Importance of Vitamin B12 for Health

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What is vitamin B12?

Vitamin B12, also known as cobalamin, is an essential vitamin that your body needs but cannot produce. It’s found naturally in animal products, but also added to certain foods and available as an oral supplement or injection. Vitamin B12 has many roles in your body.

What are the different types of vitamin B12?

It is usually in a form called cyanocobalamin. Other common forms are adenosylcobalamin, methylcobalamin, and hydroxycobalamin. Vitamin B12 is also available in a form that’s dissolved under your tongue (called sublingual vitamin B12). Research has not shown that any form of supplemental vitamin B12 is better than the others.

What foods contain vitamin B-12?

Food sources of vitamin B-12 include poultry, meat, fish and dairy products. Vitamin B-12 is also added to some foods, such as fortified breakfast cereals, and is available as an oral supplement. Vitamin B-12 injections or nasal spray might be prescribed to treat vitamin B-12 deficiency. Vitamin B-12 deficiency is not common in the U.S.

Where does vitamin B12 come from?

Since only bacteria and some archea possess the genes and enzymes necessary to synthesize vitamin B 12, plant and algae sources all obtain the vitamin secondarily from symbiosis with various species of bacteria, or in the case of fermented plant foods, from bacterial fermentation.

How much vitamin B12 is in a dietary supplement?

Vitamin B12 levels are higher, generally 50–500 mcg, in supplements containing vitamin B12 with other B-complex vitamins and even higher, typically 500–1,000 mcg, in supplements containing only vitamin B12. The most common form of vitamin B12 in dietary supplements is cyanocobalamin [ 1, 3, 23, 24 ].

What Is Particularly Vitamin B12

1. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamin-b12-or-folate-deficiency-anaemia/
2. https://www.verywellhealth.com/vitamin-b12-5083479
3. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/vitamin-b12-foods

Particularly Vitamin B12 Information

1. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Vitaminb12-HealthProfessional/
2. https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/nutritional/vitamin-b12-or-folate-deficiency-anaemia