{"id":7045,"date":"2016-08-31T21:15:22","date_gmt":"2016-08-31T18:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/?p=7045"},"modified":"2016-08-31T21:47:57","modified_gmt":"2016-08-31T18:47:57","slug":"yes-it-can-be-vitamin-b12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/yes-it-can-be-vitamin-b12\/","title":{"rendered":"Yes it can be vitamin B12!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Over the course of two months, a 62-year-old man developed numbness and a \u201cpins and needles\u201d sensation in his hands, had trouble walking, experienced severe joint pain, began turning yellow, and became progressively short of breath.<\/p>\n<p>The cause was lack of vitamin B<sub>12<\/sub> in his bloodstream, according to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nejm.org\/doi\/full\/10.1056\/NEJMcpc1111575\" target=\"_blank\">a case report<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0from Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital published in <i>The New England Journal of Medicine<\/i>. It could have been worse\u2014a severe vitamin B<sub>12<\/sub> deficiency can lead to deep depression, paranoia and delusions, memory loss, incontinence, loss of taste and smell, and more<i>.<\/i><\/p>\n<h3>What does vitamin\u00a0B<sub>12\u00a0<\/sub>do?<\/h3>\n<p>The human body needs vitamin B<sub>12<\/sub> to make red blood cells, nerves, DNA, and carry out other functions. The average adult should get 2.4 micrograms a day. Like most vitamins, B<sub>12<\/sub>can\u2019t be made by the body. Instead, it must be gotten from food or supplements.<\/p>\n<p>And therein lies the problem: Some people don\u2019t consume enough vitamin B<sub>12<\/sub> to meet their needs, while others can\u2019t absorb enough, no matter how much they take in. As a result, vitamin B<sub>12<\/sub> deficiency is relatively common, especially among older people. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey estimated that 3.2% of adults over age 50 have a seriously low B<sub>12<\/sub> level, and up to 20% may have a borderline deficiency.<\/p>\n<h3>Are you at risk?<\/h3>\n<p>There are many causes for vitamin B<sub>12<\/sub> deficiency. Surprisingly, two of them are practices often undertaken to improve health: a vegetarian diet and weight-loss surgery.<\/p>\n<p>Plants don\u2019t make vitamin B<sub>12<\/sub>. The only foods that deliver it are meat, eggs, poultry, dairy products, and other foods from animals. Strict vegetarians and vegans are at high risk for developing a B<sub>12<\/sub> deficiency if they don\u2019t eat grains that have been fortified with the vitamin or take a vitamin supplement. People who have stomach stapling or other form of weight-loss surgery are also more likely to be low in vitamin B<sub>12<\/sub> because the operation interferes with the body\u2019s ability to extract vitamin B<sub>12<\/sub> from food.<\/p>\n<p>Conditions that interfere with food absorption, such <a href=\"http:\/\/www.health.harvard.edu\/digestive-health\/celiac-disease\">celiac<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.health.harvard.edu\/digestive-health\/crohns-disease-overview\">Crohn\u2019s disease<\/a>, can cause B<sub>12<\/sub>trouble. So can the use of commonly prescribed heartburn drugs, which reduce acid production in the stomach (acid is needed to absorb vitamin B<sub>12<\/sub>). The condition is more likely to occur in older people due to the cutback in stomach acid production that often occurs with aging.<\/p>\n<h3>Recognizing a B<sub>12<\/sub> deficiency<\/h3>\n<p>Vitamin B<sub>12<\/sub> deficiency can be slow to develop, causing symptoms to appear gradually and intensify over time. It can also come on relatively quickly. Given the array of symptoms it can cause, the condition can be overlooked or confused with something else. Symptoms may include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>strange sensations, numbness, or tingling in the hands, legs, or feet<\/li>\n<li>difficulty walking (staggering, balance problems)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.health.harvard.edu\/diseases-and-conditions\/anemia\" target=\"_blank\">anemia<\/a><\/li>\n<li>a swollen, inflamed tongue<\/li>\n<li>yellowed skin (jaundice)<\/li>\n<li>difficulty thinking and reasoning (cognitive difficulties), or memory loss<\/li>\n<li>paranoia or hallucinations<\/li>\n<li>weakness<\/li>\n<li>fatigue<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While an experienced physician may be able to detect a vitamin B<sub>12<\/sub> deficiency with a good interview and physical exam, a blood test is needed to confirm the condition.<\/p>\n<p>Early detection and treatment is important. \u201cIf left untreated, the deficiency can cause severe neurologic problems and blood diseases,\u201d says Dr. Bruce Bistrian, chief of clinical nutrition at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.<\/p>\n<h3>B proactive<\/h3>\n<p>It\u2019s a good idea to ask your doctor about having your B<sub>12<\/sub> level checked if you:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>are over 50 years old<\/li>\n<li>take a proton-pump inhibitor (such as Nexium or Prevacid) or H2 blocker (such as Pepcid or Zantac)<\/li>\n<li>take metformin (a diabetes drug)<\/li>\n<li>are a strict vegetarian<\/li>\n<li>have had weight-loss surgery or have a condition that interferes with the absorption of food<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A serious vitamin B<sub>12<\/sub> deficiency can be corrected two ways: weekly shots of vitamin B<sub>12<\/sub> or daily high-dose B<sub>12<\/sub> pills. A mild B<sub>12<\/sub> deficiency can be corrected with a standard multivitamin.<\/p>\n<p>In many people, a vitamin B<sub>12<\/sub> deficiency can be prevented. If you are a strict vegetarian or vegan, it\u2019s important to eat breads, cereals, or other grains that have been fortified with vitamin B<sub>12<\/sub>, or take a daily supplement. A standard multivitamin delivers 6 micrograms, more than enough to cover the average body\u2019s daily need.<\/p>\n<p>If you are over age 50, the Institute of Medicine recommends that you get extra B<sub>12<\/sub> from a supplement, since you may not be able to absorb enough of the vitamin through foods. A standard multivitamin should do the trick.<\/p>\n<h3>Not a cure<\/h3>\n<p>The Internet is full of articles lauding the use of vitamin B<sub>12<\/sub> to prevent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.health.harvard.edu\/mind-and-mood\/alzheimers-disease\">Alzheimer\u2019s disease<\/a>, heart disease, and other chronic conditions or reverse infertility, fatigue, eczema, and a long list of other health problems. Most are based on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nlm.nih.gov\/medlineplus\/druginfo\/natural\/926.html\" target=\"_blank\">poor or faulty evidence<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Take Alzheimier\u2019s disease as an example. \u201cAlthough there is a relationship between low vitamin B<sub>12<\/sub> levels and cognitive decline, clinical studies\u2014including those involving people with Alzheimer\u2019s disease\u2014have not shown improvement in cognitive function, even doses of the vitamin as high as 1000 micrograms,\u201d says Dr. Bistrian.<\/p>\n<p>For now, it\u2019s best to get enough vitamin B<sub>12<\/sub> to prevent a deficiency, and not look to it as a remedy for what ails you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the course of two months, a 62-year-old man developed numbness and a \u201cpins and needles\u201d sensation in his hands, had trouble walking, experienced severe joint pain, began turning yellow, and became progressively short of breath. The cause was lack of vitamin B12 in his bloodstream, according to a case report\u00a0\u00a0from Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6987,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[427],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-427","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7045"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7046,"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7045\/revisions\/7046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}