Vit B12: Are you getting enough vitamin B12?
Why is it a viable choice to prevent Vit ᧔ deficiency? Vitamin ᧔ is one of the top 5 important nutrients in the body. Our body needs vitamin B-12 to produce red blood cells and prevent anemia.
Primarily, ᧔ is found in animal products such as cheese, eggs and milk. For those of you that are Vegan, you should look for food enriched with ᧔ or take a high quailty supplement.
What are the signs of being deficient in vitamin ᧔?
If you aren′t eating any of the above mentioned foods and feel weakness, shortness of breath, dizziness, fatigue, numbness, heart palpitations, bleeding gums, mouth sores, nausea, poor appetite and diarrhea, you might be vitamin ᧔ deficient.
Symptoms may present themselves after years of b12 deficiency, and usually don′t manifest until years later. A deficiency of ᧔ can produce pernicious anemia, which can lead to Alzheimers, memory loss, confusion and even dementia.
Seniors absorb the supplement better in the sublingual form. Malabsorption of the vitamin is another reason for the deficiency. Example, to receive optimal benefits from supplementing with vitamin ᧔ you would combine with folic acid and vitamin c, which will assist the absorption.
How do you know what the optimal amount is to prevent a deficiency in vitamin ᧔?
I had the same question, so after conducting some research and acquiring data from the National Institutes of Health, I came up with the following information.
-.4 mcg- 0-6 months
-.5mcg- 7-12 months
-.9 mcg- 1-3 years
-1.2mcg- 4-8 years
-1.8mcg- 9-13 years
-2.4mcg- age 14-older
-2.6mcg- pregnant adolescent females
-2.8mcg- lactating females
-25-100mcg-Adults over 50 (excluding those eating fortified foods)
Expert opinion may be slightly different, but two ideas were clear: We are designed to absorb low levels of vit ᧔ at each meal, ranging from .1mcg to 1mcg.
Vitamin ᧔ absorption can be affected by environmental factors and respond to the toxic invasion. Consuming chlorinated water regularly, for instance is one example of an environmental factor that can lower or diminish absorption of the vitamin.
We also have to take into consideration the pesticides and toxins that our plants and animals are consuming and figure out if that is also causing Vit ᧔ deficiency.
