Member Article

Durham doctor's site to help sufferers of a 'forgotten illness'

An East Durham doctor has launched a website with information for sufferers of a ‘forgotten illness’. Dr Joseph Chandy of the Shinwell Medical Group in Horden has launched a website dedicated to his 25 years of research into B12 deficiency; an illness which he believes is not widely recognised by the medical profession at large.

The doctor said that he has treated hundreds of patients over this time who were lacking in the vital vitamin. To help other potential sufferers, the doctor has now put his findings online at www.b12d.org. The website includes info on the symptoms of the deficiency which the doctor said can manifest themselves in many ways, including extreme fatigue, hair loss, pins and needles in the hands and feet, paralysis of the limbs and depression.

Dr Chandy said: “Unlike many other disorders it can mimic like multiple sclerosis, limb paralysis and blindness, Vitamin B12 deficiency is treatable, but delay in treating this condition will result in irreversible neuro-psychiatric damage.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .