Could It Be B12?: An Epidemic of Misdiagnoses - Softcover

Sally M. Pacholok; Jeffrey J. Stuart

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1884956467 ISBN 13: 9781884956461

Publisher: Linden Publishing, 2005

Synopsis

A silent crippler stalks millions of North Americans. It afflicts one person with tremors, makes another depressed or psychotic, and causes agonizing leg pains or paralysis in still another. It can mimic Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, early Parkinson’s disease, diabetic neuropathy, or chronic fatigue syndrome. It can make men or women infertile or cause development disabilities in their children. The disorder is vitamin B12 deficiency. This isn’t a new or fad disease. You’ll find it listed in the textbooks of any first-year medical student. Yet it may be the most misdiagnosed disease and, when this occurs, the consequences can be tragic.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

A silent crippler stalks millions of North Americans--and any of us may be its next victim.
This crippler is a master of masquerade, striking different people in different ways. It afflicts one person with tremors, makes another depressed or psychotic, and causes agonizing leg and arm pains or paralysis in still another. It can mimic Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, early Parkinson's disease, diabetic neuropathy, or chronic fatigue syndrome. It can make men or women infertile or cause developmental disabilities in their children. Other times it lurks silently, stealthily increasing its victim's risk of deadly diseases ranging from stroke and heart attacks to cancer.
This medical disorder stems from a vitamin deficiency, but your standard multivitamin pill won't prevent it in many cases, and even high-dose oral formulas of this vitamin may not help. It's considered an "old people's disease" by doctors, but it can strike any person at any age, and it sometimes hits children the hardest.
The disorder is vitamin B12 deficiency. If you develop this deficiency it's easy to spot, easy to treat, and easy to cure--but only if your doctor diagnoses you before it's too late. Unfortunately, that frequently doesn't happen.
This isn't a new or fad disease. In fact, you'll find it listed in the textbooks of any first-year medical student. It's not a rare disease, either: If you're over forty, you're at an elevated risk for dangerous B12 deficiency, and if you're over sixty, you have up to a 40 percent chance of having dangerously low B12 levels.

From the Back Cover:

What do these people have in common?
* A 40-year old Washington Post reporter who loses his ability to write, falls when he attempts to walk, and becomes so confused that his wife suspects early-onset Alzheimer's.
* A beautiful, normal eight-month-old baby who gradually loses her speech, stops responding to her parents, and eventually can't even sit up by herself.
* A 20-year-old woman who becomes severely depressed and attempts to kill herself.
* A ballet dancer who undergoes cosmetic surgery and ends up nearly unable to walk.
* A 35-year-old man who starts wetting himself and can no longer walk steadily or grip with his hands.
* An 86-year-old man who becomes delusional and kills his wife.
* A 54-year-old woman experiencing paranoid delusions and violent outbursts, coupled with symptoms her doctor diagnoses as multiple sclerosis.
* A four-year-old boy diagnosed with autism.
* A 73-year-old whose doctors attribute his repeated falls to "mini-strokes."
* A young woman unable to conceive.
* A grandfather transformed, in less than a year, from a healthy jogger to a depressed, confused man diagnosed with senile dementia.
Here's what these patients don't have in common: a correct diagnosis. Instead they have a plethora of incorrect, often hopeless diagnoses: mental retardation, autism, multiple sclerosis, psychosis, senile dementia, transient ischemic attacks, depression, diabetic neuropathy. But, in reality, they all suffer from the same medical condition: vitamin B12 deficiency.

About this edition

• Publisher: Linden Publishing
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1884956467
• ISBN 13: 9781884956461
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 232