Scoliosis & Vitamin B12 Deficiency

[redsafetyhelmet]

Ok so...it is Tethered Spinal Cord Syndrome. My Dad has it, I have it, now I think my son has it unfortunately. It indeed causes Scoliosis, my spinal cord is tethered to my pelvis on the left, and my whole life has been gradually twisting me up to the point where my own body was strangling itself to death. I had been very active in my younger years, tennis especially, and they way my nerves and tendons were all bunched up into the joints tennis seems to have been a big player. If you have scoliosis and you suspect that maybe it might be because of this, please copy my treatment plan. I cannot stress it's importance enough. I ended up doing the 150mg Effexor XR daily, and upped the b12 to 0.6mL every 3 days. By the way, it is actually known that some antidepressants have this "off-shelf" effect on Tethered Spinal Cord Syndrome. The treatment isnt anything outrageous even, just a typical antidepressant and a vitamin. Maybe this can help some others.

[pmc]

Congratulations on your success! This is all very encouraging, thank you for sharing! I have long held the unpopular suspicion that some versions of scoliosis may derive from emotional causes. After all, 'idiopathic' means the cause is unknown, unlike other varieties. Anxiety and depression can cause wear and tear on a body, perhaps some people hold onto a lot of this emotional pain without proper venues to release it. I imagine some muscles tightening for lengths of time could start to have an effect on the skeletal alignment. The idea that the antidepressant and b12 could reverse the scoliosis suggests that my hunch could be correct, at least in some cases. In your case, at least, it might not be the bones themselves. I would certainly like to experiment with some b12, likely oral because these days it takes so long to see a doctor, and it doesn't seem so convenient to regular get injections. I am fighting anxiety and depression as well, but have only briefly experimented with antidepressants/anti-anxiety drugs because I seem to have grown up with a negative attitude about pharmaceuticals. But, I'd do almost anything to fix my damn back!

[Pooka1]

Have you every been evaluated for a connective tissue disorder?

How did you learn you had scoliosis? Do you have an x-ray?

[redsafetyhelmet]

Hi Richard. I am so sorry you are dealing with so many issues. Your plate is very full and you are asking interesting questions.

Do you have x-rays from before and after B12 shots?

Unfortunately not. However, my father has almost all of the symptoms I have around the muscle stiffness (he complains of pain daily and is quite immobile), the major difference being he doesn't have the depression and panic attacks. We are starting him on the 75mg Effexor-XR (brand name only - slow release delivery) and B12 shots 2x monthly. I will make sure we do xrays for him.

I think I now have it figured out. The Effexor-XR is absolutely necessary for this to work. I don't like the idea of being on an anti-depressant, however, when I tried to slowly come of it, in light of what I though was only due to the B12, the muscle stiffness came right back, and all symptoms returned.

Scoliosis, or major muscle stiffness might just be a symptom of something genetically inherited from my father, and I get the extra depressive bits from my mother. I don't think I just have Scoliosis, but rather some nervous system issue.

An interesting point is, in light of realising that the Effexor XR must be the thing correcting these symptoms alone, and I was wrong about the B12, I backed off the B12, but symptoms returned again.

So, I can only conclude that this life changing thing that has happened to me (at this point now, I am almost completely "undone/unwound") is due to a combination of 75mg Effexor-XR daily (which I have in the past 2 weeks upped to 100mg, and results occurred at a much faster rate), and in my case now, 0.2mL intramuscular hydroxocobalamin every 3 days.

I am now mostly pain free, and my muscles feel like butter. I can move freely and feel great. Probably not much longer now until 100% I feel.

I started the Effexor-XR in January of this year, and noted some muscle relaxation occurring without the B12, before starting the B12. So approx 10 months of unwinding.

[Pooka1]

Hi Richard. I am so sorry you are dealing with so many issues. Your plate is very full and you are asking interesting questions.

Do you have x-rays from before and after B12 shots?

[redsafetyhelmet]

As an update to my own reply there, I tried coming off my antidepressants due to the B12 working well. I did as instructed, very slowly decreasing the dose over the course of a couple of weeks. I was on 75mg Venlafaxine, went to 3/4 of that for 1 week, then down to a half for, which is now 5 days.

Symptoms have started to return, and the B12 seems less effective, making me a bit nauseous and feeling spaced out. I feel it is possible to have another panic attack now, and my muscles are tightening again. I am wondering if there is a link between B12, Serotonin, and Scoliosis. Is B12 a precursor to Serotonin? Perhaps in my case, the B12 is required along with the antidepressants to provide enough "food" to the brain/nervous system and keep it all in check. While it could be the withdraw effects of the antidepressant alone making me like this, it doesn't feel like it.

