What I Know to Be True about Vitamin B12
| Some Background |
Back in 2003, when I began this web site, I wanted to tell
people about the connection I had noticed between lines or
ridges on fingernails and low B12.
But I didn't want to make the site be about what I thought and
what I observed, when no one knows me. I was concerned that
if I just described what I'd seen, that it would be discounted.
I mean, if I read something like this that someone wrote from
their experience, I think I'd be sceptical.
So, I wrote down the symptoms that I had felt and I supported
their connection to vitamin B12 deficiency with excerpts from
respected research.
I tried not to say, "vitamin B12 deficiency," because that's a
medical condition with a specific definition. The definition
involves an accepted "normal" range for results from serum
blood tests for vitamin B12.
I have strong feelings about the accepted normal range in the
United States: that is, I feel that our "normal" has its bottom
boundary way too low. (I feel as I do because of how it has
affected my life.)
I know that my doctors relied on the scale used by the
laboratories that processed the tests I had. The laboratories
said that 180 to 200 was the bottom of the normal range.
I know that when I tried to sue the doctors and hospital for
not diagnosing and treating my B12 deficiency after my test
result was 141, that they craftily got the case assigned to an
Assistant U.S. Attorney because I'd had a pap test that was
subsidized by the government. (The U.S. Assist. Attorney was
very nice, but not nice enough for me to appreciate the
maneuver which put the case into Federal Court: because of
the government subsidized pap smear they said I was suing the
government.)
At the deposition of my neurologist, the Assistant U.S.
Attorney produced a medical book in which an acceptable low
for B12 was said to be 100. That is very low. The lowest I've
seen a laboratory cite, is 180.
My neurologist reacted emphatically, saying that my test
result of 141 was Very Low, and that if he had seen it he would
have taken it very seriously. (The hospital had not taken it
very seriously.)
(I once mentioned my fingernails theory to my neurologist, and
he pooh-poohed it. I told him about my observations, but he
was not convinced.)
Luckily, though, my neurologist wanted me to keep a Time-Line
of my symptoms, B12 shots, and any test results that I had. (It
was lucky because of what I learned from the Time-Line.)
people about the connection I had noticed between lines or
ridges on fingernails and low B12.
But I didn't want to make the site be about what I thought and
what I observed, when no one knows me. I was concerned that
if I just described what I'd seen, that it would be discounted.
I mean, if I read something like this that someone wrote from
their experience, I think I'd be sceptical.
So, I wrote down the symptoms that I had felt and I supported
their connection to vitamin B12 deficiency with excerpts from
respected research.
I tried not to say, "vitamin B12 deficiency," because that's a
medical condition with a specific definition. The definition
involves an accepted "normal" range for results from serum
blood tests for vitamin B12.
I have strong feelings about the accepted normal range in the
United States: that is, I feel that our "normal" has its bottom
boundary way too low. (I feel as I do because of how it has
affected my life.)
I know that my doctors relied on the scale used by the
laboratories that processed the tests I had. The laboratories
said that 180 to 200 was the bottom of the normal range.
I know that when I tried to sue the doctors and hospital for
not diagnosing and treating my B12 deficiency after my test
result was 141, that they craftily got the case assigned to an
Assistant U.S. Attorney because I'd had a pap test that was
subsidized by the government. (The U.S. Assist. Attorney was
very nice, but not nice enough for me to appreciate the
maneuver which put the case into Federal Court: because of
the government subsidized pap smear they said I was suing the
government.)
At the deposition of my neurologist, the Assistant U.S.
Attorney produced a medical book in which an acceptable low
for B12 was said to be 100. That is very low. The lowest I've
seen a laboratory cite, is 180.
My neurologist reacted emphatically, saying that my test
result of 141 was Very Low, and that if he had seen it he would
have taken it very seriously. (The hospital had not taken it
very seriously.)
(I once mentioned my fingernails theory to my neurologist, and
he pooh-poohed it. I told him about my observations, but he
was not convinced.)
Luckily, though, my neurologist wanted me to keep a Time-Line
of my symptoms, B12 shots, and any test results that I had. (It
was lucky because of what I learned from the Time-Line.)
When I First Noticed Lines/Ridges on my Fingernails
Because I have some brain damage, it's a bit hard to tell you
about things that are complicated. I can no longer weave together
descriptions of different things that come together to create
one outcome or situation. So, this will be a bit choppy as I tell
you one thing and then another in order to give you a full
picture.
That said, in 1991 the IRS levied me for 1984 which I had paid
in 1985, the way you are supposed to. Only I was $23 short
because I'd done one part of it wrong, and that $23 was late
being paid. IRS, however, levied me for about $1,100 which was
my total taxes for that year.
