Has anyone been prescribed EB-N5?

@njed Ed – I'm going to phone "my Dave" in a little while and ask if he found my message about B6, and if so, is he in the mood to do a little neurologist-nagging? If he is, I may learn something by day's end. More and more, I can understand why so many of us surrender all control of our health care to our university-trained physicians. Doing it on your own can be mind-boggling, if simply confusing. Last evening I was studying up on B6 and B12, using literature from the NIH. What knocked me for a loop was reading how not an overabundance but a deficiency of either or both vitamins can have significant implications for a person's red blood cell count. At my last annual with my PCP, she was also knocked for a loop when reading my lab test results. She saw that, for the first time in our relationship, I was found to have a low red blood cell count or RBC. When I met with the hematologist my PCP referred me to, he drew more blood––what seemed like ten or twenty gallons but was probably a few ounces less––and concluded my low RBC was a bit of a mystery (I like to think of it as my idio-RBC, to go along with my idio-neuropathy). So, all of this studying up on B6 and B12 has got me wondering: Might I have a deficiency and not an excess of either? Or both? I think it's time to visit the lab for a new blood panel. I need fresh numbers that I can show my doctors. All of this seems to tie in nicely with the need for a patient not to rely entirely on their sharply focused specialists but to be ever-vigilant for the possibility of a common cause for an assortment of ailments. – Ray @ray666

Good morning, @bb0753

Thanks for this article. I'm going to print a hardcopy and read it later. If you come across a rather lengthy post I left only minutes ago, you'll see that I thinking I might need a new blood panel to learn once and for all what my B vitamin levels are. Because I also have a low red blood cell count, I may have a deficiency, not an overload, of one or more of my B vitamins, In any event, it would be good to know.

Ray @ray666

Thanks Debbie. Guess I didn’t consider that. I switched from my first one because she just wanted to put me on medicine which made me sick. I was hoping the second would be a little more innovative. Wishful thinking lol. But I don’t know how I can trust him when he said he read the blood test results from my PCP that showed my B1 was way low and I was positive for an autoimmune disorder and he said all my results looked good. My PCP said the neurologist I’m seeing now has a good reputation. Makes me wonder how you earn one of those in the doctor community

We shouldn’t feel bullied into not getting the best care, because sometimes things are overlooked. It sounds like you have a good PCP to team up with, and in my last state, I had the absolute best medical partner in my PCP. It’s just hard to keep on top of or correct/clarify poorly written or unfair doctor notes or mistakes. I tried unsuccessfully in 2018 to get a report corrected that erroneously stated I’d had my tonsils removed as a child. My ENT in 2020 treating me for throat cancer was surprised to see my tonsils in there. He was smart, knew they didn’t grow back, and was glad he could take one out as an option to biopsy. Little thing, but I wasn’t able to get it corrected the one time I tried. We just have to read our portal notes and records.

@ray666 - You did touch on something about University Hospitals and in the time I've spent dealing with PN and all the effects, I've found them to be on the top of my list. There is just something about the way they do things that have impressed me. On the RBC....funny timing, I just had labs done 2 weeks ago and did meet with my primary today. I'm a little below what the lab considers normal range. The B-12 for me was in the 120 range in around 2011 and the doc told me to take 1000 mg of B-12 daily which now has me in the 300 range and I've been there for about 12 years. On the B-6....I'm taking 50 mg every other day, approved by my primary and neuro doc and I also take B-1, low dose. Doing any good? Who the heck knows!

NJ Ed | @njed –– I, too, was always impressed with the care I received at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. I was automatically patched in with UCHSC because I was employed by UC Boulder then. When I retired in 2011, I had no choice but to get new insurance. (I could have stuck with UCHC, carrying the needed insurance on my own would have sent me to the poor house.) I'm now with AARP United Healthcare, and most of my doctors huddle at one of the region's non-university hospitals. Changing subjects: I've not heard back from "my Dave," and it's now past closing time at my neurologist's office––so I'll be phoning again tomorrow. I sent a note to my PCP asking if she could find any mention of my B6 level on a report from a recent lab test. I've got copies, but to my layman's eyes, they're nothing but a maze of abbreviations. I could make out my B12 level: 941, back in Oct. '22. I wonder if my B6 level appears anywhere or has ever been checked. My PCP is good about getting back to me. Her workday is over now, too, but I'm pretty sure I'll hear something tomorrow. ––Ray

It is 70 mg per day (2 capsules at 35 mg each). I talked with the pharmacist at EBM about the Vitamin-6 issue causing nerve damage. He said that the EB-N5 P5'P is a different formulation than the Vitamin-6 contained in typical vitamin mixtures, is perfectly safe, and is formulated to help nerves heal, in fact. I hope he is right.

Problem these days is getting in to see anyone, at least at the University of Colorado. They seem to be short on physicians, and many appointments take months to arrange, especially in such fields as neurology, but even primary care can not take up to a month for an appointment, even for a tele-health-visit. They can be very good, and are knowledgeable since they teach as well as practice with patients. Lordy, the health care system is in trouble, and in part we can blame insurance companies who drive physicians crazy with paper work. I think a lot of doctors with some money and closer to retirement age gave up around Covid-time. BTW, we have Medicare and AARP's United Health Care Plan G which allows us to go anywhere that takes Medicare; we still have some doctors outside the university system, but slowly they are going away.

Not only losing physicians, but the clinics are more and more outsourcing functions not directly related to patient care. For example. my dermatologist's office has recently outsourced its phone service. In the past, I could call, and after sitting quietly through the unavoidable " … some of our menu options have changed" message, I would be put through to the front desk and get to speak to a living person. All that's changed. Now I have to dial an 800 number and leave a request with a robotic repository for a callback––a callback that never seems to come.

That would be good news, indeed. But I'm still confused. In the company's literature, B6 is shown as 70 mg for EB-N3; persons taking EB-N3 take only one capsule a day. That would lead me to believe that one capsule is 70 mg. I'm using EB-N5. Its ingredient list is identical: 70 mg, But I take two capsules. It seems natural to assume I'm using 140 mg of B6 every day. (And an EB-N3 user is only getting 35 mg daily.) If that isn't true, then it would seem that the company would want to make that clearer in its literature. I hope what you've been told is true. At the moment, I remain puzzled.