Today I have gone back to my dose of 75mg venlafaxine, where I will stay for now.

[redsafetyhelmet]

Scoliosis forum - re: Your post from 2009

Hi Andrea, my name is Richard, 38 years old from New Zealand. I hope that you are well.

I must say that your post on this forum has literally saved my life. For most of my life I have dealt with crushing anxiety, derealization, depression, various other cognitive issues. However over the past 2 years these have escalated in panic attacks, and severe anxiety disorder. I would wake up not breathing at night, in vertigo, and all sorts of horrible nasties. I have also suffered with "asthma" since I was 11 years old. I have suffered 13 right shoulder dislocations which eventually required surgery, and a suprascapular nerve palsy on my left side which left the left side of my upper back without function, and the muscles wasted and sunk in.

I first suspected this to be chronic fatigue syndrome, probably mixed with a serotonin issue or inherited depression. It was my mother in law that suggested trying B12 as she had also dealt with CFS and said it helped her immensely. So I went and had 1mL intramuscularly, and I couldn't believe the effect. I didn't even know that I had Scoliosis until it started coming undone!

I almost feel like I should be documenting this. The unravelling of the scoliosis is the most bizarre thing I have ever felt, muscles and bones popping and moving all the time all throughout the day and in really obvious, almost automatic movements... huge twists come undone from different points in the body and with force, like years of twisting and turning had never relaxed and all had been remembered in my muscles and is just now being released and feels extremely relieving and relaxing. Everything in my neck shifted to the left just now after a big pop in my shoulder, and each time I think there couldn't possibly be more twists to come undone, another rib will slide down and start a whole series of new movements that unravels through the whole body!

I am feeling better mentally every day. No more anxiety at all or depression, dizziness, tingling, fatigue all gone. Asthma still gone - which I now believe all this time was a completely locked diaphragm making it difficult to breathe. I can sleep without sleeping pills now. Well being is vastly improved.

However, like you, I now must inject 0.5mL of B12 every 3 days else symptoms return.

I am wondering if since 2009 when this thread started if any other revelations had come to you? I would love a conversation if you were willing?

Thank you, Richard.

[flerc]

I believe that amalgams of resin are bad.. a dentist said me that filtrations are inevitable, something that have not happened with those with mercury.. I believe that mercury in vaccines is even worst. Surely those of porcelain are the best and safe.

Sorry for the scoliosis of your son, but surely is dificult that could progress now so much, fortunately is not a girl..it seems that hormone differences makes the disadvantage for women.
Anyway I believe that trying to keep good health is very important, so I'm looking for the best nutrition diet and detoxing methods, the best way to manage emotions, for doing activities, exercises.. nothing simple to find.

[AndreaM]

fortunatelly my sons haven't ammalgams with mercury and are not used any more, only by some few dentists.. the problem is that other other kind of amalgams seems to be safe but ineffective

In the UK, dental amalgam is still the only one used by our medical profession and if you want a different kind you have to go to a private dentist and they are very expensive. I have ones now which are resin or porcelain. The porcelain ones were made in California. I've had them now for 18 months and I still eat hard toffee etc. but am careful not to put too much pressure on them.

I'm glad your son doesn't have amalgam. My children do because that's all that was available and I didn't know about the dangers then. Unfortunately, my son, who is 19, recently had a medical for the army and they picked up mild scoliosis so he is clearly affected too. Because he is still apparently healthy in all other ways, he isn't bothered by it but I can't help worrying about what will happen to him in later years. Apart from the scoliosis, I was healthy too when I was his age.

[flerc]

By far the worst source is dental amalgam as it is right in your mouth in substantial amounts, giving a constant low-level trickle feed of mercury vapour into your surrounding tissue and lungs.

Yes, I was thinking time ago in remove it from my mouth.. fortunatelly my sons haven't ammalgams with mercury and are not used any more, only by some few dentists.. the problem is that other other kind of amalgams seems to be safe but ineffective.

