B more energetic. Take B-12
Columbia State
07-11-06
Tired and run down? No appetite? Trouble walking? Depressed or irritable? Do your hands or feet tingle?
Such symptoms describe dozens of disorders. Yet many people are not tested for one possible cause: a deficiency of B-12, a vitamin essential to health that is found in meat and dairy products.
Answers to common questions about vitamin B-12:
QUESTION: What is B-12?
ANSWER: B-12 is a vitamin, also known as cobalamin, found in meat, eggs and dairy products. The only vitamin not naturally available from plants or sunshine, it is essential for the formation of red blood cells and cell division.
Q: Who is at a risk of B-12 deficiency?
A: It's prevalent in people who lack a protein called intrinsic factor, which aids a person's ability to process B-12. That occurs in pernicious anemia, a blood disorder that causes abnormally low red-cell counts.
Others at risk are senior citizens, vegetarians, vegans, bariatric and stomach-surgery patients, and people who regularly take certain diabetes, heartburn and ulcer medicines.
Other causes of B-12 deficiency include:
** Hyperthyroidism, pregnancy, cancer, intestinal disorders such as Crohn's or celiac disease.
** Certain prescription or over-the-counter drugs, such as the diabetes medicine metformin; H2-blockers and antacids, including Pepcid, Prilosec, Tagamet, Zantac, Nexium and Tums.
** Anesthesia, particularly nitrous oxide (so-called laughing gas), during surgery or dental procedures.
Q: Is there a link to heart problems?
A: B-12 deficiency may cause an increase in homocysteine, a measurement in blood tests linked to heart disease, but the link has not been proved, experts say.
Q: What are the symptoms of B-12 deficiency?
A: Fatigue, a loss of appetite, a sore mouth; a red or sore tongue; muscle weakness; problems with walking; tingling in feet and hands; depression, dementia or memory loss; hallucinations, psychosis and personality changes.
Q: What are serious consequences of B-12 deficiency?
A: Memory loss and leg paralysis
Q: How is it diagnosed?
A: With blood or urine tests. The blood test is more widely used, but it can be inaccurate as much as half the time. The urinary test is known as the UMMA, for urinary methylmalonic acid.
Q: What do the tests cost?
A: About $35 for the blood test and $90 to $200 for the UMMA at many doctors' offices and medical centers. You can order the UMMA for $90 — and without a doctor's prescription — from a company in Cincinnati, Ohio. It requests your doctor's name so he or she can be sent a copy of your test results. For details, call the Norman Clinical Laboratory, (800) 397-7408;Norman Clinical Laboratory, Inc..
Q: What's the best way to treat B-12 deficiency?
A: You have a choice of pills or shots. Some experts say shots are the best way to treat those who are deficient, at least initially.
Q: What do the pills and shots cost?
A: Shots cost $1.25 each; pills cost about $1 for a month's supply.
Q: Does insurance cover them?
A: It varies.
Q: How much B-12 should you get each day?
A: You need only 2.4 micrograms a day if you are 14 or older, but you need much more — 1,000 micrograms a day — if you are deficient.
Q: What are the best food sources of B-12?
A: Mollusks, such as clams; liver and wild salmon; venison; and baked snapper. For vegetarians, numerous products are fortified with B-12, including soy and rice milk, and cereals.
SOURCES: Sally Pacholok and Dr. Jeffrey Stuart; Eric Norman, Ph.D., Norman Clinical Laboratory; Katherine Tucker, Ph.D., senior scientist, Tufts University; Dr. Ralph Carmel, director of research, Department of Medicine, New York Methodist Hospital and Weill Medical College, Cornell University; Suzanne Havala Hobbs, registered dietitian, University of North Carolina; Dr. Howard Markel, medical historian, University of Michigan; Dr. Robert Lisak, chief of neurology, Wayne State University School of Medicine and Detroit Medical Center; Dr. Jeffrey Halter, chief of geriatrics, University of Michigan
For more news or to subscribe, please visit TheState.com : South Carolina news, sports, jobs, homes, cars
Columbia State
07-11-06
Tired and run down? No appetite? Trouble walking? Depressed or irritable? Do your hands or feet tingle?
