My husband has been really ill for a long time now. 2 months ago his eyesight went incredibly blurry (maculor not peripheral) it has remained that way and he has had no break from it. He is really achey and can do very little before having to sit down. He has constant fluey symptoms and generally unwell. We were initially contacting the gp because of his eyesight at which point we were told "I dont deal with eyes, its not my problem" he initially thought there was a possibility of conjunctivitis but wasnt convinced and gave him drops to cover himself. Full course done and no improvement, contacted him and he said he didnt know and basically wouldnt deal with it anymore. We requested another doctor and he had no clue but to be safe he done bloods. The district nurse came out (hes agoraphobic) done bloods and came back saying both b12 and iron levels were low. How low I dont know and that within a week or so he would have meds as he wasnt keen on injections. He would have them if neccessary but gp said tablets would be ok. He doesnt seem to want to know how or why this happened and when asked if the vision was related he said I have no idea but this needed treating. In the mean time we got an optician out and they said they can see nothing overly wrong with his eyes, he had a small haemoridge but that was nothing and would be referred. They were of the opinion that it was unrelated. So I suppose my question really is has anyone else had problems with their eyesight as a result of a b12 deficiency? Is this a long term thing? I have noticed personality changes so will that get better? Basically can anyone help as we both feel so trapped and alone and the gp is of no real help. Sorry if I have blabbered on.
I also wanted to add that he is only 26 and is on no medication what so ever. Wont even take pain killers. Also that he had quite a bad cold (or so we believe) as his eyes got bad and that as far as we know there were no side effects of this before then. The only odd thing I can think of is quite a bad burn on his leg, he normally heals quickly but it still has a scab on it and that was 4 months ago.
A question: is his diet vegan (no animal foods) or near-vegan?
Men in rich countries rarely have iron deficiency, since most men in rich countries eat lots of red meat and other high iron foods, and men do not lose iron monthly like women do. However, the best iron sources are animal foods, so vegetarians (including vegans) are more likely to have iron deficiency. Vegetarians can increase iron absorption by consuming vegetable sources of iron with vitamin C containing foods (mainly raw fruits and vegetables).
Vitamin B12 is found only in animal foods, so those eating a vegan or near-vegan diet need to consume fortified foods or supplements to get vitamin B12. Loss of the ability to absorb vitamin B12 in the digestive tract is sometimes found, more commonly in older people; in that case, injections are needed. Vision problems are one possible symptom of vitamin B12 deficiency.
He had to cut out dairy because it gave him an upset tummy. He eats meat though. Im trying to introduce him to fortified soya milk and fortified cereals. Just to make sure.
If he eats meat and vitamin B12 fortified foods, then he may want to ask his doctors about whether he is unable to absorb vitamin B12 from his digestive tract and therefore needs to get it by injection.
He doesnt eat alot of that though so it may be. I think the doc is trying the tablet method first as he is needlephobic. He will at a push have them but between him and the doc they want to try this first and if it doesnt work then do the injections. Does that make sense to anyone?
