Can taking too much B12 kill you?
No.
B12 is water-soluble, and it’s generally safe even at very high doses. In the complementary medicine realm B12 is probably one of the safest things you could take.
Fat-soluble vitamins like A and D are harmful in excess, because they build up in fat stores. In contrast, an individual who injects 1,000µg of vitamin B12 will only absorb a small portion, with the remainder being excreted in urine within hours.
For this reason, there are no vitamin B12 overdose symptoms.
You Can’t Overdose On B12
Still wondering whether excess vitamin B12 could kill you? 🙂
Consider the following:
- In Japan, ultra-high daily doses of methyl B12 (25,000-50,000µg per shot) have been used to extend the survival of ALS patients. Their ALS progressed slower, and these patients survived much longer than an untreated group. Another study from Japan found similar results with ultra-high doses, with no adverse effects.
- Ultra-high IV doses of methyl B12 (25mg) were shown safe and potentially effective for patients with peripheral neuropathy and chronic axonal degeneration.
- In the treatment of children with inherited B12 metabolism and transport disorders, serum levels are maintained at around 7,500pmol/L without any side effects.
- In the fifties, when chemo wasn’t yet widely used, high-dose B12 shots (10,000µg) were given to children with a neuroblastoma tumor, every two days, for 2-3 years. In most patients, the tumor disappeared either entirely or partially.
- In life-threatening cases of cyanide toxicity, 5,000,000µg of B12 is injected. Blood levels quickly rise to 560,000,000pmol/L, and if necessary, treatment is repeated within hours for a total of 10,000,000µg of B12. This is more than 4 million times the recommended daily intake. Still, there are no vitamin B12 toxicity symptoms besides a few harmless, temporary effects, like red skin and a faster heart rate.
- In Japan, treating multiple sclerosis patients with daily 60,000µg tablets of methyl B12, for six months, proved to be useful and safe. No vitamin B12 overdose.
- Also in Japan, kidney dialysis patients with polyneuropathy received 5,000µg methyl B12 shots, three times a week for six months. Because of their malfunctioning kidneys and renal clearance, the B12 remained in the blood, and serum values rose from an average of 422pmol/L to 54,000pmol/L, without side effects.
- The American Institute of Medicine, Food and Nutrition Board, and the European Scientific Committee on Food, both decided not to set an upper B12 intake limit, because toxicity from overdosing on B12 poses no risk. No adverse effects of B12 toxicity have ever been recorded from taking excessive amounts of B12.
In short, there’s no such thing as an overdose of B12.
Vitamin B12 Overdose Is An Unrealistic Fear
Doctors are trying to keep B12 blood levels within range, because of an unrealistic fear of B12 overdose or toxicity. But as you saw, the scientific literature shows that treatment with massive doses of B12, leading to very high blood levels, is 100% safe. To this day, not even a single harmful case of vitamin B12 overdose has ever been recorded.
Because of this unfounded fear of overdosing on B12, doctors often drastically reduce treatment, or stop it altogether. This is tragic, because pernicious anemia symptoms resurface quickly, and can become permanent. Patients are left with recurring, crippling symptoms, which could be avoided if treatment continued. Doctors must understand, B12 blood levels will rise during treatment, regardless of therapeutic effectiveness.
It’s very plausible that a doctor’s concern regarding potential B12 toxicity may arise from the fact that elevated levels of B12 often indicate a serious underlying condition. It could be cancer destroying healthy cells and releasing B12 back to the blood, a bad liver that can no longer store B12, or an increased production of the transport protein haptocorrin, to which blood B12 binds. High levels of B12 are a warning sign:
While low serum cobalamin levels do not necessarily imply deficiency, an abnormally high serum cobalamin level forms a warning sign requiring exclusion of a number of serious underlying pathologies.
The pathophysiology of elevated vitamin B12 in clinical practice
Elevated levels of serum cobalamin may be a sign of a serious, even life-threatening, disease. Hematologic disorders like chronic myelogeneous leukemia, promyelocytic leukemia, polycythemia vera and also the hypereosinophilic syndrome can result in elevated levels of cobalamin. Not surprisingly, a rise of the cobalamin concentration in serum is one of the diagnostic criteria for the latter two diseases. The increase in circulating cobalamin levels is predominantly caused by enhanced production of haptocorrin. Several liver diseases like acute hepatitis, cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma and metastatic liver disease can also be accompanied by an increase in circulating cobalamin. This phenomenon is predominantly caused by cobalamin release during hepatic cytolysis and/or decreased cobalamin clearance by the affected liver. Altogether it can be concluded that an observed elevation of cobalamin in blood merits the a full diagnostic work up to assess the presence of disease.
Significance of elevated cobalamin (vitamin B12) levels in blood
So, can vitamin B12 kill you? As we can intuitively grasp, these high levels aren’t a sign of B12 toxicity or overdose. They are side effects of the underlying disease.
Why Are People Reporting Symptoms of Too Much B12?
We’ve come across online discussions where people complained about symptoms they attributed to vitamin B12 overdose, toxicity, or reactions to B12 shots. They mentioned weakness on one side, nightmares, dizziness, anxiety, insomnia, restlessness, numbness, nausea, muscle spasms, tingling, itching, acne, psoriasis, eczema, heart palpitations, leg cramps, blurred vision, hair loss, and not being able to concentrate or to stand noise.
Do these symptoms remind you of anything?
Indeed, these are the symptoms of B12 deficiency itself. People fail to recognize that many of the reported symptoms of B12 supplements come from individuals with B12 deficiency or pernicious anemia. Often, their disease is only diagnosed at the end stage, and many of the reported reactions to B12 are consistent with the disease itself.