Such symptoms describe dozens of disorders. Yet many people are not tested for one possible cause: a deficiency of B-12, a vitamin essential to health that is found in meat and dairy products.
Answers to common questions about vitamin B-12:
QUESTION: What is B-12?
ANSWER: B-12 is a vitamin, also known as cobalamin, found in meat, eggs and dairy products. The only vitamin not naturally available from plants or sunshine, it is essential for the formation of red blood cells and cell division.
Q: Who is at a risk of B-12 deficiency?
A: It's prevalent in people who lack a protein called intrinsic factor, which aids a person's ability to process B-12. That occurs in pernicious anemia, a blood disorder that causes abnormally low red-cell counts.
Others at risk are senior citizens, vegetarians, vegans, bariatric and stomach-surgery patients, and people who regularly take certain diabetes, heartburn and ulcer medicines.
Other causes of B-12 deficiency include:
** Hyperthyroidism, pregnancy, cancer, intestinal disorders such as Crohn's or celiac disease.
** Certain prescription or over-the-counter drugs, such as the diabetes medicine metformin; H2-blockers and antacids, including Pepcid, Prilosec, Tagamet, Zantac, Nexium and Tums.
** Anesthesia, particularly nitrous oxide (so-called laughing gas), during surgery or dental procedures.
Q: Is there a link to heart problems?
A: B-12 deficiency may cause an increase in homocysteine, a measurement in blood tests linked to heart disease, but the link has not been proved, experts say.
Q: What are the symptoms of B-12 deficiency?
A: Fatigue, a loss of appetite, a sore mouth; a red or sore tongue; muscle weakness; problems with walking; tingling in feet and hands; depression, dementia or memory loss; hallucinations, psychosis and personality changes.
Q: What are serious consequences of B-12 deficiency?
A: Memory loss and leg paralysis
Q: How is it diagnosed?
A: With blood or urine tests. The blood test is more widely used, but it can be inaccurate as much as half the time. The urinary test is known as the UMMA, for urinary methylmalonic acid.
Q: What do the tests cost?
A: About $35 for the blood test and $90 to $200 for the UMMA at many doctors' offices and medical centers. You can order the UMMA for $90 — and without a doctor's prescription — from a company in Cincinnati, Ohio. It requests your doctor's name so he or she can be sent a copy of your test results. For details, call the Norman Clinical Laboratory, (800) 397-7408;Norman Clinical Laboratory, Inc..
Q: What's the best way to treat B-12 deficiency?
A: You have a choice of pills or shots. Some experts say shots are the best way to treat those who are deficient, at least initially.
Q: What do the pills and shots cost?
A: Shots cost $1.25 each; pills cost about $1 for a month's supply.
Q: Does insurance cover them?
A: It varies.
Q: How much B-12 should you get each day?
A: You need only 2.4 micrograms a day if you are 14 or older, but you need much more — 1,000 micrograms a day — if you are deficient.
Q: What are the best food sources of B-12?
A: Mollusks, such as clams; liver and wild salmon; venison; and baked snapper. For vegetarians, numerous products are fortified with B-12, including soy and rice milk, and cereals.
SOURCES: Sally Pacholok and Dr. Jeffrey Stuart; Eric Norman, Ph.D., Norman Clinical Laboratory; Katherine Tucker, Ph.D., senior scientist, Tufts University; Dr. Ralph Carmel, director of research, Department of Medicine, New York Methodist Hospital and Weill Medical College, Cornell University; Suzanne Havala Hobbs, registered dietitian, University of North Carolina; Dr. Howard Markel, medical historian, University of Michigan; Dr. Robert Lisak, chief of neurology, Wayne State University School of Medicine and Detroit Medical Center; Dr. Jeffrey Halter, chief of geriatrics, University of Michigan
For more news or to subscribe, please visit TheState.com : South Carolina news, sports, jobs, homes, cars