Q: I’ve been taking a multivitamin because senior citizens need more vitamin B12 than younger people. I heard that I should take B12 separately, because the multivitamin doesn’t contain enough. I find that hard to believe; the amount of B12 meets U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance standards.
A: B12, also called cobalamin, is safe even at very high doses. Did you know it contains the mineral cobalt? You can get B12 from your diet by eating fish, dairy products, eggs, beef, pork and organ meats such as liver. Vegetarians will need supplementation to stay healthy. The U.S. RDA isn’t enough to replenish you if you are deficient.
Seniors don’t absorb B12 from their GI tract as well as younger folks do. A B12 deficiency may cause fatigue, pale skin, diarrhea, weight loss, numbness or tingling in the hands and feet, loss of balance, confusion, memory loss, sores in the mouth, depression and mood swings.
The scary part is that a B12 deficiency can “look” like any number of psychiatric and neurological conditions, so it’s important to rule out a deficiency before you wind up on all sorts of drugs or have multiple surgeries.
Also, B12 is important in preventing heart disease, because it (along with folic acid) helps reduce inflammatory chemicals like homocysteine. See why I like it so much? Your physician’s office can run a blood test to determine deficiency, but blood levels of B12 don’t always reflect the levels of B12 in your nerve tissue.
The type of B12 matters and, yes, taking it separately in larger doses is better. The amount contained in multivitamins is too low to protect you from heart disease and way too low if you have central nervous system damage of any sort.
If you have multiple sclerosis, spinal cord lesions, peripheral neuropathy, trigeminal neuralgia, ALS, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, muscular dystrophy or any condition that causes aberrant nerve misfiring or demyelination (unraveling) of the nerve sheath, these conditions may be improved by injecting a special, active form of B12 called methylcobalamin. (You should take 5,000 mcg daily for a week and then once weekly.)
Please be aware that whenever you take B12 in high dosages, you should take a full range of B-complex vitamins.
Suzy Cohen is a registered pharmacist. Contact her at www.dearpharmacist.com.
