Vitamin B12

Vitamin
B12 (cobalamin)…

Why do we need it?

What is it?

Vitamin
B12,
also known as cobalamin, is a water-soluble vitamin essential to the function
of all cells. “Cobalamin” actually refers to a group of compounds
(corrinoids) with near-identical structure.

How much do we need each day?

Infants up to age 6 months:
0.4 mcg

Babies age 7-12 months: 0.5
mcg

Children age 1-3 years: 0.9
mcg

Kids age 4-8 years: 1.2 mcg

Children age 9-13 years: 1.8
mcg

 

Teens age 14-18: 2.4 mcg

(2.6 mcg per day if pregnant
and 2.8 mcg per day if breastfeeding)

 

Adults: 2.4 mcg

(2.6 mcg per day if pregnant
and 2.8 mcg per day if breastfeeding)

What does it do?

Vitamin
B12 does a lot of things for your body. It helps make your DNA and your
red blood cells, for example.

Food Sources

Since
your body doesn’t make vitamin B12, you have to get it from animal-based
foods or from supplements. And you
should do that on a regular basis, because your body doesn’t store vitamin B12
for a long time.Animal
sources include dairy products, eggs, fish, meat, and poultry. If you’re
looking for a food fortified with B12, check the product’s Nutrition Facts
label.Popular B12 Supplements

What if I have a shortage?

There are many causes for vitamin B12 deficiency.

Surprisingly, two of them are practices often undertaken to improve health:

– A vegetarian diet

– Weight-loss surgery.

Early signs include:

Atrophic gastritis, in which your stomach lining has thinned

Pernicious anemia, which makes it hard for your body to absorb vitamin B12

Anemia with bone marrow promegaloblastosis (megaloblastic anemia). This is due to the inhibition of DNA synthesis (specifically purines and thymidine

Long-term deficiency may have adverse effects on:

Because the body stores about 1 to 5 mg vitamin B12 (or about 1,000 to 2,000 times as much as the amount typically consumed in a day), the symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency can take several years to appear.

Low counts of white and red blood cells, platelets, or a combinationGlossitis of the tongueFatiguePalpitationsPale skinDementiaWeight lossInfertility 

Data Sources

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_B12https://www.webmd.com/diet/vitamin-b12-deficiency-symptoms-causeshttps://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/vitamin-b12-deficiency-can-be-sneaky-harmful-201301105780https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminB12-HealthProfessional/

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