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Ity Aggarwal, the 32-year-old proprietor of a salon in Kemps Corner has been recently playing doc in addition to her role as hairstylist. Several of her customers who drop in for a haircut have complained of excessive hair fall, poor texture and brittle strands. After a quick chat about whether they suffer from thyroid or polycystic ovaries, or if they are on an extreme diet, Aggarwal suggests they go in for a vitamin B12 deficiency test.
“So many of them have returned to tell me they were in fact, severely deficient in B12,” she says. Dr Sadanand Naik is hardly surprised. The head of bio-chemistry at KEM Hospital, Pune, has been researching the malaise among urban Indians. A 2010 study conducted among middle-class men in Pune revealed that 81 per cent were B12 deficient.
A follow up study that he and his team of researchers conducted earlier this year among 120 young post-graduate male and female students from Pune, all vegetarian or whose diet did not include food of animal origin, found half the subjects to be deficient in the vitamin. Professor and head of neurology at KEM Hospital in Mumbai, Dr Sangeeta Ravat sees an average of four B12 deficient patients a week.
Vitamin B12, an essential micronutrient, plays a crucial role in the formation of red blood cells and maintaining the health of the nerve tissue. It’s what the body needs if it mustn’t fall prey to anemia. Efficient functioning of the central nervous system that’s responsible for maintaining alertness and memory recall also requires healthy doses of B12. Neuroscientists say B12 has built a reputation for elevating the mood, since it helps manufacture neurotransmitters like monoamines that help regulate the mood, and reduce incidence of depression and anxiety.
It's about what you eatMumbai-based nutritionist Pooja Singhania says the deficiency is marked by gradual but distinctive symptoms, and is born out of dietary habits. Non-vegetarian food (meat, eggs, fish), milk and dairy products are the only dietary sources of B12 for humans. Vegetarians are at a higher risk, say experts. Although milk and milk products are available to them to meet their B12 requirements, they don’t consume enough. Dr Naik suggests vegetarians consume four glasses of milk a day in the following ways: Drink one glass of milk, have a bowl of yoghurt along with lunch, down a glass of buttermilk around evening, and drink another glass of milk before bedtime.
Dr Ashish Babhulkar, a Punebased shoulder and joint replacement surgeon, says it’s important that the milk you drink be plain and devoid of supplements or chocolate flavouring. At the helm of a seven-year-old research into vitamin B12 deficiency among urban Indians, Dr Babhulkar says, he has witnessed a rise in incidence of muscular skeletal problems. “B12 is crucial for nerve nutrition, and plays a key role in neuromuscular transmission. It therefore determines how strong or weak your muscles will be.”
Pigmentation and tell-tale signsThe symptoms of this deficiency often overlap with those of other diseases. “Often, women also show signs of hypothyroidism,” says Dr Babhulkar. Look out for signs of fatigue, skin pigmentation, memory loss, tingling in the limbs, cramps, giddiness, palpitations, mouth ulcers and loss of energy.
“Neurons need B12 for growth and maintenance. Patients could experience tingling on their soles, and can lose balance in the dark,” says Dr Ravat. The only way to find out if you are deficient, say experts, is to run frequent blood tests. If your deficiency isn’t alarming, you will be prescribed a routine supplement in tablet form. Steeply low levels may require B12 injections.
New disease caused by vitamin B12 deficiencyThe latest news surrounding vitamin B12 deficiency is the discovery of a new genetic disease related to it. This new discovery is expected to help doctors better diagnose this rare genetic disorder and open the door to new treatments. Vitamin B12 is essential to human health but some people have inherited conditions that leave them unable to process it. “We found that a second transport protein was involved in the uptake of the vitamin into the cells, thus providing evidence of another cause of hereditary vitamin B12 deficiency,” Dr David Rosenblatt, one of the study’s co-authors from McGill University, said. “It is also the first description of a new genetic disease associated with how vitamin B12 is handled by the body,” he said. In previous work, the researchers discovered that vitamin B12 enters our cells with help from of a specific transport protein. In this study, they were working independently with two patients showing symptoms of the cblF gene defect of vitamin B12 metabolism but without an actual defect in this gene. Their work led to the discovery of a new gene, ABCD4, associated with the transport of B12 and responsible for a new disease called cblJ combined homocystinuria and methylmalonic aciduria (cblJHcy-MMA). — ANI
The vitamin B12 and D3 connect
A deficiency of Vitamin D3, which is tough to detect due to inert symptoms, often leads to a drop in B12. Here’s why. A D3 deficiency interrupts the absorption of calcium by the body. Since calcium is crucial for transporting B12 to the stomach, although you may be consuming sufficient meat and eggs, if your body is deficient in D3, chances are that you will suffer a drop in B12 too.
Antibiotics and antacids to blameSometimes, although your diet provides sufficient intake of B12, the micronutrient isn’t absorbed due to the absence of what’s called the intrinsic factor — a protein that carries B12 to the stomach. Since most urban Indians depend on antibiotics to cure a variety of ailments, they often suffer from acidity, and end up taking antacids. Antacids prevent vitamin B12 absorption.
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