Vitamin B12 deficiency in general practice: HealthCert GP Update, 2026

Thanks, Campbell, for that excellent introduction.

Thank you, HealthCert, for sponsoring us tonight.

Welcome, everybody.

We're going to be chatting about vitamin B12 deficiency, the diagnosis and treatment.

Firstly, we'll start with our acknowledgement of country.

I'm north of Brisbane and this is the Gubbi Gubbi people's traditional land.

So recognizing their continuing connection to the land and also paying respects to elders past, present and emerging.

So as Campbell has said, that's my bio there.

I have a fairly broad interest in teaching and trying to support new GPs, whether they're IMGs, fellowship students or medical students coming through, because I think we probably have a very privileged role in healthcare looking after our families.

Tonight we're going to be talking about B12 deficiency and how we treat that in the community, particularly looking at interpreting the investigations.

So those blood tests that we just order all day, every day, sort of picking them apart, what are we using them for and how do we interpret them? And also just revising the common causes of B12 deficiency.

and looking at the treatments of that and also a couple of case studies at the end just so that we can apply some of that new knowledge that we've learned.

So why does B12 deficiency matter? It's a very common but frequently missed diagnosis.

The symptoms are non-specific and they can include things like fatigue, cognitive change, potential neuropathies and It has a high prevalence in elderly and at-risk groups, such as diabetics, people that have reduced or lower quality diets.

And the neurological damage may be irreversible if treatment is delayed.

So it could be permanent neurological damage if we're not onto this condition fairly quickly.

Severe deficiency can cause a combined degeneration of the spinal cord, which may not be fully reversible even after the deficiency is corrected.

We don't see this very much now that we have such an evolved diet.

However, it is something to be aware of.

And the complications of long-term B12 deficiency include heart failure due to anemia, gastric cancer, and autoimmune disorders such as type 1 diabetes, myasthenia gravis, rheumatoid arthritis.