Your body requires vitamin B12 for several functions, such as forming red blood cells, synthesizing DNA and maintaining your nervous system. If you are 14 years old or older, your recommended daily allowance of vitamin B12 is 2.4 mcg; that amount increases to 2.6 mcg if you are pregnant and 2.8 mcg if you are lactating. Different foods contain vitamin B12, which include salmon, liver, ham, beef, milk and eggs. Since your body needs this vitamin for neurological functioning, having a deficit can cause neurological problems.
Role in Neurological Functioning
For your central nervous system, which consists of the spinal cord and brain, to function properly, it needs vitamin B12. The vitamin helps with the production of the myelin sheath, which covers the nerve cells. The myelin sheath consists of 70 percent fat and 30 percent protein. It helps signals between nerve cells travel quicker and keeps the signal from losing its strength. Vitamin B12 also plays a role in the production of neurotransmitters, which are chemicals involved in neural communication. Tufts Medical Center notes that vitamin B12 helps make neurotransmitters which affect your mood, sleep and how you feel pain.
Effects of a Deficiency
Since your body needs vitamin B12 to maintain your nervous system, having a deficiency in the vitamin can cause neurological conditions. You can develop a vitamin B12 deficiency if your diet does not contain enough foods that are rich in the vitamin. For example, the Office of Dietary Supplements from the National Institutes of Health notes that vegetarians and vegans have a greater risk of a vitamin B12 deficiency since many vitamin B12 rich foods come from animals. Having a condition that affects your absorption of the vitamin, such as Crohn's disease, can also cause a deficiency to occur. Several neurological symptoms can occur with a vitamin B12 deficiency. For example, you can experience problems with walking, a loss of sensation or tingling, disorientation, memory loss, or dementia. If dementia occurs as the result of a vitamin B12 deficiency, you may or may not also have mood changes. The Linus Pauling Institute adds that a deficiency in vitamin B12 can damage the myelin sheath in the peripheral nerves, which are the nerves outsides of the spine and brain, as well as the spinal and cranial nerves.
Treatment for Neurological Conditions
Due to vitamin B12's role in neurological function, it may provide some benefits if you suffer from a neurological condition. For example, if you have a vitamin B12 deficiency and suffer from depression, vitamin B12 supplements may help reduce your symptoms. Since the risk for neural tube defects increase when pregnant women have lower levels of vitamin B12, supplements may help prevent the condition, in which the neural tube, which develops into the central nervous system, does not fully form. Before taking vitamin B12 supplements for any neurological condition, talk to your doctor first.
Considerations
While vitamin B12 plays an important role in your nervous system, supplements cannot reverse all the neurological damage caused by a deficit. The Linus Pauling Institute warns that if the vitamin B12 deficiency has occurred for a long time before treatment, taking supplements may not reverse the damage, leaving the neurological problems caused by the deficit, such as dementia or loss of sensation.
References
- Office of Dietary Supplements: Dietary Supplement Fact Sheet: Vitamin B12
- Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University: Vitamin B12
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Optimizing Your Diet: Best Foods for Specific Vitamins
- Franklin Institute: The Human Brain -- Fats
- Tufts Medical Center: Vitamin B12
Member Comments