Vit B12 deficiency or Vitamin B12 Deficiency Symptoms Understanding

Vit B12 deficiency or vitamin B12 deficiency indicate the low level of vitamin b12 in the blood and as the level of vitamin b12 in blood goes down, the vit b12 deficiency symptoms or vit b12 deficiency symptoms start developing. Vitamin b12 being important and essential nutrients required for our body, its shortage can lead many diseases and one of the most common problem associated with the important vitamin is the pernicious anemia. The deficiency of vit b12 came into notice once the patient suffer pernicious anemia, in which the stomach’s parietal cells are affected as these cells are responsible for secreting the intrinsic factors and the vitamin b12 deficiency reduces the secreting power of the cells causing the disease.

Vit B12 deficiency or Vitamin B12 Deficiency Symptoms- Minor and Severe

The vitamin b12 is one of the important vitamins of B-complex group of vitamins and it is essentially required for maintaining and producing the red blood cells in our body. As we have already discussed in our earlier article on introduction of vit b12 deficiency, it is stored in our body and mostly in liver and therefore immediate vitamin b12 deficiency symptoms are practically not noticeable till the vitamin stored in our body is start exhausting. Once this start depleting in our body, we can notice some fatigue, nausea and constipation. We may also notice some other common vit b12 deficiency symptoms such as depression, shortness of breath, irregular pulse rate. Sometimes the vitamin b12 deficiency symptoms can also lead to sore tongue and mouth, confusion and burning in the feet, hands, arms and legs.

The above are the most common symptoms; however the more severe vitamin b12 deficiency symptoms include tenderness in nerves and at this stage it must be treated as quick as possible otherwise it can further complicate the situation and can even lead to neurological problems caused by the permanent damage of the nervous tissues.

Vit B12 Deficiency or Vitamin B12 Deficiency Symptoms Causes

As the vit B12 is available from animal origins including meat, poultry, eggs and milk and therefore most of the people who are non-vegetarian consume sufficient quantity of vitamin B12 and therefore vitamin b12 deficiency in non-vegetarian people can only be caused if the absorption of it is not proper in the body. However, people who are vegetarian or vegan and even don’t consume milk or egg has the highest chances of vit b12 deficiency and therefore need higher attention. Similarly breast-fed infants of vegan can also have higher chances to have the shortage; however these infants will have the vitamin b12 deficiency symptoms very quickly.

The other major cause of vitamin b12 deficiency is the proper absorption of it in the body. Many people suffer from bacterial overgrowth or they may have parasites in their intestines, which reduces the absorption of the vitamin in the small intestine. The other reason of the non-absorption of it is the less production of the stomach acid in the stomach. Stomach acid or gastric acid separates different constituents and especially vitamin b12 from protein and it’s shortage can hamper the task of separating it, which will ultimate cause vitamin b12 deficiency resulting in various vitamin b12 deficiency symptoms.

Conclusion

Vit b12 deficiency can be caused by many factors and especially children and vegan are more likely to have less intake of vitamin b12 compared to non-vegetarian people. Varying degree of vitamin b12 deficiency symptoms has been noticed from people found deficient in vitamin, which has already been mentioned above. Another shortage of vitamin is associated with the absorption and people having various diseases or problems are found to less absorb vitamin b12 and vitamin b12 deficiency symptoms has been observed in them. If you are one of the people who have noticed the vitamin b12 deficiency symptoms, you must consul your doctor and get quick diagnosis and treatment.