Vitamin B12

So what is vitamin B12 and what does it do?

Vitamin B-12 plays an important role in the normal functioning of the brain and nervous system, as well as the formation of blood; it is normally involved in the metabolism of every cell of the human body, especially affecting DNA synthesis and regulation, but also fatty acid synthesis and energy production.  Basically, it’s kind of a big deal.  If you don’t have enough of it, you will suffer from anemia (low red blood cell counts, which basically means you’ll feel weak, lethargic or fatigued among other things), you may experience some gastrointestinal symptoms and neurological symptoms (like a decreased sense of soft-touch, absent reflexes, and even more serious psychological problems like dementia).  So, yeah – kind of a big deal.

I recently discovered that I have a vitamin B12 deficiency.  So recently that I don’t really know the cause yet, but due to hereditary factors (my mother and grandmother both having the same deficiency) I suspect that my problem is not dietary (though as a vegetarian my consumption is certainly not ideal).  I’m several days away from my next injection.

Did you know that historically a vitamin B12 deficiency (pernicious anemia – basically a deficiency due to lack of absorption not lack of consumption) was fatal?  My wikipedia-ing tells me that the disease was first described in the mid-19th Century, and in the early 20th Century the survival rate was, on average, 1-3 years for those with pernicious anemia.  A friend of mine recounted similar discoveries several years ago when he was initially diagnosed, and I recall shared a similar sense of shock – people used to just flippin’ die from this!

In 1920, George Whipple (who, for you Grey’s watchers is NOT the Whipple of the pancreatic-cancer surgery “whipple,” but an UNrelated, though contemporary and apparently lifelong friend, of that Whipple.. his name was Allen) thought that maybe raw liver would be a good treatment … which he discovered by experimenting on dogs.  A couple of other guys, George Minot and William Murphy, furthered Whipple’s research and ultimately the three men shared the 1934 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their work.

During the mid-20s, folks with pernicious anemia ate at least a half a pound of raw liver, or drank raw liver juice, every frickin’ day.  By the late 20s a liver extract concentrate became available, and in 1948 the active ingredient was isolated by chemists Karl A Folkers and Alexander R Todd: vitamin b12.  In the ’50s, the new vitamin was purified and other methods of producing it from bacteria were developed, continuing to increase the ease with which sufferers of pernicious anemia could be treated – sparing people like me today the uber-yucky fate of having to live on a diet of massive quantities of raw liver.  So, thank you for that.  Seriously.  Medicine’s pretty amazing.

 

My iron levels have typically shown in blood tests on the low end of normal, but still normal.  In recent years I’ve found myself increasingly lethargic – and concerned that the lethargy (among other things) may be symptomatic of some kind of thyroid issue.  My most recent physical and blood test confirmed that my thyroid is behaving exactly as it should be, but fortunately we also checked out my B12 levels and discovered this deficiency.  My reading was a little over half the low-end of normal, and I was able to get a B12 shot right away.  The next two weeks I felt a noticeable difference in my energy levels, and the last two weeks I seem to be feeling a return to what had become normal – in other words, blah.  Hopefully in the coming months my B12 levels will stabilize through the injections, and all will be well, though this essentially will be a lifelong treatment kind of deal.

 

Some dietary sources of B12, excluding all the meat and fishy goodness you omnivores eat, are:

• Fortified breakfast cereals (unfortunately this doesn’t include my favorite cereal, Special K Vanilla Almond! though DOES include multigrain cheerios)
• Dairy products like yogurt, milk and cheese (all of which are super tasty)

For me, I will need monthly shots (December, January, February at minimum) and then will have another blood test.  This will be followed by trying a daily dose of B12 in pill form, for a time, and then another blood test.  At that point we’ll know whether the problem is primarily absorption or consumption and which will be the route for me – shots or pills.  Either way, sure beats the prospect of death vs a half pound of liver a day… YUCK!