Multiple Sclerosis & Vitamin B12 Deficiency

An estimated 250,000 to 350,000 Americans are living with multiple sclerosis, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system begins mistakenly attacking healthy tissues. Scientists have found that multiple sclerosis patients sometimes have lower levels of vitamin B12 than healthy people, and they are doing research on whether it would be helpful to give multiple sclerosis patients extra vitamin B12.

Multiple Sclerosis

In multiple sclerosis, the body's immune system erroneously attacks the healthy lining that insulates the body's nerves, the myelin sheath, causing areas of the nerves to lose the protective sheath. The myelin sheath helps nerves conduct electrical impulses that allow nerves to communicate with each other. Damage to the myelin sheath causes many disabilities, including vision problems, fatigue, depression, difficulty thinking and paralysis. Multiple sclerosis is chronic and currently incurable. If you or a loved one have multiple sclerosis, you may have mild, lifelong symptoms or you may develop a form of the illness that causes deterioration and death.

Multiple Sclerosis Causes

Scientists are not sure what causes the immune system to attack the myelin sheath. Multiple sclerosis is hereditary in some families, but many cases of multiple sclerosis seem to be caused by an unknown environmental factor. Multiple sclerosis appears most often in Caucasians living in temperate climate zones. Some ethnic groups -- Gypsies, Inuit and Bantus -- never get multiple sclerosis.While searching for possible causes of multiple sclerosis, scientists noticed that some multiple sclerosis patients have low levels of vitamin B12 in their blood.

Vitamin B12 Studies

Vitamin B12 is found in fish, meat, poultry, eggs, milk and milk products and can also be ingested in pill form. It plays a vital role in maintaining the myelin sheath. Several recent studies, including a 2009 study at Ankara Numune Teaching and Research Hospital in Turkey and a 2011 study at the China Medical University in Shenyang, China, found that the multiple sclerosis patients studied had lower levels of vitamin B12 in their blood than members of healthy control groups.

More Research Needed

Scientists currently do not recommend that you take extra vitamin B12 in your food or in pill form if you have multiple sclerosis because research results are not conclusive. While some multiple sclerosis patients have low levels of vitamin B12 in their blood, a 2006 study done at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa suggests both vitamin B12 and iron levels are deficient in multiple sclerosis patients, and both problems must be corrected to see improvement in multiple sclerosis symptoms. Scientists are also pursuing studies of other substances, such as fumaric acid salts, which have shown some ability to decrease the number of multiple sclerosis relapses. The current scientific consensus suggests you make sure you eat a balanced diet that contains the same amount of vitamin B12 scientists recommend for everyone's daily intake and await further research findings on vitamin B12.

Multiple Sclerosis & Vitamin B12 Deficiency