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Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Vit B12: Are you getting enough vitamin B12?

By Sonia Reece

The body requires a minimum dosage per day of Vitamin B12 in order to sufficiently prevent anemia and effectively produce red blood cells. In fact, B12 is one of the top 5 nutrients that your body needs to function at its optimum level.

Primarily, B12 is found in animal products such as cheese, eggs and milk. For those of you that are Vegan, you should look for food enriched with B12 or take a high quailty supplement.

Will you know if you have a deficiency in this vitamin?

Defiency from B12 can be experienced if you are not eating animal products, like the ones listed above. Other signs of being deficient include, low energy, shores in your mouth, loss of appetite, dizziness, numbness and heart palpitations.

Symptoms may present themselves after years of b12 deficiency, and usually don't manifest until years later. A deficiency of B12 can produce pernicious anemia, which can lead to Alzheimers, memory loss, confusion and even dementia.

Seniors absorb the supplement better in the sublingual form. Malabsorption of the vitamin is another reason for the deficiency. Example, to receive optimal benefits from supplementing with vitamin B12 you would combine with folic acid and vitamin c, which will assist the absorption.

So, now you might be wondering how much is ENOUGH? What is the proper dosage to prevent Vit B12 deficiency?

After referring to the National Institute of Health and doing some personal research, I've concluded the following.

-.4 mcg- 0-6 months

-.5 mcg- 7-12 months

-.9 mcg- 1-3 years

-1.2mcg- 4-8 years

-1.8mcg- 9-13 years

-2.4mcg- age 14-older

-2.6mcg- pregnant adolescent females

-2.8mcg- lactating females

-25-100mcg-Adults over 50 (excluding those eating fortified foods)

Expert opinion may be slightly different, but two ideas were clear: We are designed to absorb low levels of vit B12 at each meal, ranging from .1mcg to 1mcg.

Environmental factors can also affect Vit B deficiency, including regularly consuming chlorinated water. In this case, the body can react to the toxic invasion and the B12 absorption can be low or completely diminished.

We also have to take into consideration the pesticides and toxins that our plants and animals are consuming and figure out if that is also causing Vit B12 deficiency.

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