As another example, a person might have undiagnosed pernicious anemia. Seeing his low blood levels, his doctor might prescribe an oral B12 supplement. Since tablets won’t work in PA, the anemia will only get worse, and the patient may end up blaming the symptoms on the B12 itself, rather than on the accelerating, untreated anemia.
Another problem is allergies and sensitivities.
Many of the side effects described by others bear a strong resemblance to symptoms of allergic reactions, which ultimately can be attributed to any number of variables present at the time of B12 ingestion. For example, let’s say the B12 in question came in the form of a tablet which also contained any number of ingredients for fillers, binders, coloring, etc, and which some may be sensitive to. If the B12 ingested was part of a multivitamin, then the list of potential sources for a reaction becomes quite formidable.
We hope this gives some insight into the problematic nature of pinpointing cause and effect within the constraints of such a complex environment.
In short, take any vitamin B12 overdose symptoms you come across with a grain of salt. However, we do have some general recommendations for you to follow 🙂
Our Recommendations
Avoid Cyanocobalamin
Cyano B12 is a synthetic, slightly-toxic, inactive form of B12 that is made with a cyanide donor. However, it doesn’t absorb well, and requires a methyl donor (a natural antidote and an antagonist for toxins) to detoxify it before it can convert to one of the useful forms of B12. It’s the most prescribed form, because it’s cheap, but it’s also the least safe or effective, and is the most demanding type of B12. It makes no sense to try to improve your health with something that depletes you of other crucial substances.
Can B12 kill you? No, but cyanocobalamin toxicity may be real:
A young woman was treated with multiple daily doses of 1 mg of cyanocobalamin for severe pernicious anemia. After a total dose of 12 mg, she developed acne, palpitations, anxiety, akathisia, facial ruddiness, headache, and insomnia. She improved two weeks after stopping the drug. There were no sequelae nor complications.
Toxicity induced by multiple high doses of vitamin B 12 during pernicious anemia treatment: a case report
Or it may not. As we discussed, these symptoms are the same symptoms of B12 deficiency or pernicious anemia, of which the young woman already had.
Either way, stay away from cyano B12. Many people with B12 deficiency or pernicious anemia naturally lack sufficient detoxifying methyl donors, and have trouble clearing out the cyanide. The donor responsible for the decyanation seems to be glutathione, which PA patients need for lowering their increasing levels of homocysteine.
Cyanocobalamin poses additional risks to smokers, and to individuals with methylation, liver or kidney issues, as these conditions can make it difficult to eliminate cyanide.
Make Sure Your Supplement Is Pure
At the very least, make sure you’re not reactive to any of the additives. Can you overdose on B12? No, but you can react negatively to other ingredients in supplements.
Allergic reactions to proprietary preparations of vitamin B12 might be due to substances added to the solutions as preservatives or for other reasons, to impurities from the production, or to the vitamin B12 itself.
ANAPHYLACTIC REACTION AFTER INJECTION OF VITAMIN B12
If you think you had reacted to B12 in the past, the cause was likely not the B12 itself, but some other ingredient in the mix. Mannitol and carboxymethyl cellulose are common B12 shots additives that you may have reacted to. Or it may have been the fluid that was added. If it was anything other than sterile saline, it may have been a preservative that you reacted to, such as benzyl alcohol. Here’s an example case of adverse reactions to B12 shots due to benzyl alcohol sensitivity.
If you’re looking to buy a pure supplement, try our 100% pure injectable methyl B12. Methylcobalamin is an active, native form, with zero recorded anaphylactic reactions in medical literature. It comes 100% pure, no additives or preservatives whatsoever. It also has distinct nerve repairing properties. For most people, it is the best form.
Monitor Your Nutrition
The conversion of anemia to normal production of red blood cells could temporarily lead to low potassium levels and high platelet count, causing an irregular heartbeat or high blood pressure. So when you first begin supplementing with B12, increase potassium intake. Supplement with other minerals and vitamins if you’re low in them, so that you don’t confuse their deficiency symptoms with reactions from the B12 supplement.
B12 needs folate and the other B vitamins in order to function properly. If you decide to take a B12 multivitamin complex, try getting the pure forms without any added junk in capsules or injection solutions. Check out the list of ingredients, and stay clear of any preservatives, potassium sorbate, food coloring, etc. This will minimize your risk for unexpected reactions, that you might then blame on the B12 itself.
Read our pernicious anemia diet page for more advice.
Sensitive to Cobalt?
If you’re allergic or sensitive to cobalt, you may react to B12, because it contains cobalt atoms. If you’re worried you may have it, go and test for cobalt sensitivity. Alternatively, just have your first injection next to a medical professional supervising you.
Summary: Vitamin B12 Toxicity
Can too much vitamin B12 kill you?
As you’ve just learned, no.
The treatment of PA and other ailments with ultra-high doses of B12 is 100% safe, and also very effective. Don’t let the imaginary fear of overdosing delay your treatment, as timing is crucial. If you start early, you can reverse PA symptoms completely, before any irreversible damage takes place. And if you think you took too much B12, don’t worry. Even injecting a whole vial of 15,000µg of B12 at once can’t do you any harm.
Unlike in the case of vitamin D or A, the danger of overdosing isn’t real. Excess vitamin B12 can’t kill or hurt no one. If you have pernicious anemia or B12 deficiency, we recommend treating based on symptoms alone. Disregard blood values.
Best of luck, and good health.