Vitamin B12: What to Know

What Is Vitamin B12?

Vitamin B12 is a nutrient that your body doesn’t make, so you have to get it from animal products, such as meats, dairy, and eggs, or from supplements. B12 is important because it keeps your nerve and blood cells healthy. The vitamin is water-soluble, meaning your body expels any excess through your pee. While B12 can be stored in your liver for up to five years, you can become deficient (lacking) in it if you don’t get enough. Since vitamin B12 contains the mineral cobalt, it’s sometimes known as cobalamin.

Benefits of B12

Vitamin B12 does a lot of important things for your body. It helps create your DNA and red blood cells, for example. Your body also needs B12 for the development of your central nervous system (your brain and spinal cord). It also helps keep your hair, nails, and skin healthy.

Bone and red blood cell health

You need B12 to make healthy red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Every day, about 1% of your oldest red blood cells are destroyed and replaced. New red blood cells need vitamin B12 and folate (vitamin B9) to grow and develop. If you’re lacking these vitamins, making DNA is hard, causing the immature red blood cells to die. This leads to anemia.

Several studies have linked B vitamins, including B12, to a lower risk of osteoporosis (a disease that weakens your bones) and hip fractures. But there’s no evidence that taking B supplements would prevent these bone problems.

Vitamin B12 for vision

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 cause a gradual loss of vision and result in blind spots. Less than 1% of people with B12 deficiency report getting optic neuropathy.

Improved mood and memory

Although several studies show a link between depression and low B12 levels, there’s no evidence that increasing the levels of B12 can help ease depression symptoms. But it could be helpful to screen people for B12 deficiency in advance and give them B12 supplements to delay or prevent the onset of depression. More research is needed to confirm this.

Vitamin B12 deficiency is associated with cognitive problems (problems with thinking, judgment, and learning) and memory issues. So, it may play a role in conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and stroke. One study found that when people with mild cognitive issues and low levels of B12 were given B12 vitamins, most of them showed improved cognitive symptoms. However, other studies haven’t seen a link between low levels of B12 and cognitive problems or an improvement in these symptoms after getting extra doses of B12. This is an area that requires further research.

Better energy levels

You may see energy drinks with labels boasting that they’ve lots of vitamin B12 in their products. Certain vitamins, including B12, can affect people who have fatigue and a lack of energy. If you feel constantly tired and your levels of B12 are low, bringing them up to normal may give you more energy, studies show. But B12 supplements don’t seem to have any effect on people already at normal levels. In other words, if you’re tired and already have normal levels of B12 in your body, drinking that energy drink probably won’t make you feel any better.

Vitamin B12 for hair, skin, and nails

If you have a very low level of B12, you may be prone to hyperpigmentation (dark spots) on your skin, vitiligo (light patches on your skin), mouth ulcers, eczema, and acne. On the other hand, too much B12 in your body can also give you vitiligo, mouth ulcers, eczema, and acne.

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

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

Vitamin B12 foods

You can get vitamin B12 from animal products, which have it naturally, or from foods that have been fortified with it. These include:

• Meat
• Fish
• Poultry
• Milk
• Eggs
• Fortified breakfast cereals
• Fortified breads
• Fortified nutritional yeasts
• Fortified plant milks

If you follow a vegan diet (meaning you don’t eat any animal products, including meat, milk, cheese, and eggs) or you’re a vegetarian who doesn’t 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.

Credit: webmd

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