Vitamin B12 Deficiency Symptoms

It pays to know what the vitamin b12 deficiency symptoms are, because otherwise you might be in for an unpleasant surprise, health-wise.

It’s fascinating that a B12 deficiency can mimic so many incurable diseases, some of which include:

• Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
• Alzheimer’s
• Parkinson’s Disease
• Guillian-Barre Syndrome
• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) (“Lou Gehrig’s disease”)

Now that isn’t to say that everyone who has one of these diseases is also B12 deficient; only that because B12 is critical for neural functions that its lack can make it look like one of these.

And since a B12 deficiency is curable and the above aren’t…wouldn’t you say that getting a test to screen for the deficiency is in order?

Other Signs and Symptoms

A lot of what B12 does in the body involves the nervous system, so be on the lookout for the following:

• Forgetfulness and foggy thinking, confusion
• Dementia, psychosis, depression, paranoia
• Lack of coordination and balance; clumsiness
• Tremors
• Tingling in the extremities
• Muscle weakness and/or pain
• Chronic fatigue
• Incontinence
• Heart palpitations
• Loss of vision
• Loss of appetite
• Gastrointestinal problems

Here’s the thing; if you have one or more of these symptoms, don’t just start downing B12 supplements. Go to your health-care provider and ask to have a urinary MMA test, which is highly specific for a B12 deficiency.

If your doctor says a serum B12 test is all you need — find another doctor (at least when it comes to vitamins). Serum B12 tests have been known to give false negatives and false positives, depending on what other medications you might be taking. And either way, a false result can mean the difference between health and possibly an early death.

Recommended Reading

I highly recommend the book, Could it Be B12?by Sally M. Pacholok and Jeffrey J. Stuart.

I have have some prescription medications in the past that gave me severe side effects; in the book, I noticed many of the same symptoms…then I discovered that my medications were known to interfere with B12.

Fortunately, I got off the medicatione before any long-term damage was done. But a B12 deficiency can masquerade as so many conditions, and if they are misdiagnosed, can have dire consequences.

So, click to check out Could it Be B12?and get more information. I am so very glad that I bought this book!

The Secret of Vitamin B12 Supplements

How do you take your vitamins? Do you just grab whatever multivitamin is on sale and call it good? Do you shop at a health-food store and look for the best B-complex vitamins you can find?

If so, you just might be short-changing yourself on one of the most important Bs in the group – B12. It’s not your standard vitamin, and it’s not absorbed by the body like most are. You may end up with a B12 deficiency and not even realize it!

There’s a secret to taking a B12 supplement that will help you — not one that just gets flushed, unused, by the body.

How The Body Absorbs Vitamin B12

Here’s the pathway the body uses (highly simplified, of course) to get B12 from food, into the bloodstream and through your body.

Since B12 is only found in animal proteins, the B12 has to be split out from the proteins, and this happens in your stomach. The enzyme pepsin works to break apart the proteins and release the B12. However, if your body doesn’t produce enough pepsin, guess what? The B12 isn’t fully released, or only a small amount is available.

Next comes another protein into the picture — intrinsic factor (IF). This protein migrates to your intestines ahead of the B12, to prepare for absorbtion.

More proteins! This group is called R-binders, and they actually escort the vitamin B12 from the stomach to the small intestine.

Once in the intestines, the IF protein comes back into play — it grabs the B12 and takes it to the last part of the small intestine, the ileum, where receptors pull the B12 from the digestive system and into the blood.

Finally, yet another protein, transcobalmin II, transports the B12 through the blood to various parts of your body.

Whew!

All Vitamin B12 Supplements Aren’t Created Equal

So, given all that information, what do you think happens with that vitamin pill you took this morning? Is the pill sitting in your stomach, being digested by pepsin…or has it slid out of the stomach and into the intestines where it’s dissolving?

The best supplements for B12 are either injections or theraputic-dose sublingual B12 tablets. Why?

With the injections, the B12 is already in a form usable by the body, so it’s readily incorporated — no digestive tract is needed for the body to metabolize it.

Since most people don’t care to have a monthly injection, the next best vitamin B12 supplement is by a sub lingual (under the tongue) pill. Basically, the tablet dissolves slowly under your tongue, and the saliva that brings it to your stomach has signaled that a little something is on the way. The pepsin is ready and waiting to start the process of changing a B12 supplement into a form your body can easily use.

Here’s more information on vitamin B12 and your body.

The Amazing B Vitamins – B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B9 and B12

Wow, did you know there were so many B vitamins? I sure didn’t. I mean, I knew about B6 and B12, and had a general idea about B1 and B3, but that was about it.You know, when I was growing up, I never thought about vitamins or any kind of supplements for that matter. If I remembered, I took a multivitamin, but most days I forgot. Did that happen to you, too?

These days, health isn’t just a matter of trusting to luck. Yes, you do need to eat right and get exercise. But what is “eating right”?

For some it’s meat and potatoes. For another it’s a vegan diet. Yet other believe in macrobiotic eating. Each has its strengths and weaknesses.

We may all be missing out on some of the “amazing Bs” as I call them – B1, B2, B3, B6 and B12. One style of eating may be high in B6 but deficient in B12. Another may be the reverse. Or maybe you’re eating something that causes B1 to go missing.

“It’s the Water”

One thing all B vitamins share is that they are water-soluble. When it comes to your body, it means that there is very little of the vitamin actually stored in your body; what isn’t immediately needed is flushed from the body on a daily basis. You have to constantly take in B vitamins to keep your body running right.

You might need more than the RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) if you are highly stressed, eat or drink foods that mask the absorbsion, or have a genetic condition that makes it difficult for your body to use the B vitamin(s).

In different posts, we’ll be looking at each of the B vitamins, and what they do.