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For many years I suffered from oral blood blisters (angina bullosa haemorrhagica) - on tongue and cheeks and sometimes on my gums. There seems to be little useful info findable on the www (hence this bit of the blog!) but what you may find is potentially quite frightening. I also suffer on occasion petichiae elsewhere - which may be related - or may be age spots! But for reasons unknown, they do not seem to trouble me now.

Usually the oral blisters were small - but if I did not burst them, they can grow large and even painful. If they burst of their own accord an ulcer can sometimes develop, so I soon learnt that the least troublesome solution was to prick the blister with a clean needle to relieve the pressure, as soon as possible.

Blood blisters - The cure

Fortunately my local pharmacist had met these blisters before and recommended Vitamin B tablets. Vitamin B does, indeed, appear to effect a good and easy cure: if I do not take Vitamin B tablets for a period, the blisters occur again and subside as soon as I start taking the tablets.

I don't like taking pills, so I once tried taking fairly copious amounts of Marmite instead - as Marmite is strong in B vitamins. However I find that Marmite does not do the job! So it seems to me that the deficiency must be of one of the B vitamins present in the pills, but not in Marmite. So it's likely to be a deficiency in either B5 (Pantothenic acid) or B6 (Pyridoxine). However, it must be only a trace deficiency as I do not need to take more than one tablet every few days. If anyone has more expert knowledge, please use the contact button.

Out of interest, the table below shows the declared contents of Vitamin B tablets compared with Marmite.

Note: B5 and B12 are only present in some brands of mixed B vitamins.

B5 and B6

B5. (Pantothenic acid)
Wikipedia and other sources say this is very common.

Note added Thursday the 28th of October, 2010.

B6 (Pyridoxine)

The World's Healthiest Foods www site says that Excellent sources of vitamin B6 include bell peppers, turnip greens, and spinach. There is a chart there showing more B6 rich foods: Tuna, banana, chicken, turkey, liver, salmon and more on the deficiency symptoms page: if that's correct, I should already be getting plenty!

Vitamin B6 and liver function

In summary, I may have cured my own ABH (angina bullosa haemorrhagica) by a short course of Silybum marianum (milk thistle) which is readily available from health food shops and even some supermarkets.

Note added Sunday the 3rd of March, 2019.

B12 (Cobalamine)

My husband suffers from this - he's Vegan and it is more prevalent in those who don't eat meat. The deficiency is a Vitamin B12 deficiency. You can fix it by either taking a supplement or eating a breakfast cereal fortified with B12. Folate supplementation is also helpful. It's no wonder Marmite didn't help: you need a daily dose of Vitamin B12 or around 150 mcg for an adult, and I don't think Marmite has it in those quantities.

Wikipedia on B12 says that neither fungi, plants not animals can synthesise B12 directly: it's produced by bacterial symbiosis: animals need the right bacteria!

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