Staying healthy is a gift that you give to yourself. Besides eating nutritious foods and staying active, you also need the right amount of vitamins and minerals to keep your body healthy. One of those important vitamins is B12. The more you learn about B12, you more you’ll know why you need this supplement. So, let’s find out what B12 is, how B12 works in your body, how not having enough B12 can harm your body, what foods have lots of B12, what the benefits of B12 are, if there are side effects from taking B12, and if there are any bad reactions when taking B12 with medicines or other supplements. What is Vitamin B12? B12 is one of the 8 vitamins in the B family. It is in the make-up of every cell in your body. That is the important …show more content…
When your body has a low supply level of B12, it can cause damage to your nerves and brain. If this vitamin deficiency continues for any length of time, the damage may become severe. Some of the usual symptoms of Vitamin B12 deficiency are fatigue, headaches, depression, weakness, memory problems, rapid heartbeat, tiredness, excessive sweating, the loss of skin tone, and the loss of healthy red blood cells. Vitamin B12 deficiency can be caused by a number of different medical ailments and internal concerns. Some concerns include allergies to certain vitamins, stomach problems, bad reactions with certain medicines, low levels of B12 protein in your stomach, and kidney or liver problems. Body functions can slowdown in older people and cause a B12 deficiency. Diabetics take some medicines that can lower their levels of B12 and cause a vitamin deficiency that shows up with symptoms like lightheadedness, sleepiness, and lack of …show more content…
If you can get and keep the daily recommended level of B12 into your body, you will help your digestive system, you will be more alert, and you can avoid becoming stressed, extremely tired, and depressed. B12 works in your brain to support your thinking and it helps with normal memory functions. This important vitamin works to keep your red and white blood cells in a normal balance, it helps your immune system, and it helps your nervous system. This vitamin helps your heart by working to improve your healthy cholesterol levels and to reduce any high blood pressure problems. Because B12 is in every human cell, it helps with the renewal of your skin, nails, and hair. When taken daily, B12 may help protect against some forms of cancer in the colon, prostate, and
Vitamin B12 is commonly obtained in the diet through consumption of meat, nuts, eggs, milk, shellfish, and green leafy vegetables (j). B12 has a large complex structure based around a corrin ring, which resembles porphyrin with a cobalt ion at the center (l). For this reason compounds with vitamin B12 activity are called cobalamin (k). Cyanocobalamin is the form typically found in fortified foods, which is converted in the body to the active forms methylcobalamin and 5-deoxyadenosylcobalamin (k).
Vitamin B12 deficiency limits selenium methylation and excretion resulting in higher tissue selenium levels and subsequent toxicity. It occurs in people whose digestive systems do not adequately absorb the vitamin from the foods they eat. Vegetarians who eat eggs and milk products are the most at risk because, on average, they consume less than half the adult vitamin B12 Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) while strict vegans (who don't eat any animal products, including meat, eggs, or milk) are at an even greater risk. Vitamin B12 is important since it works with the vitamin folate to make the body’s genetic material and help keep levels of the amino acid homocysteine in check which helps to decrease heart disease risk. It is also essential in the production of red blood cells which carry oxygen through the blood to the body’s tissues. Life Extension gives offers some of selenium supplements. Babies who are born of parents with low selenium and vitamin B12 rich foods are at risk of anaemia.
...levels. Although some patients cannot tolerate B12, there are B12 injection preparations for this purpose.
The school health club is thinking if they should ask people to take multivitamins for their health, the problem is that the health club doesn't know if multi vitamins will help or not. I'm here so I can persuade the health club to saying yes to multivitamins.
Vitamin B-12 is essential for energy production as well as influencing the way your body uses carbohydrates.
When one hears the three words: vitamins, nutrients, and minerals, they think of one thing-being healthy and noticing what your intake is daily. Nutrition is all about vitamins and nutrients. Firstly, vitamins are an organic compound required by the body in small amounts of metabolism, to protect health, and for proper growth of children. Vitamins also assist in the formation of hormones, blood cells, nervous systems chemicals, and genetic material. There are 13 well-identified vitamins. Some examples of the 13 well-identified vitamins are: A, D, E, and K-fat contained foods, B, C-consumed immediately. A well known and commonly used in commercials for orange juice vitamin is vitamin C. Vitamin C or ascorbic acid is important in the synthesis and maintenance of connective tissues. The lack of vitamin C will result in a sickness called scurvy. Scurvy harms the gums, mucous membranes, and the skin. Another well-known vitamin and is also used to commercial to give more information about this beverage is the vitamin in milk. The vitamin in milk is vitamin D. If you do not drink milk and obtain this vitamin, your bones and teeth will become soft and weak. Lacking one or more of the 13 well-identified vitamins will cause sickness and weakness to your body. Secondly, nutrients are how the body assimilates certain compounds. Nutrients are classified in 5 major groups: proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and minerals. One of the five nutrients is carbohydrate. The carbohydrate group principally consists of sugar, starch, dextrin, cellulose, and glycogen. In more basic terms, carbohydrates are sugars needed by human and other living organisms. Some types of foods that contain carbohydrates would be candies, ice cream, fruit juice, soda, chocolate bars etc. Lastly, vitamins are connected to minerals. Minerals are also a very important part of a healthy person. There are 11 major groups of minerals. They are: calcium, chromium, copper, iodine, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorous, potassium, selenium, and zinc. All these terms look very familiar if one has taken chemistry. These are the elements of our world. One of the more common minerals that most people have heard of is calcium. Calcium also helps with the structure and strength of teeth and bones. Vitamins and minerals work together to help humans maintain a healthy body. For example, vitamin D works with calcium to help for and maintain the strength of teeth and bones.
