Vitamin B12 Injections: Vitamin B12 Shots

First of all, you need to have your B12 levels checked by having a simple blood test done. This can be ordered by your provider. Be a little patient, as it can take up to a week for the results to come back.

Generally speaking, deficiency is diagnosed by looking not only at lab results, but also at your symptoms. If you are having vitamin B12 deficiency symptoms your provider may recommend supplementation in the form of injections. When patients are having symptoms and have a level below 350ug/ml then we start supplementation.

Why Can't I Take Oral B12?

Vitamin B12 Shots

Now all providers have a bit of a different approach. In our clinic we start by giving 1000mg injections once a week for four weeks. After that you would need one injection a month for a year and then another blood test to check levels.

Rarely, I do have some people who must have injections every other week. As mentioned before, I treat the patient, not the lab result. If a patient tells me, that after they drop down to monthly injections, their symptoms worsen...well then we increase the frequency of injections.

Vitamin B12 injections can be given either intra-muscularly (IM) or sub-cutaneously (SQ).

At the one year mark, if the blood levels are good, I advise people to switch to the sublingual vitamin B12 . This is a pill that is absorbed under the tongue, not through the GI tract like oral pills. Once again, going back to just oral would not work out to well as eventually you would become deficient again.

Many times, in fact, when I tell a person they have to start vitamin B12 injections, they respond: "Oh yeah..my doctor used to give me those years ago!"