High B12: The Actual Role In Your Health

Do you have a high B12 level and want to understand how or why that's occurring? In this video, I will explain how individuals not taking B12 can end up with elevated B12 levels, the connection with cancer, and what might be happening in your body to drive this process. Primarily, this phenomenon is linked with white blood cells, but I'll provide the details on that in the remainder of the video.
**My Book: Don't B12 Deficient geni.us/rTQTvd (amazon link) **
References: academic.oup.com/qjmed/articl...
I originally posted a video regarding poor B12 absorption or B12 deficiency symptoms. I actually don't remember which video sparked it, but someone started asking in the comment section about elevated B12, and they posted a research study that talked about the relationship between elevated B12 and different types of cancer. I wasn't fully aware of this connection until reading the paper, and after looking into this, I started to use my own knowledge of genetics and functional medicine to dive deeper into this topic, and I found it fascinating.
As I've said in previous videos, this is simply a tool to further understand what's going on in your body. The first thing is that elevated B12 really doesn't mean a whole lot until you've done at least a second or third layer of investigation. The first layer is always going to be, do you actually have elevated B12 from consuming B12?
That may consist of repeating the test several times, double-checking if you're not taking any, etc. But once you've gone through that first layer, that's where things kind of get interesting in terms of the physiology or the problems that are going on in your body. Now, outside of kidney or liver problems, it mostly comes down to the binding proteins that carry the B12 throughout your body, and that specifically transport B12 into the cell.
Most of the issues with ongoing B12 elevation or high B12 are from the B12 not getting into the cells in sufficient quantities.
Now, just as a side note, this doesn't mean that your body is not absorbing the B12. You can say that your cells aren't absorbing it, but you are absorbing it because we usually use absorption when referring to the digestive tract. Since it's in your blood, you're definitely getting it through the digestive tract, but it's not penetrating or getting inside the cells, and that is a common thing that happens with elevated B12.
This does not necessarily mean that your intracellular levels are low, but more so that the amount of binding protein is excessively high. This leads to a low saturation of B12 on the B12 binding proteins, despite sufficient levels of B12. I know this is kind of confusing, so you can think of it like this: you have a group of people with a destination they want to go to, let's say New York City. And in order to get to downtown New York City, you need some kind of transportation to get there. Let's say there are a hundred people that you want to get to this destination.
And you can only take one person per transport vehicle. Now, let's say there are three types of transport vehicles available. They all look the same, but only one of them actually knows how to get to your destination or can actually get into New York City. The other two are kind of like getting into a cab or an Uber that doesn't really know where they're going.
But once you get in, you can't really get off easily. You can't just switch cabs. You can't just switch Ubers. So obviously, the analogy here is that the hundred people that are trying to get to New York City are the B12, and New York City is inside the cell. And in the case of elevated B12 that's not from increasing consumption, this problem is equivalent to increasing the number of Ubers that don't really know where they're going.
So let's say we start with a hundred of these cabs or Uber drivers, and they're evenly distributed. There's 33, and that's the normal situation. In the situation with elevated B12 when you're having this problem going on, the person might have two times the number of Ubers that actually don't know how to get to New York City.
And, of course, they're still coming and picking up passengers and taking them who knows where, but they're not actually getting to New York City. Some of the passengers are getting picked up by the Uber drivers that can get to New York City, but because there are more of the cabs that don't know where they're going, the likelihood is less of them are actually getting to downtown New York City.This is going to translate into normal serum B12 levels or really high serum B12 levels.
That's because what we're measuring is the number of passengers or B12 that is in the streets. We're not actually measuring what's in New York City, just in the streets themselves. Now, I say that it can be normal because in some cases, the levels will be normal even though you have a lot of these Uber drivers that can't get to downtown

[@Monic734]

Thank you. Looking forward to the next video

[@swintegrative]

Thanks for watching!

[@user-gz3sg3xg3x]

Hello Dr, I recently purchased your book, absolutely brilliant… I have finally managed to get a doctor to listen and do some B12 investigations, however, on my blood form, it says (WDPT b12 diphosphate, and folate, and on another is the intrinsic factor antibody that I’ve requested also.. I’ve struggled with stomach acid. And having a diagnosis… please can you possibly do a video explaining what this diphosphate is, and why it’s being requested on a b12 lab test request. Many thanks for your continued help and making it accessible for us all. ❤️ Thankyou 😊

[@swintegrative]

Glad you liked the book thank you. Sorry I’m not familiar w b12 diphosphate blood test or WDPT.

[@VistaB1102]

Nice video but would think it would be 10x better without the Uber and New York City analogies

[@swintegrative]

Humm ok thanks for feedback. I think some people will appreciate that but maybe just a little over done. It’s definitely a work in progress haha

[@budprepper3811]

Just upset cause he's an Uber driver 😅

[@swintegrative]

lol

[@pernern1]

Love the information you put out.....My Ferritin levels are high (494)but my transferrin saturation is normal. For a couple of years now. My B12 is also high (717)....You said in another video that it could be related? I just found out I have slow COMT. Could this be the reason for the high levels of ferritin and B12?

[@swintegrative]

No not comt related

[@adore333]

I have had high b12 for many years, at one stage it was 1200. No doctors could explain it, i dont take supplements or anything. Never found out why, not I also have high esr, 100 plus for the last year. Having investigations but not really finding anything with this either.

[@swintegrative]

Well hopefully this video helped explain a little more.

[@alec1113]

Hello , I have high b12. I was told that is because I have pernious aniemia .

[@swintegrative]

@@alec1113 That seems odd unless you are tkaing b12 shots.

[@user-i4q-o4d]

Can high blood sugar, low hamaglobin, low vit d levels cause high b12 levels?

[@rahulgm7475]

How much vitamin b12 do I need to take I am vegan , deficient in vitamin b12 levels also I have genetic mutations of vitamin b12 so how much for me?

[@swintegrative]

Well, I know I talk about this in several of my videos on B12, and I think there’s a specific one that goes into this I would search on the B12 playlists

[@elena6440]

Hi Dr.Terranella, I currently found out that I have high B12 level. The lab showed >2000. After watching your videos , I’m hoping that it’s just due to my diet and my multivitamin containing 40mcg. I try to include plenty of meat in my diet 2 times a day to get adequate amount of protein. I’m changing to a multivitamin containing only 2.4mcg of b12 and not take any more energy drinks during my workout to see if that will decrease it. Should I cut back on meat as well ? Also, is it safe to take a hair supplement that contains niacimide, b6, pantothenic acid , biotin ( 3000 mcg), zinc, and copper along with my multivitamin which already have all these ingredients? I’ve researched the max dosages and it looks like I’m not exceeding the daily amount except the biotin. However , that’s from calculating the amount shown on the supplement label. I’m afraid now that I may be going way beyond the RDA with my diet as well. Can you please do a video about this ? Thanks in advance .

[@swintegrative]

a bit old but still helpful info kzbin.info/www/bejne/f3PMnXacqc6raNE

[@elena6440]

Thanks Dr.Terranella! That video was helpful. I certainly don’t eat much fruits and veggies !

[@Shukri66667]

My vitamin B12 is 856 dr is high

[@trishs2326]

Not a fan of the analogy, otherwise useful information. Thanks.

[@swintegrative]

Fair enough!