What Are B12 Vitamins And How Do They Help Your Body?
Posted by Dr. Della Parker on June 8, 2017
Vitamins and minerals are an important part of our diet. B12 vitamins are especially important as they make it possible for your body to replicate DNA in your cells, and provides insulation for the nerves in your brain so they can fire properly.
Not having enough of this vitamin can work very negatively in your body, and it could be caused by many things. Deficiency can be caused by poor digestion, alcohol consumption, disorders of the immune system, vegetarian diet and more. It can be hard to diagnose a vitamin B-12 deficiency although some symptoms may include depression, fatigue, poor memory, numbness or tingling, digestive complaints and more.
What is vitamin B12 and why do you need it?
Vitamin B12 works together with folate in the synthesis of DNA and red blood cells. It’s also involved in the production of the myelin sheath around the nerves, and the conduction of nerve impulses. You can think of the brain and the nervous system as a big tangle of wires. Myelin is the insulation that protects those wires and helps them to conduct messages.
Severe B12 deficiency in conditions like pernicious anemia (an autoimmune condition where the body destroys intrinsic factor, a protein necessary for the absorption of B12) used to be fatal until scientists figured out death could be prevented by feeding patients raw liver (which contains high amounts of B12). But anemia is the final stage of B12 deficiency. Long before anemia sets in, B12 deficiency causes several other problems, including fatigue, lethargy, weakness, memory loss and neurological and psychiatric problems.
B12 deficiency occurs in four stages, beginning with declining blood levels of the vitamin (stage I), progressing to low cellular concentrations of the vitamin (stage II), an increased blood level of homocysteine and a decreased rate of DNA synthesis (stage III), and finally, macrocytic anemia (stage IV).
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Why is B12 deficiency so under-diagnosed?
B12 deficiency is often missed for two reasons. First, it’s not routinely tested by most physicians. Second, the low end of the laboratory reference range is too low. This is why most studies underestimate true levels of deficiency. Many B12 deficient people have so-called “normal” levels of B12.
Yet it is well-established in the scientific literature that people with B12 levels between 200 pg/mL and 350 pg/mL – levels considered “normal” in the U.S. – have clear B12 deficiency symptoms. Experts who specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of B12 deficiency, like Sally Pacholok R.N. and Jeffery Stewart D.O., suggest treating all patients that are symptomatic and have B12 levels less than 450 pg/mL. They also recommend treating patients with normal B12, but elevated urinary methylmalonic acid (MMA), homocysteine and/or holotranscobalamin (other markers of B12 deficiency).
In Japan and Europe, the lower limit for B12 is between 500-550 pg/mL, the level associated with psychological and behavioral manifestations such as cognitive decline, dementia and memory loss. Some experts have speculated that the acceptance of higher levels as normal in Japan and the willingness to treat levels considered “normal” in the U.S. explain the low rates of Alzheimer’s and dementia in that country.
Dr. Della Parker, a Portland naturopathic doctor, can administer vitamin B12 injections. Many people try to replace B12 via oral supplementation. Unfortunately, the digestive process renders much of ingested B12 useless to the body. This is why a more appropriate means of replacement is an intramuscular injection. Learn more about Vitamin B12 Injections.