Vitamin, any of the organic compounds required by the body in small amounts for metabolism, to protect health, and for proper growth in children. Vitamins also assist in the formation of hormones, blood cells, nervous-system chemicals, and genetic material. The various vitamins are not chemically related, and most differ in their physiological actions. They generally act as catalysts, combining with proteins to create metabolically active enzymes that in turn produce hundreds of important chemical reactions throughout the body. Without vitamins, many of these reactions would slow down or cease. The intricate ways in which vitamins act on the body, however, are still far from clear.
Vitamin B12 deficiency is common in the United States and often responsible for anemia and neurologic symptoms, particularly in the elderly.
It helps a lot in enhancing vision since it produces enough pigments for the retina. Usually when light passes through the lens of the eyes, it’s picked up by the retina and then converted to a nerve impulse by the brain. Vitamin A or Retinol is usually transported to the retina
The human body requires small amounts of nutrients in microgram or milligram quantities in our diet because it cannot synthesize the necessary amounts on its own. These nutrients are considered micronutrients. Micronutrients are a combination of water, vitamins, and minerals. Vitamins are organic compounds that do not provide energy, but are essential to the body in helping “aid in metabolism, as well as the growth, development and maintenance of body tissues” (Byrd-Bredbenner, Moe and Beshgetoor 402). Vitamins are broken down into two groups, water-soluble and fat-soluble. The water-soluble vitamins are the B-vitamins, and vitamin C. The fat-soluble vitamins are A, D, E, and K. Minerals are needed in even smaller amounts, however these inorganic substances are necessary for “cell metabolism, nerve impulse transmission and growth and development” (Byrd-Bredbenner, Moe and Beshgetoor 485). Minerals can be categorized into major or trace minerals. The major minerals include Sodium, Potassium, Chloride, Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, and Sulfur. Trace minerals are Iron, Zinc, Copper, Manganese, Iodine, Selenium, Chromium, Fluoride, Molybdenum and Ultratrace minerals.
Vitamins are essential aids in many body processes, converting food the energy, building and maintaining cells, and other functions.
Nutritional deficiency can be defined as an insufficient supply of required nutrients (as vitamins and minerals) in the diet, thus this can lead to malnutrition (‘Nutritional Deficiency’ n.d.). Vegetarian diets lack of many types of nutrients such as protein, iron, calcium, zinc, vitamin D3 and vitamin B12. One of the most common nutrients that are very hard to be found in a vegetarian diet is vitamin B12. Vitamin B12 is necessary for us to consume because it helps to build a normal functioning body and brain. Animal products provide enough amount of vitamin B12. According to Walton (2011), he stated that the lack of vitamin B12 can cause problems in cell functioning, dizziness, anemia, poor concentration and many more.
Vitamin C is one of the most important vitamins. Without vitamin C, human life would not be on this planet today. It does many positive things in the human body. It increases recovery time from illnesses such as colds. It helps to prevent free radical damage and collagen glycation, which cause the body to age much faster than it usually should. It also helps to prevent major diseases, like scurvy, which results from Vitamin C deficiency. Vitamin C is necessary for human life.
Illness is one of the main causes when you don’t have enough vitamins in your system because your immune is weak by not having any vitamin. A weak immune system can make you more susceptible to a common cold or fever. It seems that taking vitamin supplements does not work as well as taking vitamin in by a healthy diet. When eating unhealthy you could get different types of diseases. Having a high blood pressure can cause a higher risk of strokes and heart problems along with diabetes. Over time our population
Vitamin E in all its forms, functions predominantly as an antioxidant by protecting cells from free radicals in the body. Vitamin E works as an antioxidant by donating a hydrogen atom from a hydroxyl group to a free radical within the body. Vitamin E also plays a role in immune system function and protects cell membranes and regulation of gene expression. Vitamin E has been studied to uncover other medical usages, including prevention or treatment of many health conditions [1].