Vitamin B12 And Nerve Cells

Vitamin B-12 is an essential vitamin. Among its many roles in your body is maintaining healthy nerve cells, which help you conduct all the activities of daily living. Being deficient in vitamin B-12 can cause nerve damage, which is often a progressive problem that can lead to serious long-term health issues. You can protect your nerve cells by consuming a diet rich in vitamin B-12 and regularly consulting with your doctor, who can order tests to determine if you have a B-12 deficiency.

Functions of B-12

One of the many components of the B complex of vitamins, vitamin B-12 is the complex's largest and most chemically complicated. Within B-12 is the metal cobalt. All B vitamins are water soluble, meaning your body excretes superfluous vitamin content out through your urine, but B-12 has the distinction of being the only one your liver can store -- several year's worth in fact. B-12 is crucial the formation of DNA and your red blood cells. It's also a guardian of sorts for neurological function, in that it helps maintain the health of your nerve cells.

Nerve Cells

Also called neurons, nerve cells are the foundation of your central nervous system. These are specialized cells that conduct impulses and create an intricate and rapid cellular communication system between your brain and the rest of your body that allows you to do everything, from moving and thinking to talking and sensing. Neurons have four parts: a cell body, nucleus, a long branched fiber called an axon and several shorter branches called dendrites. Axons carry outgoing signals from the cell body to other neurons or other types of cells. Dendrites receive incoming messages. Nerve cells connect with each other at special contact points known as synapses and through the receiving and releasing of neurotransmitters, which are like little chemical messengers. When nerve cells are damaged, such as with a B-12 deficiency or a serious disease like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, this communications web begins to crumble.

B-12 Deficiency and Neurological Damage

Because of your body's ability to store vitamin B-12, deficiencies are rare. However certain populations, like vegans and the elderly, have a higher risk of suffering the effects of a B-12 deficiency. B-12 comes naturally in animal products and as you age, you experience changes in your stomach acids that make it difficult to absorb B-12. The latter condition is called pernicious anemia. Neurological symptoms may alert you to a B-12 deficiency, as lack of B-12 can damage part of the protective covering over some nerve cells. For example, you may feel numbness and tingling in your arms and legs. You may have trouble walking, disorientation and memory loss. You could even be diagnosed with dementia. You don't necessarily have to have anemia to suffer neurological damage due to a B-12 deficiency. However if not treated early enough, nerve damage is often irreversible.

Recommended Intake and Food Sources

The Institute of Medicine recommends that teenagers and adults get at least 2.4 mcg of vitamin B-12 daily. The Mayo Clinic says you can satisfy your B-12 requirements by eating one chicken breast, a hard-boiled egg or a cup of plain low-fat yogurt. Many foods, like breakfast cereals are also fortified with B-12, so you can also get enough through a cup of raisin brain and a cup of milk. The Institute of Medicine says people who have B-12 absorption issues should try to get most of their B-12 through vitamin-fortified foods. This is because to digest and absorb B-12 from natural animal foods, your body has to release B-12 bound to protein -- a function that is impaired in many people who have a B-12 deficiency. In B-12-fortified food, the B-12 comes already in its "freed state." Other foods high in B-12 include liver, clams, salmon and trout, yogurt, ham and Swiss cheese.