The numbers are so small, but I had little money in 1984 so in
comparison to all the money I had, it was a lot of money,
especially to be charged double.
The thing is, the IRS didn't just charge me, and it sure didn't
correct its error when I sent in all the documents showing that
I'd paid, instead it began threatening me with taking my home.
By 1994 IRS had levied me three times and not one of the levies
was correct. The final levy put me out of business because they
took all of my money from a commission I had been waiting
several months to receive because it was from the sale of new
construction. (I was a Realtor -- it was the best job I had ever
had and I loved it.)
IRS did not leave me any money, not enough to buy an apple or a
tortilla. (I later learned that my broker had a duty to calculate
a sum that was supposed to have been turned over to me. There
is a case... I'll have to look up the title, but I think it's Farr v.
something, that establishes that these calculations must be done.
I sued him, but the judge deferred to his lawyer rather than
looking at the true case law. I appealed, and they offered to
settle for $5,000. I didn't have any money at the time, so I
settled. This was fairly shortly after I moved back into my
condo where there was the hydrogen sulfide, but I didn't know
about the hydrogen sulfide at that time.)
Okay, so IRS threatened me and threatened me. IRS went to my
tenants and told them they were not to pay me rent, that they
were to turn the money over to IRS. It was one of my tenants
that told me about the duty to calculate how much I was
supposed to get from any amount.
The point here is the unrelenting threats. IRS called me all the
time to tell me they were going to take my home. They told me I
should get a different job where I would be paid regularly rather
than by commission. They just attacked and attacked.
Because of how they destroyed my sense of well being I am very
sympathetic to the Iraqis who are being bombed all the time.
When I hear our government say that a family or two was killed
but it was unavoidable because terrorists were being targeted, I
remember how the government felt it was unavoidable to put me
out of business because I may not have properly paid my taxes.
The more they threatened me, the less I slept. The less I slept
the more my bones hurt. The more my bones hurt, the less I could
sleep. The bones in my legs hurt so much that Ibuprofen made
little difference.
In the end, just before U.S. News & World Report called me in
the fall of 1995, I was lucky to get three hours sleep in any
twenty-four hours.
After U.S. News & World Report called and listened to my
account of my experience and said they would use some of it in a
story on IRS abuse I was able to start sleeping again.
What this shows is first, that stress can cause sleep deprivation
and second that stress can be relieved by understanding.
The relationship between stress and sleep deprivation is
important. If you are under a lot of stress it is vital for you to
find a way to relax.
This is where I wish my mind still worked the way it used to.
I want to tell you that it would be over a year till I happened
to look at my fingernails and happened to see the lines/ridges on
them.
The reason, most likely, that U.S. News & World Report called,
besides Peter Sepp from the National Taxpayers' Union giving
them my name and number, was that I had been writing a lot of
letters calling for the reform of IRS. I had been writing that
if I ran out of money or my property was foreclosed that I
would kill myself in protest of IRS abuse. I wrote comparing
myself to a soldier who gave his life for the welfare of others.
It is precisely because I took the exact position that I took
that I was given a B12 test. That is to say that in 1997 after
my condo was foreclosed (yes, it was foreclosed then, too) I
was faced with being true to what I had written... or not.
I felt sure that I would go straight to heaven for giving my life
for the welfare of others, but... I mean, it's a big step and I
wanted to be sure. So, I said some prayers and asked that if it
was really a good idea for me to kill myself, then please would a
coin come up... I forget whether it was heads or tails to which I
assigned killing myself... but, in any case, the coin came up that I
should kill myself. I was a little surprised. But I was also major
relieved because I felt as if death would bring this wonderful
peace.
It's hard to explain how limited my thoughts were at that time. I
had "large" thoughts, but they were sort of inflexible. I didn't
have memory of good times. I think that if I had, it might have
altered how I saw the situation. I think that I did not have that
memory because of the effects of my low B12 (which I didn't
know about).
I remember sitting on my bed and looking at my fingernails and
noticing that the fingernail on my left ring finger had enormous
ridges on it. All of my fingernails had ridges on them, but that
fingernail had ridges on top of ridges. I remember wondering if
they were related to something physical, if they were a symptom
of something. I didn't remember ever having heard anything like
that. But still I wondered if maybe it was related to my nerves.
Although I wondered whether, if my nerves had been stronger, I
would have found another way to protest IRS abuse, I decided I
had to stick with what I had started, especially since the coin
had confirmed it.
So I had a bath, got together the 120 "last letters" I had
written over the months, complete with picture of me in happier
times and wrapped in black construction paper so as to bring
home the effect of my death, and went and mailed them, came
home and had goat cheese and tortillas and a mug of coffee with
Grand Marnier (my favorite) with instant whipped cream on top.
It was so good. Then I got into my car. I had a little bottle of
frankincense which smells really good and which I believed
would be what I would smell instead of the carbon monoxide.
It was after I was found in my car with the exhaust being
funneled in that I was taken to hospital and in the course of
saving my life they gave me tests for illegal drugs as well as a
vitamin B12 test. I was clean for drugs, except the 60 Dalmane
that I'd taken so that I'd sleep through the carbon monoxide
killing me. (My first words, according to a nurse who had been
there, were, "I didn't make it.")
Here's the thing, if not for trying to kill myself there would
have been no B12 test that showed something was going wrong
with my body.
It is important to recognize that something was going wrong with
my body because suicide is generally considered to be a result
of mental problems.
What I experienced was that mental problems, like the lack
of memory of the good times, was a result of stress and,
significantly, what I learned from the B12 test was that stress
had worn out my reserves of vitamin B12.
Of course, until I kept the Time-Line after I was getting B12
replacement, and until I saw the ridges on my fingernails
decrease as I had B12 replacement, which they did in a very
visible way, I had no idea that B12 was related to our fingernails.
Once I saw these things I knew that when our stores of vitamin
B12 run low, our fingernails cease to be smooth.
And, I thought how really lucky that is, how really huge of a
Blessing that is, because the mental problems, the cognitive
dysfunction, is almost impossible to identify when we have only
our cognition to identify it. That is because when our cognition is
faulty the process of identifying the cognitive dysfunction is
faulty also.
See?
I hope so.
This is how I know that it is true that our fingernails reflect our
health, particularly our nerve health.
Watch your fingernails, keep in mind that they reflect your
health, that they may be able to show you important things that
would otherwise be hidden until after significant damage was
done.
Bless you.
Karen Marie Kline 7/4/06
about things that are complicated. I can no longer weave together
descriptions of different things that come together to create
one outcome or situation. So, this will be a bit choppy as I tell
you one thing and then another in order to give you a full
picture.
That said, in 1991 the IRS levied me for 1984 which I had paid
in 1985, the way you are supposed to. Only I was $23 short
because I'd done one part of it wrong, and that $23 was late
being paid. IRS, however, levied me for about $1,100 which was
my total taxes for that year.
The numbers are so small, but I had little money in 1984 so in
comparison to all the money I had, it was a lot of money,
especially to be charged double.
The thing is, the IRS didn't just charge me, and it sure didn't
correct its error when I sent in all the documents showing that
I'd paid, instead it began threatening me with taking my home.
By 1994 IRS had levied me three times and not one of the levies
was correct. The final levy put me out of business because they
took all of my money from a commission I had been waiting
several months to receive because it was from the sale of new
construction. (I was a Realtor -- it was the best job I had ever
had and I loved it.)
IRS did not leave me any money, not enough to buy an apple or a
tortilla. (I later learned that my broker had a duty to calculate
a sum that was supposed to have been turned over to me. There
is a case... I'll have to look up the title, but I think it's Farr v.
something, that establishes that these calculations must be done.
I sued him, but the judge deferred to his lawyer rather than
looking at the true case law. I appealed, and they offered to
settle for $5,000. I didn't have any money at the time, so I
settled. This was fairly shortly after I moved back into my
condo where there was the hydrogen sulfide, but I didn't know
about the hydrogen sulfide at that time.)
Okay, so IRS threatened me and threatened me. IRS went to my
tenants and told them they were not to pay me rent, that they
were to turn the money over to IRS. It was one of my tenants
that told me about the duty to calculate how much I was
supposed to get from any amount.
The point here is the unrelenting threats. IRS called me all the
time to tell me they were going to take my home. They told me I
should get a different job where I would be paid regularly rather
than by commission. They just attacked and attacked.
Because of how they destroyed my sense of well being I am very
sympathetic to the Iraqis who are being bombed all the time.
When I hear our government say that a family or two was killed
but it was unavoidable because terrorists were being targeted, I
remember how the government felt it was unavoidable to put me
out of business because I may not have properly paid my taxes.
The more they threatened me, the less I slept. The less I slept
the more my bones hurt. The more my bones hurt, the less I could
sleep. The bones in my legs hurt so much that Ibuprofen made
little difference.
In the end, just before U.S. News & World Report called me in
the fall of 1995, I was lucky to get three hours sleep in any
twenty-four hours.
