detailed health question - nutrition-related?

callingoctober
callingoctober Posts: 16 Member
edited December 25 in Food and Nutrition
Hi there. Briefly, I've suffered from canker sores (NOT the herpes simplex virus, the bacterial NON-VIRAL sores inside the mouth), raised papillae, sore tongue/white tongue/general mouth stinging once or twice a month for about six years. I'm not anemic, I don't have thrush or herpes (so that doubles the not-ness of that diagnosis), and the only vague pattern we've ever seen is that it seems to happen either two weeks before my period, or right after my period starts (but it's not consistent enough to be definitely that).

Recently I've been reading more about the nutritional deficiencies that could cause this - namely, vitamin B12, B6, iron, folic acid, or niacin. I've been taking a multivitamin for about three years, almost every day - however, when I've gone weeks without this, the episodes do not stop, so I really don't think it's an overload of any one thing (I researched that and think I'm way under the upper limits of toxicity). I've recently started taking iron supplements every couple of days, because my diet is insanely low in iron, but thus far it hasn't helped that (though I'm much, much less tired than usual). Does anyone who knows more about this than me (i.e. preferably not someone who just googled it) have any ideas about whether it really could be a nutritional thing? My multivitamin is "vitafusion MultiVites 200% vitamin D," and none of the amounts seem high enough to cause problems, nor low enough to not satisfy a nutritional deficit. Any ideas?

Replies

  • laus_8882
    laus_8882 Posts: 217 Member
    Can you get bloodwork done? The way to tell if you're deficient in a particular vitamin or mineral is to be tested. Taking iron supplements without establishing a deficiency might backfire if your iron stores are normal.

    Could be the problem is just an overly acidic diet. Are you craving acidic foods during your tom? For me, soft drinks, salt and vinegar chips, hot chips with vinegar... all the good stuff... used to result in mouth ulcers when I was younger. My dentist told my parents to take the chips away from me and lo and behold, no more ulcers.
  • callingoctober
    callingoctober Posts: 16 Member
    My blood work has always come back normal (fortunately, though frustratingly). I'm low on iron, but not low enough to desperately need supplements, though I think I'm getting even less than I was last time I had blood work done. They basically told me they couldn't hurt.
  • Colofit
    Colofit Posts: 177 Member
    My background is in Dentistry and my experience has been that it is STRESS that brings them out!! As far as nutrition goes, try taking 1000-2000mg of vit C!!! It works well!! Getting vit C through food when you have mouth sores is not advisable as you can imagine how uncomfortable it would be to eat an orange or tomatoe sauce...ouch!I am a believer in getting most of your vitamines and minerals from food so look at your diet and eat real and heathy food...but that goes without saying! Hope this helps!
  • Restybaby2012
    Restybaby2012 Posts: 568 Member
    Ive had this sore tongue thing for months. Ive been seen by every specialist there is. It actually hurts to eat
    or drink anything. Every meal consists of at least 2 full bottles of water just to get thru it. The corners of my
    mouth are always sore and crack and bleed on occasion. Ive had it cultured and nothing showed. I actually
    was losing weight slowly because the soreness in my tongue was limiting what I could eat. Ive been on antibiotics,
    oral and IV and nothing has resolved this. On occasion it will let up though it never goes away completely.
    The pain will wake me in the night because it hurts so bad.

    I wish I had your answers but I dont even have any for myself. I wish you great success in finding what
    causes this and how to fix it
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