What Is the "Blood" in Beef

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This is a reader-friendly overview of Vitamin B12. For more details, see our health professional fact canvas on Vitamin B12.

What is vitamin B12 and what does it do?

Vitamin B12 is a nutrient that helps keep your trunk's blood and nerve cells salubrious and helps make DNA, the genetic material in all of your cells. Vitamin B12 also helps foreclose megaloblastic anemia, a blood condition that makes people tired and weak.

How much vitamin B12 do I demand?

The amount of vitamin B12 you need each day depends on your historic period. Average daily recommended amounts for dissimilar ages are listed below in micrograms (mcg):

Life Stage	Recommended Corporeality
Birth to half-dozen months	0.4 mcg
Infants 7–12 months	0.v mcg
Children 1–iii years	0.9 mcg
Children 4–8 years	1.two mcg
Children 9–13 years	ane.8 mcg
Teens 14–eighteen years	ii.4 mcg
Adults	two.iv mcg
Pregnant teens and women	2.6 mcg
Breastfeeding teens and women	2.viii mcg

What foods provide vitamin B12?

Vitamin B12 is found naturally in a wide diversity of animate being foods, and manufacturers add it to some fortified foods. Plant foods have no vitamin B12 unless they are fortified. You can get recommended amounts of vitamin B12 by eating a variety of foods including the following:

• Fish, meat, poultry, eggs, milk, and other dairy products contain vitamin B12.
• Clams and beefiness liver are some of the best source of vitamin B12.
• Some breakfast cereals, nutritional yeasts, and other food products are fortified with vitamin B12.

To find out if a food has added vitamin B12, bank check the Diet Facts label. Manufacturers are non required to list vitamin B12 on the characterization if a food naturally contains this vitamin.

What kinds of vitamin B12 dietary supplements are available?

Vitamin B12 is available in multivitamin/multimineral supplements, in B-circuitous supplements, and in supplements containing only vitamin B12. It is usually in a form chosen cyanocobalamin. Other common forms are adenosylcobalamin, methylcobalamin, and hydroxycobalamin. Vitamin B12 is too bachelor in a form that's dissolved under your tongue (chosen sublingual vitamin B12). Research has non shown that any course of supplemental vitamin B12 is better than the others.

The amount of vitamin B12 in supplements varies widely. Some provide doses of vitamin B12 that are much higher than recommended amounts, such as 500 mcg or i,000 mcg, but your torso absorbs only a modest percentage of it. These doses are considered safe. Cheque the Supplement Facts label to see how much vitamin B12 a supplement contains.

A prescription form of vitamin B12 can be given as a shot. This is usually used to treat vitamin B12 deficiency. Vitamin B12 is besides available by prescription as a nasal gel that'due south sprayed into the nose.

Am I getting plenty vitamin B12?

Virtually people in the United states go enough vitamin B12 from the foods they eat. But some people have problem absorbing vitamin B12 from food. The trunk absorbs vitamin B12 from nutrient in a two-step process. First, hydrochloric acid in the stomach separates vitamin B12 from the protein that it'southward attached to. Second, the freed vitamin B12 so combines with a protein fabricated by the stomach, called intrinsic factor, and the torso absorbs them together.

Vitamin B12 in dietary supplements isn't attached to protein and doesn't require the first step. However, B12 in supplements does need to combine with intrinsic cistron to be absorbed.

People with pernicious anemia, an autoimmune affliction, can't make intrinsic factor. As a result, they take trouble arresting vitamin B12 from foods and dietary supplements.

Vitamin B12 deficiency affects between 3% and 43% of older adults. Your doctor can exam your vitamin B12 level to see if y'all have a deficiency.

Certain groups of people may not become enough vitamin B12 or have trouble absorbing information technology:

• Many older adults don't have enough hydrochloric acid in their stomach to absorb the vitamin B12 that'southward naturally present in food. People over fifty should get most of their vitamin B12 from fortified foods or dietary supplements considering, in near cases, their bodies tin can absorb vitamin B12 from these sources.
• People with an autoimmune affliction called atrophic gastritis might not absorb enough vitamin B12 because they make also little hydrochloric acid and intrinsic factor in their tummy.
• People with pernicious anemia exercise not make the intrinsic cistron needed to absorb vitamin B12. As a issue, they have trouble absorbing vitamin B12 from foods and dietary supplements. Doctors usually treat pernicious anemia with vitamin B12 shots, although very loftier doses of vitamin B12 given by rima oris might also be effective.
• People who have had some types of stomach or intestinal surgery (for example, to lose weight or to remove role or all of the stomach) might not make enough hydrochloric acrid and intrinsic factor to absorb vitamin B12.
• People with disorders of the stomach and pocket-sized intestine, such as celiac disease or Crohn's illness, might not absorb enough vitamin B12.
• People who eat picayune or no fauna foods, such every bit vegetarians and vegans, might non get enough vitamin B12 from their diets. Only creature foods have vitamin B12 naturally. When pregnant women and women who breastfeed their babies are strict vegetarians or vegans, their babies might also not become plenty vitamin B12.

