Why you may be at risk from too little vitamin B12....

Today's Post:  Tuesday, 12-18-2012

A.  Many health oriented people avoid animal protein foods for all kinds of good reasons.

1. Avoiding all or almost all beef and hamburger from cattle fed grains or worse and “finished” in massive feed lots has many significant health benefits for example. 

Some people eat animal protein foods from more naturally fed fish and animals.  But some eat very little even of those animal protein foods.

2.  Some people are vegan vegetarian for reasons other than health but are health oriented.

They eat NO animal protein foods at all.

3.  Some people are environmentalists and avoid eating almost all animal protein foods due to the energy and water use and water pollution industrial farming almost always creates.

B.  Many older people eat less food, and with limited incomes less animal protein foods, AND they have too little stomach acid at their age to take in the vitamin B12 in such foods.

People such as me who take anti acid medications for heart burn or acid reflux are also at a similar risk due to less ability to get vitamin B12 from their food.  And, like overweight and many other modern health problems, LOTS of people have reflux now.

C.  Similarly, lots of people now have type 2 diabetes or blood sugar high enough to approach that level. 

The one otherwise safe and effective drug to lower high blood sugar and add to exercise and diet upgrades is Metformin.  New drugs may arrive.  But virtually all the others besides Metformin now in use cause other health problems.  These have included the heart attacks you lower high blood sugar to prevent!

Metformin also may help combat some kinds of cancers recent studies found.

But taking Metformin has been found to deplete vitamin B12!!

Due to its benefits, I think the best strategy is to use Metformin if you need it but get extra B12 too!

All these people are at risk of being severely deficient in vitamin B12. And the majority of them may be at significant risk due to not getting the extra vitamin B12 they happen to need.

I was reminded of this by a recent health email I got.

The email said that many older people over 65 and particularly people over 80 get severe mental decline of some kind.

This goes from one out of 8 to close to one half!

We've posted on the many ways to help ensure you avoid being in that half!

But here’s the significant news I did NOT yet know:

Up to half of that entire group of people may have arrived there in part because they were and are deficient in vitamin B12!

B12 deficiency specifically causes increased confusion and inability to focus and memory problems.

And, worse, it’s no accident.  Part of this is caused by brain shrinkage.  You can’t use what you no longer have. 

A recent study found that part of this brain shrinkage is caused by lack of vitamin B12 AND getting enough B12 helped prevent or reverse this!

(Regular exercise and taking the omega 3 oil DHA or eating fish high in it each also prevents or helps reverse brain shrinkage.)

Lack of vitamin B12 also often causes: 

Irritability and mood swings, Low energy and weakness, Persistent sleep problems, Dizziness or lightheadedness, Digestive problems, Weak immune response, Hearing and vision loss, Tingling in your hands and feet, AND-- lack of B12 can contribute to osteoporosis!

This all reduces your quality of life!

Worse, to treat these conditions individually and to find out what may be causing them if B12 is not tested first, can cause inconclusive or no results but take huge amounts of time, doctor visits, and money for tests. 

You can even wind up taking drugs you actually didn’t need if you had enough B12 to begin with.

This happened to the author of the email I got before he found out he was deficient in vitamin B12.

Why take methyl B12?

The author of the email said  that taking the methylcobalamin form of B12 is best.  He said research found it to be most effective.  He also said that most experts recommend taking a minimum of 1,000 mcg a day of sublingual methylcobalamin.

Taking that amount of methyl B12 once a day or taking that amount twice a day is enough to give you extra health benefits and begin to rapidly reverse vitamin B12 deficiency.

Dr Mark Hyman also says that all nutrients that are “methyl donors” such as the methyl form of vitamin B12 is give you extra health and antiaging benefits.

Why sublingual? 

If you suck on the lozenge or chew it up and let it stay in your mouth a bit, the B12 goes directly into your blood stream!

That way if you can’t digest the B12, you still get it into you where it can benefit you!

Initially the effect is also faster.

There are other sources for sublingual vitamin B12.  But my wife and I take the methyl B12 from NOW. 

It’s inexpensive and uses a natural low cal sweetener in tiny amounts.  It is in a small enough tablet it dissolves quickly.  So it’s not a pain to take it.

So, if you are in one of the groups above and you have or would like to prevent some of these things, whatever else you do, it would pay you to take the sublingual form of vitamin B12.

And, if avoiding mental decline is important to you, be sure to do so!