Vitamin B12 Benefits

 

Vitamin B12, like any other vitamin, is necessary for your body.

Vitamin B12 is a water-soluble vitamin, meaning it needs to be consumed more than fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K) because, unlike fat-soluble vitamins, water-soluble vitamins are not stored in significant amounts in the body. Usually, the excess is excreted through urine every day. Therefore, you need to consume it daily.

Since vitamin B12 contains the mineral cobalt, it is sometimes known as cobalamin.

Vitamin B12 plays a huge role in your body:

Creating red blood cells

New red blood cells need vitamin B12 and folate (vitamin B9) to grow and develop. If these vitamins are lacking, making DNA is hard, causing the immature red blood cells to die. This leads to anemia.

Maintaining nerve cells for nerve functioning

Vitamin B12 is needed to develop the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord).  Deficiency in vitamin B12 can lead to neurological issues (such as depression and mood changes).

Several studies show a link between depression and low levels of B12 but not a link between increasing the levels of B12 and a reduction in depression symptoms. However, it could be helpful to screen people for B12 deficiency in advance and give B12 supplements to delay or prevent the onset of depression to them.

Vitamin B12 deficiency is also associated with cognitive problems (problems with thinking, judgement and learning) and memory issues and may play a role in getting Alzheimer's disease and stroke.

One study gave B12 vitamins to people with mild cognitive issues and low levels of B12 and showed that most people improved their cognitive symptoms. However, other studies have not seen a connection between low levels of B12 and cognitive problems or an improvement in these symptoms after getting extra doses of B12.  More research is needed.

Keeping skin, hair and nails healthy

Skin 

If you have a very low level of B12, you may be subject to hyperpigmentation (dark spots) on the skin, as well as to vitiligo (light patches on the skin), mouth ulcers, eczema and acne.

On the other hand, too much B12 in the body can also give you vitiligo, mouth ulcers, eczema and acne.

Hair 

B12 deficiency is associated with hair loss. But there is not enough evidence to show that taking B12 supplements will help hair grow back.

Nails

If you have too little B12 in the body, your nails might turn brown-gray or bluish. This should change when you up the B12 level to normal. However, there are no studies showing that taking B12 if your levels are normal will help your nails grow stronger or longer.

Bone health

Several studies have positively linked B vitamins, including B12, with a lower risk of osteoporosis (a disease that weakens the bones) and hip fractures. 

Factors that cause vitamin B12 deficiency in the body include:

Intestinal malabsorption

Conditions that affect your small intestines like Crohn's disease, celiac disease, bacterial growth, or a parasite can lead to vitamin B12 deficiency so can having an autoimmune disease called atrophic gastritis, in which the stomach lining has thinned. This means the body does not make enough hydrochloric acid and intrinsic factor in the stomach, both needed to absorb B12. (Hydrochloric acid separates B12 from the protein it is attached to in food; the freed B12 then combines with intrinsic factor so that the body can absorb the vitamin.)

Also, if you have had weight loss surgery or another operation that removed part of your stomach, you might no longer make enough hydrochloric acid and intrinsic factor to absorb vitamin B12.

Pernicious anemia

Pernicious anemia is an autoimmune disease in which your body cannot make intrinsic factor, a protein that needed to absorb B12 mentioned above. Pernicious anemia is the most common cause of B12 deficiency.

Thus immune system disorders, such as Graves' disease or lupus, are linked with vitamin B12 deficiency, because people who have them tend to also have pernicious anemia or atrophic gastritis, which prevent absorption of the nutrient.

Alcohol

Misusing alcohol or drinking heavily can also make it harder for your body to absorb nutrients, including B12.

Medicines

Taking certain medicines can interfere with the absorption of vitamin B12. These include some heartburn medicines like proton pump inhibitors such as esomeprazole (Nexium).

Vegan diet

If you follow a vegan diet or you are a vegetarian who does not eat enough eggs or dairy products, you could be lacking in vitamin B12. You can add fortified foods to your diet or take supplements to meet this need.

Aging

With age, it can become harder to absorb this vitamin. Many people over 50 do not make enough hydrochloric acid in their stomachs to absorb B12 from foods.

The average recommended daily amounts, measured in micrograms, vary by age. For adults, it needs about 2.4 micrograms.

You can prevent vitamin B12 deficiency by eating animal products (meat, fish, poultry, eggs, milk, etc.) or from foods that have been fortified with it (such as fortified breakfast cereals) or from supplements.

As mentioned, if you have vitamin B12 deficiency, you could become anemic. And if you are pregnant, without enough vitamin B12, your baby could have developmental delays and not thrive the way they should as B12 is very important for brain and spinal development.

A mild deficiency may cause no symptoms. But if untreated, it may lead to weakness, tiredness, lightheadedness, numbness, tingling, depression, mood swings and other symptoms.

A rare condition from a lack of vitamin B12 is optic neuropathy. This means that the optic nerve, the nerve that transmits visual information from the eye to the brain, is damaged. This can lead to a gradual loss of vision, as well as to your seeing blind spots. Less than 1% of people with B12 deficiency report getting optic neuropathy.

On the other hand, excess vitamin B12 in the body is rare because the excess can be excreted through urine. Usually, the manifesting side effects are an indicative sign of kidney dysfunction or liver diseases such as people who have diabetic nephropathy (diabetes that leads to loss of kidney functioning) as the body does not process and secrete the excess vitamin properly.