What happens if I don't get enough vitamin B12?

Your body stores ane,000 to 2,000 times equally much vitamin B12 as yous'd typically eat in a day, so the symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency can take several years to appear.

If you have a vitamin B12 deficiency, you may feel tired or weak. These are symptoms of megaloblastic anemia, which is a hallmark of vitamin B12 deficiency. You might also have pale peel, eye palpitations, loss of appetite, weight loss, and infertility. Your hands and feet might become numb or tingly, a sign of nerve issues. Other symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency include problems with balance, depression, confusion, dementia, poor memory, and soreness of the oral fissure or tongue.

In infants, signs of a vitamin B12 deficiency include failure to thrive, delays in reaching the typical developmental milestones, and megaloblastic anemia.

Vitamin B12 deficiency can damage the nervous system fifty-fifty in people who don't take megaloblastic anemia, then it'south important to treat a deficiency as soon as possible.

What are some effects of vitamin B12 on health?

Scientists are studying vitamin B12 to understand how it affects wellness. Here are several examples of what this enquiry has shown.

Cancer
Some research shows that people with high levels of vitamin B12 accept a higher risk of cancer. But other enquiry shows that the risk of cancer is higher in people with low levels of vitamin B12 or that vitamin B12 levels don't touch cancer risk. More testify is needed to sympathize whether vitamin B12 levels affect cancer risk.

Heart illness and stroke
Vitamin B12 supplements (along with other B vitamins) reduce blood levels of homocysteine, a compound linked to an increased gamble of having a heart assail or stroke But despite reducing homocysteine, inquiry shows that these vitamins don't reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease or stroke.

Dementia and cognitive function
Near studies show that low blood levels of vitamin B12 don't affect the risk of cerebral decline in older people, regardless of whether they have dementia or Alzheimer's disease. More clinical trials are needed to meliorate sympathize the effects of vitamin B12 supplementation on cognitive office in older adults.

Energy and Endurance
Manufacturers often promote vitamin B12 supplements for energy, athletic operation, and endurance. Only vitamin B12 doesn't provide these benefits in people who get plenty B12 from their nutrition.

Can vitamin B12 exist harmful?

Vitamin B12 has not been shown to cause any damage, even at high doses.

Does vitamin B12 interact with medications or other dietary supplements?

Yes. Vitamin B12 supplements tin can interact or interfere with some medicines that you lot take. Here are several examples.

Gastric acid inhibitors
People take gastric acid inhibitors to treat sure digestion problems, such equally gastroesophageal reflux disease and peptic ulcer disease. These drugs can interfere with vitamin B12 absorption from food by slowing the release of hydrochloric acrid into the stomach, leading to vitamin B12 deficiency. Gastric acid inhibitors include omeprazole (Prilosec®), lansoprazole (Prevacid®), cimetidine (Tagamet®), and ranitidine (Zantac®).

Metformin
Metformin is used to treat prediabetes and diabetes. Metformin might reduce vitamin B12 absorption and lower claret levels of vitamin B12.

Tell your doc, chemist, and other healthcare providers about any dietary supplements and prescription or over-the-counter medicines you take. They can tell you if the dietary supplements might interact with your medicines. They can also explain whether the medicines you accept might interfere with how your body absorbs or uses other nutrients.

Vitamin B12 and healthful eating

People should get most of their nutrients from food and beverages, according to the federal government'southward Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Foods contain vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber, and other components that benefit health. In some cases, fortified foods and dietary supplements are useful when it is not possible to meet needs for one or more nutrients (e.g., during specific life stages such equally pregnancy). For more than information almost edifice a healthy dietary pattern, run across the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the U.S. Section of Agronomics'south MyPlate.

Where tin I discover out more about vitamin B12?

Disclaimer

This fact canvas by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) provides information that should non take the place of medical advice. Nosotros encourage you to talk to your healthcare providers (doctor, registered dietitian, pharmacist, etc.) virtually your interest in, questions near, or apply of dietary supplements and what may be all-time for your overall health. Any mention in this publication of a specific product or service, or recommendation from an organization or professional person club, does not represent an endorsement past ODS of that product, service, or expert communication.

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Source: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Vitaminb12-Consumer/

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