10 Symptoms Vitamin B12 Deficiency
Why Do Our Bodies Need Vitamin B12?
What makes Vitamin B12 important is the role that it plays in creating healthy blood cells. As we all know, damaged blood cells could be highly detrimental to the body’s basic functioning, making it a dangerous catalyst for illnesses. Our bodies do not produce Vitamin B12. Therefore we must obtain it through our dietary intake. Vitamin B12 supports our nervous system, helping our bodies make DNA and red blood cells.
The reason Vitamin B12 is so essential is that we need its assistance in creating blood cells that carry oxygen throughout the body. Oxygen keeps our organs, muscles, and skin healthy. A deficiency in B12 could cause harmful physical and mental conditions, so we need to educate ourselves on the signs and symptoms of Vitamin B12 deficiency.
Top 10 Signs of Vitamin B12 Deficiency
Once we know what to recognize, we also need to know how to treat any Vitamin B12 deficiency before it becomes problematic. Let us have a look at ten symptoms that might indicate a lack of B12.
1. Pale Skin
No, this does not constitute your winter glow out of the sun. By pale, we mean jaundiced, a yellow tinge on the skin and whites of the eyes that occurs when a person has a problem with white blood cell production.
Because Vitamin B12 is needed to produce blood cells, a deficiency leaves the cells incomplete, thus unable to divide as they are supposed to. This results in (megaloblastic) anemia, timid, or fragile red blood cells in the bone marrow. Because these cells are too large to pass through the bone marrow, it never ends up in the circulatory system and leaves the body lacking blood cells. This lack of red blood cells is what gives your skin that pale complexion.
2. Fatigue or Weakness
When your body does not have enough B12 to produce red blood cells, it fails to carry enough oxygen to all of the body parts. This lack of oxygen makes you feel tired and weak most of the time. Sometimes we are quick to jump to the usual suggestions when feeling tired, such as hypothyroidism, but this is one of the symptoms that can be misleading.
3. Dizziness and Breathlessness
Having an inadequate amount of oxygen in your body will leave you feeling dizzy and out of breath. Just as with fatigue, the lack of Vitamin B12 leaves you without enough red blood cells, unable to transport oxygen to your brain and extremities. This anemia causes you to have to catch your breath often, especially when exerting yourself.
4. Blurry Vision
Another symptom of Vitamin B12 deficiency is disturbed or blurred vision, but this symptom occurs for a slightly different reason than the previously mentioned. Blurred vision happens when prolonged B12 deficiency damages the nervous system, and the optic nerve of your eye suffers. Damage to your nervous system disrupts nervous signals between your eye and your brain (optic neuropathy), and this is what impairs your vision. To those who have experienced this, it can be frightening. The good news is that the condition is reversible by simply supplementing with B12.
5. Pins and Needles Feeling
Vitamin B12 is an essential contributor to the metabolic pathway that creates myelin, the fatty substance that encapsulates your nerves and insulates them against damage. Without adequate B12, myelin is produced differently, leaving the nervous system unable to function correctly. When this occurs, we feel a sensation of pins and needles in our hands and feet. The feeling is a sign of nerve damage in our extremities due to a deficiency in Vitamin B12, which associates with anemia.
6. Mood Disturbance
There are reports that low levels of Vitamin B12 can provoke brain disorders like depression and even dementia. How does this happen? Elevated levels of homocysteine caused by low levels of Vitamin B12 and result in damage to the brain that ultimately interferes with your brain signals. The disruption leads to mood fluctuations from the imbalance of function on a neuropathological level.
7. Nausea and Diarrhea
Nausea and related gut issues are not definitive signs of a Vitamin B12 deficiency, but it is one of its symptoms. A deficiency in B12 can affect the digestive tract, where not enough oxygen reaches the gut lining and causes irritation and inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract. Insufficient oxygen in this area might also cause the individual to feel sick. Diarrhea and vomiting will probably occur here.
8. Trouble Reasoning
Cognitive impairment, the inability to formulate thoughts and apply them accordingly, is another symptom of Vitamin B12 deficiency. As B12 directly influences the brain function due to the delivery of oxygen, the lack thereof causes insufficient brain efficacy. The shortage of oxygen will cause difficulty in thinking. Even memory loss, which proves the correlation between diseases like vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s and low levels of Vitamin B12.
9. Rapid Heart Rate
Because a Vitamin B12 deficiency causes a lack of adequate blood and oxygen delivery, the heart might need to start beating faster to deliver enough oxygen-rich blood to the entire body. The heart is then forced to increase its beats to make up for the effects of a reduced number of red blood cells in circulation. Anemia causes pressure on the heart to push higher volumes of blood around the body, doubling its effort to keep up.
10. Oral Issues
When it comes to the mouth, a Vitamin B12 deficiency causes ailments like a swollen tongue, mouth ulcers, and burning. These ailments are all due to a reduced red blood cell count that causes a lack of oxygen in the tongue and tissue in the mouth.
Fight Vitamin B12 Deficiency with Supplements
Since Vitamin B12 is a water-soluble vitamin present predominantly in animal products, it is usually prevalent in strict vegans/ vegetarians. However, there are many B12 supplements available to help correct your deficiency effectively. These symptoms are not necessarily limited to B12 deficient patients. Please check with your medical professional before assuming that you have no other conditions that might cause the above symptoms.