Gateway to...

Currently chasing down vitamin supplements, rather than pharmaceuticals. I've been told by both my herbalist and my acupuncturist/MD that I need to start chasing down an alphabet soup of vitamins.

My MD was explaining how B12 metabolism works; it is, of course, like all things metabolical, sophisticated and complicated. Many failure points, at which "pernicious anemia," B12 deficiency, can easily arise. Which, interestingly enough, was something my MD was considering was actually at the root of my problems, before I got The Diagnosis via gadolinium and The MRI. Which he thinks may yet be part of my larger-scale "Problem" with a capital P, and which diagnosis is also pointed to by my herbalist.

B12 needs folic acid, a nutritional pair; you don't want them out of balance, says my MD, if you're taking B12, you gotta have folic acid. Which is in all sorts of things, the "folic" is linguistically related to "foliage," it's in leafy things.

And, surprise surprise, according to Wikipedia, folic acid is also in ...

... you're not gonna believe this one...

Beer.

If there's one thing I'll say about this particular stretch of the Neurological Highway, it takes you by the most interesting pharmacies.

And no, nobody has been telling me that I "need to drink beer."

But still, getting your ass injected with B12: gateway to beer.

As a story idea, I couldn't sell that even to Adult Swim.

But, then again...