vitamin B12 deficiency

Nice, nice.

And the reason I was asking Jamie about how he likes to take his medications is we're going to be doing a, we're talking about a tools of practice entitled vitamin B12 deficiency, monthly shots or daily pills.

And that is still apparently a question for some people.

And we're going to try and answer that because we actually have some decent information around that.

Yeah.

So what's the, what was the actual clinical question that you guys were asking?

Yeah, we wanted to know if in patients with vitamin B12 deficiency, is oral vitamin B12 just as effective as, you know, intramuscular injections? I think that, you know, for the longest time, intramuscular injections, like every month of B12 was a standard.

And I'll tell you, like when I was like learning as a learner, so in medical school and as a resident, like we just had these blue of patients coming into our family doctor's office.

And so that's why it's doubly important for somebody with type 2 diabetes to take their vitamin B12 every day, and I'm gonna tell you at the end of this, uh, video which kind of B12 to take.

So we've talked about the, the, the s- one of the things, which is peripheral neuropathy, but other problems that a vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to is worsening memory, and if it goes on for long enough, it can actually lead to a certain type of dementia, which is, can be permanent, so it's a big deal.

Also, a vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to decreased cardiac output.

Your heart may just not function as well as it could otherwise if you're vitamin B12 deficient.

Now, there are multiple different B12 supplements you can buy on the market, but what I recommend you take is a methylated B12, and I'm gonna put a link down below to one that I know is, is safe and reliable.

So there are antibodies that are produced, like autoantibodies, that target these parietal cells, and they target this acid pump kind of transport system, so the cells that are producing the stomach acid and intrinsic factor.

So this does destroy acid production and decreases stomach acid production and decreases intrinsic factor production over time, which can lead to B12 deficiency because of poor B12 absorption.

This is actually not a rare condition.

So whenever this got brought up, I think it's talked about as if it is very rare, but the truth is it's not.

So the body, uh, just because we're not absorbing it, like what do we do with it? It actually can store some of that B12 in your liver.

So many, many years of this B12 that some of it's excreted, but some gets stored in the liver, this, um, can cause some issues, and it can be hard for the liver, um, but also you're missing out on B12 and hard on the rest of the body.

So the reason why they call it pernicious anemia versus just like B12 deficiency is because this can create this kind of irreversible harm and gradually happens over time.

And in the past, like many, many years, many, many, many, many years ago, this was considered to be fatal because you're lacking B12 and the body can't survive forever without B12.

And that usually happens in your feet first, okay? Not necessarily in the hands, but it can happen in the hands, uh, but it's mainly in the bottom of the feet.

But if it's in the hands, one cause of this breakdown in myelin is a vitamin B12 deficiency.

It's actually quite common.

A lot of people are not getting enough B12, and that's why I'm doing this video right now, to bring up your awareness and make this connection between a symptom that I probably haven't talked about very much, and that is the loss of myelin in the cervical spine in your neck.

That's where it can commonly occur.

So you can even see this degeneration in the spinal column on an MRI, and the various parts of the spinal column can then relate to problems that happen down the arm into the fingertips.

A B12 deficiency can also give you other symptoms as well that might not be as common, like your gait when you walk.

You can be-- feel like you're out of balance, almost like you drank some alcohol, which when you really didn't drink any alcohol, you're shuffling along.

A person can develop anemia because of the importance of B12 in your red blood cell, and even problems within the DNA.

So B12 is very, very important, and a huge percentage of the population, uh, in the world is deficient in B12, and many times they have a subclinical B12 deficiency, and they don't even know it.

It's important to know all the causes, uh, that go beyond just, uh, lacking B12 in the diet because you don't consume animal products.

All right, so let's just jump right in.

They'll have, like, numbness, tingling, things like that.

And the remedy is taking some of these B vitamins, like B1 in the form of benfotiamine to help reverse it.

But if you don't know that And you're taking metformin that's creating a worsening of this B1/B12 deficiency.

This could be the reason why your peripheral neuropathy and other neuropathy problems, uh, are not going away.