Vitamin B12, commonly known as cobalamin, is indeed a water-soluble vitamin that is essential for good health. It is required for the formation of red blood cells and DNA, as well as the efficient operation of your neurological system.
Animal foods, such as meats, fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy, contain vitamin B12. It could also be found in B12-fortified foodstuffs, such as some bread variants and plant-based milk.
Vitamin B12 Deficiency
B12 deficiency is unfortunately frequent, particularly among the elderly. If you haven’t had enough from your diet and aren’t able to soak up enough from the food you consume, you’re in danger of deficiency.
Vitamin B12 is required for the bone marrow to manufacture enough healthy red blood cells. Especially animal foods (dairy and meat products) or yeast extracts (like brewer’s yeast) contain vitamin B12. Vitamin B12 deficiency is characterised by low levels of stored B12 in the body, which can lead to anaemia (a lack of red blood cells).
Vitamin B12 deficiency could occur for a variety of reasons:
- Intrinsic factor deficiency, often known as pernicious anaemia
It is a protein released by cells in the stomach lining. Intrinsic factor binds to vitamin B12 and transports it to the small intestine for absorption. The most major reason for pernicious anaemia is a lack of intrinsic factors. Elderly adults of African-American or Northern-European origin are more likely to have atrophic gastritis. Pernicious anaemia strikes these adults around the age of 60.
Reduced intrinsic factor levels in children could be a hereditary (genetic) disorder. Whenever this occurs, individuals under the age of ten develop signs of juvenile pernicious anaemia as a result of low intrinsic factor levels.
- The stomach is removed or destroyed
Those who have had half or all of their stomach removed may develop vitamin B12 insufficiency.
Vitamin B12 deficiency can occur as a result of disorders that cause food to travel slowly through the intestines (diabetes, scleroderma, strictures, diverticula), enabling intestinal bacteria to flourish and overgrow in the upper region of the small intestine. Instead of enabling B12 to also be absorbed by the body, these bacteria steal it with their use.
Vegans (absolute vegetarians that eat no meat, fish, eggs, or dairy products) are susceptible to vitamin B12 insufficiency due to a lack of vitamin B12 in their diets. Vitamin B12 deficiency could also be linked to diet in people with bulimia or anorexia nervosa. Even so, because your liver can store vitamin B12 for up to five years, anaemia caused by diet is uncommon.
Symptoms
Symptoms occur gradually and may not be identified right away. Typical symptoms as the illness worsen include:
- Weakness and exhaustion
- Light-headedness and dizziness
- Heart palpitations and a fast heartbeat
- Breathing problems
- A red, meaty tongue is a sign of a sore throat.
- nauseousness or a loss of appetite
- Loss of weight
- Diarrhoea
- Skin and eyes have a yellowish hue to them.
If low B12 levels persist for a long time, the disorder can cause irreparable nerve cell damage, leads to the following symptoms:
- Throughout the hands and feet, there is numbness and tingling.
- Walking is difficult.
- Muscle deterioration
- Irritability
- Loss of memory
- Dementia\depression
- Psychosis
How Can Vitamin B12 Absorption Be Improved?
Utilize enriched almond milk/soy milk/cashew milk/coconut milk, fortified cereals, B12 fortified-nutritional yeast, milk, cheese, and yoghurt in your usual diet to get adequate vitamin B12. Foods high in folate, such as broccoli, cabbage, spinach, green peas, chickpeas, and kidney beans, help the body absorb vitamin B12.
Puri also recommends that you keep your gut healthy. Because vitamin B12 is absorbed into the body in the presence of a protein called intrinsic factor, this is critical. According to him, a healthy stomach helps build intrinsic factors, which aids in B12 absorption.
What is the Treatment for Vitamin B12 Deficiency?
Anaemia caused by a lack of vitamin B12 is usually straightforward to treat with diet and vitamin supplements. Take more foods that are high in vitamin B12 to boost your vitamin B12 levels in your daily diet, including such:
- Beef, chicken, plus liver
- Trout, salmon, tuna fish, and clams are examples of fish and shellfish.
- Breakfast cereal with added nutrients
- Low-fat milk, yoghurt, and cheese are all good options.
- Eggs
Your doctor may advise you to take a vitamin B12 supplement as well. It’s available in pill form or as a nasal spray. You could get higher-dose vitamin B12 shots if you’re deficient in this vitamin. Vitamin B12 might well be required for the rest of your life. You may also require treatment for the underlying problem that is causing your anaemia.
However, one of the most important things you can do is boost your vitamin B12 levels. This can harm your heart, brain, nerves, bones, and other body organs if you give it up for too long. You might feel better after treatment & prevent any long-term issues.
The lacking vitamin B12 must be replaced as part of the treatment for this ailment. B12 injections are required for people who are unable to absorb the vitamin. A patient with serious symptoms might need some five to seven injections in the first week to replenish the body’s supplies of this vitamin. Within 48 to 72 hours, a reaction is usually seen, with a rapid generation of new red blood cells. Vitamin B12 injections would be required per one to 3 months once B12 reserves have returned to normal levels. People who can’t absorb vitamin B12 must eat a well-balanced diet that includes additional nutrients including folic acid, iron, and vitamin C. In some cases, high doses of oral B12 could be used instead of injections to just provide a replacement, and this should be done under the supervision of a doctor.
Treatment with oral antibiotics, like tetracycline (available under a variety of brand names), might limit bacterial overgrowth and allow vitamin B12 absorption to return to normal in persons whose vitamin B12 insufficiency is caused by an excess of intestinal bacteria.
The simplest to treat is a vitamin B12 shortage caused by insufficient food intake. Oral vitamin B12 pills and B12-rich meals could help to reverse the disease.
Blood transfusions might well be required for the first couple of days until the vitamin B12 injections start working if the anaemia is severe and the red blood cell count is severely low.
Side effects
If taken by mouth, applied to the skin, inhaled through the nose, given as a shot, or injected into a vein, vitamin B12 is LIKELY SAFE for most people (by IV). Even at big dosages, vitamin B12 is deemed safe.
One individual that used a special avocado oil plus vitamin B12 cream for psoriasis reported mild irritation.