Vitamin B-12 is essential for producing genetic material in your body and maintaining healthy nerves and red blood cells. In the diet, vitamin B-12 is found only in animal foods and some fortified plant-based foods, such as cold cereals. Most multivitamin supplements contain vitamin B-12; it is also available in several forms as an individual vitamin supplement. If you are over 50, have trouble absorbing vitamin B-12 because of a medical condition, or you are a vegetarian, you may need to take B-12 supplements.
Aging
For your body to absorb vitamin B-12, you must produce enough hydrochloric acid in your stomach during digestion to separate the vitamin from the protein it is attached to in foods. As you age, you do not produce as much hydrochloric acid and B-12 cannot readily be released from food. As a result, you will not have as much B-12 available from the food you eat. If you are over 50, speak to your doctor to see if you need to take B-12 supplements.
Pernicious Anemia
If you have pernicious anemia, you do not produce a protein known as intrinsic factor that is normally present in the gastrointestinal tract to help your body absorb vitamin B-12 into your bloodstream. Lacking B-12, your red blood cells are not able to bring oxygen from your lungs to other parts of your body. Pernicious anemia can result from stomach inflammation, surgery that removes all or part of the stomach, autoimmune disorders, genetic predisposition and aging. Any condition that prevents you from absorbing vitamin B-12 into your body can result in pernicious anemia. Your doctor may treat you with vitamin B-12 injections or have you take oral or intranasal supplements. In some cases, you may need both injections and supplements of vitamin B-12.
Digestive Disorders
Chronic stomach inflammation due to an uncommon autoimmune condition can result in the progressive destruction of cells that line the stomach. This auto-immune disease, which occurs most often in middle-aged and older women, decreases the amount of acid released into the stomach, interferes with the action of intrinsic factor and, over time, may result in symptoms of pernicious anemia. According to the Medical University of South Carolina's Digestive Disease Center, ongoing pernicious anemia can result in a slightly higher risk of developing stomach cancer.
Vegetarianism
If you are a strict vegetarian, or vegan, who eats no animal products whatsoever, you can get some vitamin B-12 from fortified foods, but you may need a supplement. If you are lacto-ovo vegetarian, you may get enough vitamin B-12 from eggs and dairy products such as milk and yogurt. If you simply avoid meat but eat other animal foods, you will also get vitamin B-12 from poultry, fish and other seafood. According to the McKinley Health Center at the University of Illinois, adults should try to consume at least three vitamin B-12-rich foods each day. Fortified soy milk, meat substitutes, breakfast cereals and nutritional yeasts are good sources of vitamin B-12 for vegetarians and semi-vegetarians.
References
- National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements; Vitamin B12; 2010
- New York University Langone Medical Center; Pernicious Anemia; Igor Puzanov, MD; 2010
- Medical University of South Carolina: Digestive Problems
- University of Illinois at Urbana-champaign: Vitamin B12: What Vegans Need to Know
