May 13, 2021 general

During last week’s radio show, my guest, Sally Pacholok RN, reminded us of how important B₁₂ is and yet how overlooked it is.

What it does. It is essential for the health of the brain and for maintaining the fatty sheath that protects nerves. B₁₂ also protects our cardiovascular system and lungs by supporting homocysteine metabolism. It is essential for life!

Symptoms of deficiency. MS Pacholok has mentioned that B₁₂ deficiency symptoms look like a list of COVID-19 symptoms: extreme fatigue, shortness of breath, rapid heart rate, numbness, tingling, or burning in either the hands, legs, or feet, and developing ulcers or sores in the mouth.  Sally also says that a B₁₂ deficiency “may unknowingly increase the death rate of this pandemic, especially in older adults.”  Read her article about this topic. She adds to that symptom list short-term memory loss, sore tongue, backache, cough, and sleep problems.  The Harvard Health Letter lists these symptoms of B₁₂ deficiency:

• strange sensations, numbness, or tingling in the hands, legs, or feet
• difficulty walking (staggering, balance problems)
• anemia
• a swollen, inflamed tongue
• difficulty thinking and reasoning (cognitive difficulties), or memory loss
• weakness
• fatigue

It just doesn’t make sense to treat the symptoms with drugs especially since some of the problems become permanent if you haven’t corrected the deficiency.

Causes of deficiency: (Sally says that 1 in 6 Americans are deficient.) Many drugs, including Metformin are a problem and those that block stomach acid are especially troublesome. Aging reduces the stomach’s ability to absorb B₁₂. Genetics, stomach surgery and pernicious anemia can also be causes.

Food sources. The NIH page for professionals states, “Vitamin B₁₂ is naturally present in foods of animal origin, including fish, meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products [5]. In addition, fortified breakfast cereals and fortified nutritional yeasts are readily available sources of vitamin B₁₂ that have high bioavailability [12,13].”And they add that “the bioavailability of vitamin B₁₂ appears to be about three times higher in dairy products than in meat, fish, and poultry, and the bioavailability of vitamin B₁₂ from dietary supplements is about 50% higher than that from food sources [17-19].”

Listener experience. A year after cancer treatment, Gretchen was still experiencing some serious side effects of the treatment. She remembered hearing Sally on our show in the past and decided to try B₁₂. Gretchen reported this, ”the results were almost immediate and dramatic.  Within a day or two of starting injections my hearing was restored, my memory came back, my thinking cleared up, and my shoulder pain went away.  I also realized that the tingling I felt in my feet at night was probably not “restless legs” but neuropathy.  That too went away.  I was also thrilled to see that there is a connection between low B₁₂ and [risk of] oral cancer and that one more thing would contribute to full health.

Gretchen later shared this with HBN “A friend kept falling and having blackouts years ago. She broke her arm and had concussion. She had to stop driving. They did a quadruple bypass heart surgery. And she still kept having the problem. After I read the [B₁₂] book, I told her about it because it mentioned that they were tired of seeing people come into the emergency room for falls and no one could figure it out. She started taking the B₁₂ and stopped falling!  It [the problem] eventually returned but she was only taking 1000 mg a day, so I’m not surprised.

Thanks Gretchen!

Testing. Sally said that if you have several signs of B₁₂ deficiency, you should ask your doctor to test:

• Serum B12 is the typical test. The supposed “normal” range is too low. (Many docs think that over 200 pg/mL is good enough. It is not!) If you have symptoms and a test level under 542 pg/mL, you should get the other two tests.
• Methylmelonic acid – will be elevated if are deficient.
• Homocysteine – will be elevated if you are deficient.

Supplements.

The methylcobalamin form of B₁₂ is recommended, not the cyanide-based cyanocobalamin type. Note; Centrum Silver contains only 25 mcg. of B₁₂ and it is the cyanocobalamin form. Molecular Multi provides 600 mcg of methylcobalamin which is a good maintenance level. Nerve Guardian contains 1,000 mcg. of methylcobalamin and other B’s. Lozenge forms are best absorbed. Superior Source’s little melts are easy to use. Jarrow has a variety of B₁₂ lozenges with 2,500 mcg of methylcobalamin such as this tropical flavor example. For people seriously deficient, it may take injections or at least 5,000 mcg.

*Sally M. Pacholok RN, BSN and emergency room nurse, is the author of COULD IT BE B₁₂? AN EPIDEMIC OF MISDIAGNOSES.

Graphic is from https://badgut.org/ (Canadian Society of Gastrointestinal Research)