The subject of chelation is a minefield and I personally would not recommend tackling it without proper supervision. Some people use chelating agents but they are not predictable and can redistribute the mercury if not done properly. Also, some people don't react well to them. Rather than go into a lengthy explanation, I suggest you read the following topic: http://www.scoliosis.org/forum/showt...-Metal-Allergy

You will see that I attracted some quite negative responses, and indeed some posts were removed from the end of the topic (although I do still have a copy of them) but, for me, I now see that due to the nature of the defects I have, it was vital for me to remove as much mercury as possible from my body as I can't personally detoxify it.

Of course it not surprise me, is what that people does. Fortunately you continuos here.
I'm looking about that kind of information since months ago. Heavy metals seems to be terrible and I'm worry because my daughter eats considerable amounts of atun. I agree because is surely her main source of B12, but surely is contaminated.. I doubt so much about the quality of the B12 in milk and she don't eat liver.

Just be careful with spirulina. Although it is one ingredient sometimes advised for chelation, it also contains a B12 analog which mimics VitB12 but is thought to stop the absorption of true B12 from your food. This means that if you have difficulty metabolising B12, you may well make a deficiency worse but it will not be reflected in your serum level as it will still show up in a serum test as B12 due to the test not being able to differentiate between true B12 and the other much greater inert portion called haptocorrin.

I knew is not assimilable by humans, but not that can block his absortion.. it would really very dangerous.. I have read that is the main part of the astronaut's diet because nothing has so many nutrients in so few space.. I was thinking in chlorella, but I don't like the fact that the walls must to be broken in order to may be assimilable.. and new super algaes are so much new.

[AndreaM]

Another summary of homocystinuria and the presence of scoliosis:

http://www.empowher.com/media/reference/homocystinuria

[AndreaM]

I thought is relevant to include the following article about Homocystinuria. It is from the Metabolic Disorders Unit of a children's hospital in Ireland, which is quite appropriate since the prevalence of homocystinuria in Ireland is much greater than the general worldwide prevalence - 1 in 65,000 as opposed to 1 in 344,000 (although the article does indicate that these figures may be underestimated).

Of particular interest is the fact that scoliosis is indicated as a frequent abnormality in these children, and kyphosis as a less frequent one (see page 3):

https://www.orpha.net/data/patho/GB/uk-CbS.pdf

[AndreaM]

It seems to be difficult to avoid it since seas are contaminated

By far the worst source is dental amalgam as it is right in your mouth in substantial amounts, giving a constant low-level trickle feed of mercury vapour into your surrounding tissue and lungs.

Which is the best chelation method?

The subject of chelation is a minefield and I personally would not recommend tackling it without proper supervision. Some people use chelating agents but they are not predictable and can redistribute the mercury if not done properly. Also, some people don't react well to them. Rather than go into a lengthy explanation, I suggest you read the following topic: http://www.scoliosis.org/forum/showt...-Metal-Allergy

You will see that I attracted some quite negative responses, and indeed some posts were removed from the end of the topic (although I do still have a copy of them) but, for me, I now see that due to the nature of the defects I have, it was vital for me to remove as much mercury as possible from my body as I can't personally detoxify it.

Just be careful with spirulina. Although it is one ingredient sometimes advised for chelation, it also contains a B12 analog which mimics VitB12 but is thought to stop the absorption of true B12 from your food. This means that if you have difficulty metabolising B12, you may well make a deficiency worse but it will not be reflected in your serum level as it will still show up in a serum test as B12 due to the test not being able to differentiate between true B12 and the other much greater inert portion called haptocorrin.

[flerc]

mercury is already known to affect skeletal muscle fibres.

It seems to be difficult to avoid it since seas are contaminated. Which is the best chelation method? Not everyone likes cilantro, onion or garlic. I'm buying spirulina but I'm not sure if it is safe.

[mariaf]

Actually the rate of miscarriage is pretty high for everyone, not just mothers of kids with scoliosis. A quick scan shows it to be ~15-20% of known pregnancies and another study showed it to the about 1/3 of all pregnancies.

This high loss rate may reflect how many things an go wrong in early gestation.

It is also why it has been correctly point out the the most prolific abortionist is any deity that might be out there, NOT any OB/GYN.

Good point. I, myself, do not have scoliosis and have had 3 children (2 by C-Section). I also had a miscarraige between my 2nd and 3rd child. So that seems in keeping with what most mothers (scoliosis and non-scoliosis) experience - and pretty much around where the data points (somewhere between every one in five pregnancies resulting in miscarriage, to every one in three resulting in miscarraige).

My daughter (2nd child) was also 4 weeks early. I think that more often than there being a reason, most times these things 'just happen' and nobody, including the doctors, knows why.