>It's important to note there are some folks who may be more at risk of a vitamin B12 deficiency than others, including those on plant-based diets, Kamitaki said.
This fact should be stated more loudly, given how many people believe that plant-based is healthy (as opposed to merely ethical).
Are you implying that a plant based diet is unhealthy? If so, please provide some sources to back up the implication. No diet is perfect, but B12 is relatively easy to address in plant based diets, especially non-vegan diets, but also with supplementation in vegan diets. Of course drinking only plant based soda and eating only plant based butter is not healthy, but people who follow a plant based diet typically don’t just eat processed food with “plant based” on the label. They also eat a lot of… plants.
I wish more articles were written this clearly and succinctly. A headline that isn't click-bait and summarizes the article. Three bullet points at the top further summarizing the article. Then it just gets to the point. The picture of the author is also nice because she looks like an otherwise healthy young person, which emphasis "hey, this could happen to anyone."
Ah yes subacute combined degeneration [of the spinal cord]. Most people with B12 deficiency don’t get to the point of neurological symptoms as the article author did, because they are diagnosed earlier with B12 deficiency anemia.
Here is another fun and obscure B12 deficiency fact: if you are borderline or low, Nitrous Oxide (NO) anaesthesia (or recreational use) can provoke paralysis.
Kombucha has a huge amount of B12, along with other B vitamins. So, I don't take the supplements I used to need, anymore.
B12 deficiency is very interesting, biologically. Bodies are normally really, really good at extracting trace amounts of B12.
But people sometimes develop an immune reaction to their own specialized cells that are responsible for extracting it. Middle-aged men are particularly at risk for this. The symptom mentioned in the article is "pernicious anemia", a stellar name. If you get this autoimmune disorder, you need thousands of micrograms every day. Other people get along on a microgram or two.
Vegans are at risk not because eating vegan is "unhealthy", but just because vegan food, with rare exceptions, lacks any B12 at all. All B12 is produced by certain bacteria, and taken up by all animals, but not at all by plants. (Miso bacteria, in particular, do NOT make any.) Bacterial B12 is added to soy milk to try to prevent deficiencies.
If you eat cheese, you are covered unless you have the disorder.
The process of absorbing B12 is improbably complicated. Stuff in your saliva is involved, and stomach, and bile, and specialized cells in your intestine. We all have a huge amount of B12 in our own colons, but no cells in the colon that can absorb it.
My interpretation is that the thousands of variations of B12 produced by various bacteria, most of which don't work right, need to be filtered out, letting through only what is checked to really do the job.
B12 deficiency is diagnosed during routine physical exams by excess buildup of a chemical that we use B12 to process.
Yes. Living creatures are subject to these events we call mutations and adaptations, and so almost every biological molecule comes in thousands of variations, each produced reliably by whichever species uses that one.
What the molecule actually does is usually determined by a tag hanging off one end.
B12 is one of a broad family of cobalamins, which you may read about on Wikipedia. Interestingly, the "cage" containing the cobalt ion is shared with numerous other important molecules, including hemoglobin that carries oxygen in your blood (iron) and chlorophyll plants use to absorb light usefully (magnesium).
Often we are equipped to modify molecules we eat into the form our bodies like. This routinely happens with drugs, which may have one form that survives the trip through your stomach acids, and another active form it is altered to, often in your liver. This often amounts to stripping off one tag and sticking on another.
Amazingly, the porphyrin cage can form spontaneously without any cells involved.
Ok, gotcha. My assumption was that B12, like many chemical names, referred to a specific molecular configuration. I wasn't aware it referred to a family of molecules. Thanks for schooling me!
As always, an incredible amount of disinformation regarding B12.
The fascination with B12 is largely to do with non-vegans looking for a reason to eat meat. They ‘think’ B12 is the proof they need to continue their lifestyle.
I’ll also add that, as a vegan of 8 years who takes no supplements or eats any special fortified foods, my B12 levels have always tested as slightly above the recommendations. That’s with me taking daily acid reflux medication also.
Funny that after 8 years of a supposed healthy rad diet, you still have to take daily acid Reflux medication.
My own experience is that i had to take for almost 10 years pills against acid reflux at huge dose (after each meals) when i was obese and on Standard Western Diet.
After loosing 42kg on Keto and being mostly carnivore for more than 2 years now, i never had an acid reflux episode since 4 years.
People absorb b12 differently so while you may be doing well, another may not. It's good for people to be aware.
As someone who experienced low b12, my doctor mentioned that some people develop symptoms and improve from treatment when their b12 levels are at lower bound compared to general population (but not below the lab specified threshold to be considered low).
I guess you eat tempeh, sauerkraut, nori, or something else fermented that has microbial B12, or drink soy milk that has it added. Feel smug knowing you are luckier than some.
This fact should be stated more loudly, given how many people believe that plant-based is healthy (as opposed to merely ethical).