After U.S. News & World Report called and listened to my
account of my experience and said they would use some of it in a
story on IRS abuse I was able to start sleeping again.
What this shows is first, that stress can cause sleep deprivation
and second that stress can be relieved by understanding.
The relationship between stress and sleep deprivation is
important. If you are under a lot of stress it is vital for you to
find a way to relax.
This is where I wish my mind still worked the way it used to.
I want to tell you that it would be over a year till I happened
to look at my fingernails and happened to see the lines/ridges on
them.
The reason, most likely, that U.S. News & World Report called,
besides Peter Sepp from the National Taxpayers' Union giving
them my name and number, was that I had been writing a lot of
letters calling for the reform of IRS. I had been writing that
if I ran out of money or my property was foreclosed that I
would kill myself in protest of IRS abuse. I wrote comparing
myself to a soldier who gave his life for the welfare of others.
It is precisely because I took the exact position that I took
that I was given a B12 test. That is to say that in 1997 after
my condo was foreclosed (yes, it was foreclosed then, too) I
was faced with being true to what I had written... or not.
I felt sure that I would go straight to heaven for giving my life
for the welfare of others, but... I mean, it's a big step and I
wanted to be sure. So, I said some prayers and asked that if it
was really a good idea for me to kill myself, then please would a
coin come up... I forget whether it was heads or tails to which I
assigned killing myself... but, in any case, the coin came up that I
should kill myself. I was a little surprised. But I was also major
relieved because I felt as if death would bring this wonderful
peace.
It's hard to explain how limited my thoughts were at that time. I
had "large" thoughts, but they were sort of inflexible. I didn't
have memory of good times. I think that if I had, it might have
altered how I saw the situation. I think that I did not have that
memory because of the effects of my low B12 (which I didn't
know about).
I remember sitting on my bed and looking at my fingernails and
noticing that the fingernail on my left ring finger had enormous
ridges on it. All of my fingernails had ridges on them, but that
fingernail had ridges on top of ridges. I remember wondering if
they were related to something physical, if they were a symptom
of something. I didn't remember ever having heard anything like
that. But still I wondered if maybe it was related to my nerves.
Although I wondered whether, if my nerves had been stronger, I
would have found another way to protest IRS abuse, I decided I
had to stick with what I had started, especially since the coin
had confirmed it.
So I had a bath, got together the 120 "last letters" I had
written over the months, complete with picture of me in happier
times and wrapped in black construction paper so as to bring
home the effect of my death, and went and mailed them, came
home and had goat cheese and tortillas and a mug of coffee with
Grand Marnier (my favorite) with instant whipped cream on top.
It was so good. Then I got into my car. I had a little bottle of
frankincense which smells really good and which I believed
would be what I would smell instead of the carbon monoxide.
It was after I was found in my car with the exhaust being
funneled in that I was taken to hospital and in the course of
saving my life they gave me tests for illegal drugs as well as a
vitamin B12 test. I was clean for drugs, except the 60 Dalmane
that I'd taken so that I'd sleep through the carbon monoxide
killing me. (My first words, according to a nurse who had been
there, were, "I didn't make it.")
Here's the thing, if not for trying to kill myself there would
have been no B12 test that showed something was going wrong
with my body.
It is important to recognize that something was going wrong with
my body because suicide is generally considered to be a result
of mental problems.
What I experienced was that mental problems, like the lack
of memory of the good times, was a result of stress and,
significantly, what I learned from the B12 test was that stress
had worn out my reserves of vitamin B12.
Of course, until I kept the Time-Line after I was getting B12
replacement, and until I saw the ridges on my fingernails
decrease as I had B12 replacement, which they did in a very
visible way, I had no idea that B12 was related to our fingernails.
Once I saw these things I knew that when our stores of vitamin
B12 run low, our fingernails cease to be smooth.
And, I thought how really lucky that is, how really huge of a
Blessing that is, because the mental problems, the cognitive
dysfunction, is almost impossible to identify when we have only
our cognition to identify it. That is because when our cognition is
faulty the process of identifying the cognitive dysfunction is
faulty also.
See?
I hope so.
This is how I know that it is true that our fingernails reflect our
health, particularly our nerve health.
Watch your fingernails, keep in mind that they reflect your
health, that they may be able to show you important things that
would otherwise be hidden until after significant damage was
done.
Bless you.
Karen Marie Kline 7/4/06
http://www.health-boundaries-bite.com
Your fingernails reflect your health --
Learn some warning signs --
Karen Kline
Your fingernails reflect your health --
Learn some warning signs --
Karen Kline
Health Boundaries Bite
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