According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Study, approximately 3.2 percent of adults over 50 are severely vitamin B12 deficient, while up to 20 percent may be borderline deficient. And even a short-term deficiency can lead to problems. According to a study published in the New England Journal, one 62-year-old man who had vitamin B deficiency developed a number of serious symptoms over the course of only two months: including difficulty walking, joint pain, jaundice, and tingling in his extremities.
What is Vitamin B?
Vitamin B, most importantly vitamin B12, is a water-soluble vitamin that’s found in a number of animal products, from fish and meat to eggs and dairy products. This vitamin is essential for DNA synthesis, and facilitates the formation of red blood cells in the body. A lack of vitamin B can lead to anemia.
The body uses stomach acid to release the B12 protein from food during digestion, combines it with a substance called intrinsic factor (IF), and absorbs it into the bloodstream, where it is collected and stored in the liver. In a healthy body, there are several years’ worth of vitamin B12 being stored at any time, making vitamin B deficiency relatively rare. However, when the body is unable to properly digest food, or when there are factors that affect the health of the liver (such as alcoholism), this deficiency can occur.
How Do I Know If I’m Vitamin B Deficient?
Vitamin B deficiency causes a number of obvious signs and symptoms, and others that are apparent during lab tests. For some patients, the symptoms begin gradually and get worse over time. For others, such as the case outlined above, symptoms have a rapid and severe onset. If you develop any of the symptoms below, you should make an appointment with your physician, who can conduct blood tests to determine your vitamin B12 level and rule out other common causes for the condition. Because this form of vitamin deficiency often has a root cause (rather than being the result of a poor diet), it is important for the doctor to diagnose and treat the underlying condition as well.
● Megaloblastic Anemia: Patients who have low levels of vitamin B12 develop megaloblastic anemia, which is a condition that results in red blood cells that are larger than normal. This type of anemia can also be caused by other factors, including a folate deficiency, so it’s important to have yourself tested to figure out why it's happening.
● Ataxia: Patients who are vitamin B deficient often develop ataxia, which is characterized by shaky limb movement and gait problems. Other patients may experience a loss of balance.
● Muscle Weakness/Spasticity: Muscle weakness is often a sign of vitamin B deficiency, as are stiff or rigid muscles, a condition called spasticity
● Hypotension: Low blood pressure, also called hypotension, is common in patients with this condition
● Cognitive Dysfunction: Patients with this condition may have difficulty concentrating, or may develop problems with thinking or reasoning. Other patients, especially those with a severe deficiency, may develop memory loss.
● Sensory Problems: This condition can cause patients to experience numbness or tingling in the extremities. Other patients may develop a loss of taste or smell.
● Depression, Dementia or Psychosis: Vitamin B can cause a change in a patient’s mental state, including mood disturbances or depression, confusion or dementia, and, in severe cases, even psychosis. According to Harvard Health, other patients can develop paranoia and delusions.
● Incontinence: Many vitamin B deficient patients lose control of their bladder and/or bowels. In other patients, diarrhea or constipation can be symptoms of a deficiency.
● Chronic Fatigue: Patients who are vitamin B deficient often report a feeling of chronic fatigue, lack of energy, or a sense of light-headedness when standing
● Swollen Tongue/Bleeding Gums:
● Shortness of Breath: Patients with vitamin B deficiency report being short of breath after exertion or exercise
● Jaundice: Patients with a vitamin B deficiency often develop a yellow hue to their skin, a condition called jaundice
● Swollen, Inflamed Tongue: Vitamin B deficiency can cause the tongue to turn bright red and become swollen or painful, and may also cause bleeding gums.
What Can I Do?
For patients whose deficiencies stem from dietary causes, such as vegetarians, there are dietary changes that a nutritionist can suggest, as well as supplements that can be taken to boost vitamin B levels in the body. However, because this condition is often a secondary one caused by an underlying issue, it’s important that you work with your doctor to identify and treat the root problem. Vitamin B12 injections will help patients who are unable to adequately process this nutrient from their food.
Vitamin B Deficiency And Alzheimer’s: Is There A Link?
Some Alzheimer’s patients have been diagnosed with vitamin B12 deficiencies, and studies have been conducted, with inconclusive results, to attempt to establish a link between Alzheimer’s disease and a vitamin B12 deficiency. It has been shown that this type of vitamin deficiency can lead to a form of reversible dementia - especially in those adults who have a condition called pernicious anemia, where the body has difficulty absorbing vitamin B from food and thus has a chronic deficiency that affects cognitive abilities. This form of dementia can be successfully treated with vitamin B12 injections.