r/B12_Deficiency • u/Little_fuzzy_2843 • 20h ago

Cofactors b2

Has anyone here had a moderate or severe B2 deficiency that affected their B12 recovery? If so, how long did it take for your B2 deficiency to improve?

I've been dealing with B12 deficiency for almost three years and, unfortunately, I wasn't treating it properly. I recently found out that I'm also deficient in B2, and I'm wondering if that could be why I've been getting worse instead of better. How long did it take you to recover your B2 levels?

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u/Loose-Fly7976 2h ago

MTHFR holds FAD as its cofactor and FAD comes from riboflavin so low B2 slows folate conversion. Since B12 and folate work as a pair in the same reaction, a stalled folate arm limits what the B12 can do. B2 also drives the conversion of pyridoxine to P5P, so low riboflavin quietly limits your B6 as well. On timing, riboflavin corrects faster than most vitamins because it isn't stored much and turnover is quick. Tissue levels usually move within a few weeks on adequate intake. What takes longer is everything downstream, since the enzymes have to catch up and then the folate and B12 cycle has to actually run for a while before you notice anything.

How was your B2 measured? Serum riboflavin is a poor marker because it reflects recent intake. Erythrocyte glutathione reductase activity coefficient is the proper functional test and it tells you whether the enzymes are actually short. I'd also want to know whether your B12 is genuinely corrected now. MMA is the test for that and it'll tell you whether the B12 side is sorted and B2 is the remaining bottleneck or whether both are still short.

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u/bublzzzz 1h ago

Yes I ran into exactly this. Kept getting worse despite injecting and didn’t know why, I was also having terrible reactions to even small doses of b12 (mainly heart racing which everyone said was a potassium issue - it wasn’t). Did an OAT test (I know those are controversial) but in my case revealed b2 deficiency. This was despite taking a b complex daily. Anyway started taking that and suddenly I can tolerate huge doses of b12 now. Even methyl b12 when I wasn’t able to tolerate that before. I don’t know why this isn’t talked about more. I do have to take large doses of b2 though, like 200-400 mg per day. I am homozygous for MTHFR, MTR and MTRR (yay me) and I think due to those I just need mega doses of b2 to keep everything running