and Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Vitamin B12: a profile
Chapter 2 How to diagnose Vitamin B12 deficiency
Chapter 3 Treating B12 deficiency
Chapter 4 Megaloblastic anaemia - not the only way to diagnose B12 deficiency
Chapter 5 Vitamin B12 in pregnancy - preparing for a healthy child
Chapter 6 Neurological disorders - SACD/MS-like presentation
Chapter 7 Autoimmune glandular disorders, with special reference to APS and hypoadrenalism
Chapter 8 Neuropsychiatric disorders, including dementia
Chapter 9 Vitamin B12 and cancer prevention
Title page and Table of Contents
Introduction
Part 1: Dr Joseph Chandy: journey to discovery. 2
Part 2: Ups and downs. 8
Part 3: Sharing the knowledge widely. 15
Importance of holistic care: Mother Teresa’s influence. 17
What B12 therapy means to our patients. 19
Chapter 1 Vitamin B12: a profile
1.1 Vitamin B12 characteristics. 25
1.2 Vitamin B12 - history of discovery. 31
1.3 Deficiency prevalence and manifestation. 34
1.4 Illness groups and conditions linked to B12 deficiency. 38
1.5 Common diagnoses that respond well to B12 supplementation. 41
Chapter 2 How to diagnose Vitamin B12 deficiency
Message from a patient to the world. 42
2.1 Background to diagnosis of vitamin B12 deficiency. 44
2.2 Wide-ranging effects of B12 deficiency. 51
2.3 Our diagnostic method. 54
Chapter 3 Treating B12 deficiency
3.1 Vitamin B12-treatment regimes. 67
3.2 A note on safety. 67
3.3 Different types of Vitamin B12. 68
3.4 When to start B12 therapy. 71
3.5 How much and how often?. 71
3.6 Dangers of withdrawing treatment 76
3.7 Body stores and daily losses. 76
3.8 How long will it take for symptoms to recover? 79
3.9 Reversing-out syndrome. 79
3.10 Other considerations. 80
3.11 Vitamin B12 as a prophylactic measure to avoid deficiency. 81
3.12 Shinwell Medical Practice Patient Surveys on vitamin B12 therapy. 81
Chapter 4 Megaloblastic anaemia - not the only way to diagnose B12 deficiency
4.1 B12 deficiency and haematopoiesis (formation of blood cells) 87
4.2 What is megaloblastic anaemia?. 87
4.3 Delays in diagnosis via the “Addisonian criteria” 90
4.4 The importance of early diagnosis. 95
4.5 Vitamin B12 interactions with folate. 97
4.6 Risk of other conditions and associated autoimmune disease. 99
Chapter 5 Vitamin B12 in pregnancy - preparing for a healthy child
5.1 Advance preparation for a healthy pregnancy. 103
5.2 Birth defect preventive programme: vitamin B12 supplementation. 104
5.3 Vitamin B12 and fertility. 104
5.4 Considerations during pregnancy: the myth of haemodilution. 106
5.5 Identifying the non-anaemic B12-deficient mother 107
5.6 Vegetarian/vegan mothers and vitamin B12 deficiency. 107
5.7 Neural tube defects: the roles of folic acid and vitamin B12. 108
5.8 Embryo and neonate B12-deficiency manifestation. 112
5.9 Clinical symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency in infants and children. 113
5.10 Inheriting the genes for vitamin B12 deficiency. 115
Chapter 6 Neurological disorders - SACD/MS-like presentation
6.1 Vitamin B12 deficiency and neurological disorders. 132
6.2 SACD: a “forgotten” illness. 132
6.3 SACD: difficulty of diagnosis by traditional means 133
6.4 Examples of misdiagnosis of SACD.. 133
6.5 Misdiagnosis as MS (Multiple Sclerosis) 134
6.6 Comparison of symptoms: SACD and MS. 136
6.7 “Window of opportunity” for treatment 138
6.8 Patterns emerging from our cases. 138
6.9 Genetic link in MS. 139
Chapter 7 Autoimmune glandular disorders, with special reference to APS and hypoadrenalism
SECTION 1 Autoimmune glandular disorders and vitamin B12 deficiency. 163
7.1 Vitamin B12 deficiency – an underlying cause? 164
7.2 Need to screen for autoimmune glandular conditions in B12-deficient patients. 164
7.3 Autoimmune Polyglandular Syndrome. 164
7.4 Treatment of APS and importance of early detection. 166
7.5 Vitamin B12 – the link with autoimmunity. 167
7.6 Overview: glands, hormonal cycles and the HPA axis. 168
SECTION 2: APS component illnesses: Hypoadrenalism.. 170
7.7 Forms of hypoadrenalism.. 170
7.8 SECTION 3: Other APS component illnesses. 190
Chapter 8 Neuropsychiatric disorders, including dementia
8.1 Vitamin B12 deficiency and neuropsychiatric symptoms – an overview.. 196
8.2 Historic evidence. 196
8.3 Range of neuropsychiatric symptoms. 196
8.4 Vitamin B12 deficiency and the human brain. 197
8.5 Categories of neuropsychiatric symptoms. 198
8.6 Withdrawal of vitamin-B12 therapy may lead to psychosis. 199
8.7 What is dementia?. 200
8.8 The connection between vitamin B12 deficiency and dementia. 201
8.9 Links with other conditions. 204
8.10 Is dementia inherited?. 205
8.11 Nutrition and lifestyle. 205
8.12 Treating dementia and other neuropsychiatric conditions. 206
Chapter 9 Vitamin B12 and cancer prevention
9.1 Cancer worldwide prevalence. 210
9.2 Some causes of cancer 210
9.3 Cancer treatment 211
9.4 Cancer prevention. 213
9.5 Vitamin B12, folate and correct formation of DNA 216
9.6 Aberrant DNA methylation in cancer 217
9.7 Dual role of folate and folic acid in cancer development 217
9.8 Tissue-specific cancers and vitamin B12. 218
9.9 Critical time-windows in cancer prevention. 221
