B12
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
What is B12
B12 is a B vitamin!
Symptoms of deficiency
- Sore red tongue
- Enlarged spleen
- Paraesthesia (pins and needles), leading to peripheral neuropathy
- Tiredness and fatigue
- Depression
- Sleep disturbances
- Symptoms of anaemia
Later stages
- Symptoms of cord degeneration
- Confusion (later stage)
Causes of deficiency
- Poor diet - especially vegans, since its found in eggs, meat and milk.
- Coeliac disease, or Crohn's disease, since these inflammatory bowel disorders irritate the end of the ileum, where B12 is absorbed.
- Terminal ileum resection (since this is where most of the absoprtion happens).
- Autoimmune atrophic gastritis - this is one cause of pernicious anaemia, where the parietal cells in the stomach are killed off by the immune system. More common in Northern Europe. Leads to no intrinsic factor being released.