What are the benefits of Vitamin B12?

Vitamin B12 is an essential B vitamin that you have to get from your diet. Vitamin B12 basically makes the foundation of red blood cells, white blood cells and myelin. Myelin is the outer covering of your nervous system. When you lose myelin, you can get all sorts of electrical problems, pain problems, and nerve problems.

Taking potassium for a long period of time could deplete B12, especially if you aren’t consuming enough B12 in your diet. If you increase B12 by taking it as a supplement, you can decrease your potassium reserves.

Benefits

• Involved in production of red blood cells

• Involved in production of white blood cells

• Involved in brain functions / nerve functions

• Involved in creation of DNA

• Supports your nervous system by helping to produce myelin

Symptoms of deficiency

• Fatigue

• Paleness

• Memory problems

• Neurological issues

• Anemia

• Depression

• Paranoia

• Delusions

• Dementia

• Pins/needles and numbness in the body

• Swollen tongue

• Tremors

• Diarrhea

• Nausea

• Upset stomach

• Rash

• Headaches

• Dizziness

• Joint pain

Causes of deficiency

Most vitamin B12 deficiencies are not caused by a lack of vitamin B12 in the diet, but rather a lack of absorption because the stomach is not acidic enough. A lot of people have a problem with the pH of the stomach.

Here are the main causes of B12 deficiency:

• Low stomach acid

• Acid reflux

• GERD

• Gas

• Bloating

• Atrophic gastritis (take Zypan to treat it)

• Past stomach surgery

• Metformin

• Vegan (although vegans can get B12 from wheatgrass juice powder)

Synthetic and natural version of vitamin B12

The synthetic version of vitamin B12 is called cyanocobalamin. The natural version of vitamin B12 is called methylcobalamin.

The main reason why people get synthetic vitamin B12 is that it’s cheaper. In many cases, on the label of synthetic vitamin B12, it will say something like 5000%. But more is not always better. The reason why it’s 5000% is that it takes so much of it to be absorbed.

How to consume it

Add vitamin B12-rich foods to your diet. If you consume it in a supplement form, follow the directions on the label for the proper dosage.

If you are deficient in vitamin B12, apple cider vinegar may help with this situation. You could try adding apple cider vinegar in some water and drink it. You may not even need to take more B12 because doing this to acidify your stomach could help with the absorption of the B12 in your diet. Sea salt, potassium, and iodine could also help build up your stomach acid and help with absorption.

It’s recommended that you consume 1000 mcg to 3000 mcg of methylcobalamin (B12) daily to counter B12 deficiency symptoms.

Cyanocobalamin (synthetic B12):

• Not easily absorbed

• Splits off into cyanide

Methylcobalamin (natural B12):

• Bonds to protein (needs stomach acid to break it down)

• Most animal products are filled with it

Where to get it

• You can get it from a methylcobalamin supplement. Or from food sources. Here is the list of B12-rich foods:

• Animal liver and kidney

• Clams

• Sardines

• Beef

• Tuna

• Nutritional yeast

• Trout

• Salmon

• Fortified non-dairy milk

• Dairy

• Eggs

If you are vegan, there are 3 primary sources of B12:

• Chlorella (best vegan source)

• Nori (red algae) • Spirulina