B12 Deficiency

Where Does My Body Get B-12?

Diet

B12 is naturally found in animal foods including fish, milk and milk products, eggs, meat, and poultry. But, your ability to absorb the B vitamins from food decreases as you age because the production of acids that release the B 12 from protein decreases with aging. Other factors—reliance on acid suppressing agents, gastric disorders or surgery, certain prescription medications, dysfunction of intrinsic factor, etc.—can also interfere with your body’s ability to absorb B12.

Oral tablets

While there are many B vitamin tablets available on the market, vitamin B 12 is very poorly absorbed into the body by oral means. Blood levels of B 12 increase only slightly after passing through the digestive system.

B12 injections

Doctors have relied on B 12 shots for years to treat serious B12 deficiencies. While most of the vitamin B 12 from large intramuscular doses is lost in the urine, injections have still traditionally been the best method of treatment. The shots, however, can be embarrassing, difficult to provide for some patients who are elderly or living alone, painful, and expensive if provided by a health care professional.

What Are Symptoms of B12 Deficiency?

These are just some of the characteristic signs of vitamin B12 deficiency, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Fatigue, weakness, nausea, constipation, irritability, incontinence, dementia, numbness or tingling in the hands and feet, loss of appetite, paleness, shortness of breath…

Untreated, the symptoms can become permanent and lead to abnormalities of growth and mental retardation in children and severe systemic disorders in adults.

Clinical Manifestations of Vitamin B12 Deficiency

If I Already Take B12, Could I Still Be Deficient?

The dietary absorption of vitamin B12 is complex. It’s not just a matter of swallowing a bunch of it (dietary or supplemental) and letting the guts do the work. There is something called “intrinsic factor” which is made in certain cells in the stomach that must be present in order for B12 to be absorbed at a point in the very end of the small intestine (the ileum).

The main sources of B12 include meat, eggs, and dairy products. Acids in the stomach separate the B 12 from the protein source, at which point it must combine with intrinsic factor. The vitamin B 12 /intrinsic factor complex travels through the intestine and is absorbed in the terminal ileum by cells with specific receptors for the complex. The absorbed complex is then transported via plasma and stored in the liver. The interruption of one or any combination of these steps places a person at risk of developing deficiency.

In most cases, vitamin B12 deficiency is due to an inability of the intestine to absorb the vitamin, which can happen in several ways.

1. As we age or become overly reliant on acid suppressing agents like antacids, our ability to produce gastric acids in the stomach decreases, meaning that the B 12 is less likely to be released from its food source.
2. Deficiency may result from an autoimmune disease that reduces the production or blocks the action of intrinsic factor, or from other diseases that result in intestinal malabsorption. The most frequent underlying cause of vitamin B12 deficiency is pernicious anemia, which is associated with decreased production of intrinsic factor.
3. Also, abdominal surgery may cause B 12 deficiency in several ways. Gastrectomy, for example, eliminates the site of intrinsic factor production. Blind loop syndrome results in competition for vitamin B 12 by bacterial overgrowth in the lumen of the small intestine. And surgical resection of the ileum eliminates the site of vitamin B12 absorption.
4. Other causes of vitamin B-12 deficiency include pancreatic insufficiency, fish tapeworm infection—in which the parasite competes for B-12—and severe Crohn’s disease, which results in reduced absorption of B12 in the intestine.

TriVita Sublingual – The Best Source of Vitamin B

The key to fighting B12 deficiency is TriVita’s sublingual delivery method—that simply means that you put a great tasting, quick dissolving tablet under your tongue where it can speed the vitamins directly into your bloodstream—instead of getting lost in your digestive system.

Researchers Delpre & Stark studied patients with B12 deficiency to see if B12 can be absorbed by holding a tablet under the tongue. The theory behind sublingual is that the mucous membranes under the tongue are efficient at absorbing certain molecules. 5 patients had pernicious anemia, 7 were vegetarians, and 2 had Crohn’s disease (which can prevent the absorption of B-12 in the ileum). The patients held two 1,000 mcg B-12 tablets (equaling 2,000 mcg/day), under their tongues until completely dissolved. This was done for 7 to 12 days. Average serum B-12 levels went from 127.9 ± 42.6 to 515.7 ± 235. All patients’ serum B-12 normalized. There were no side effects and all patients preferred this to injections. From the article, Sublingual therapy for cobalamin deficiency as an alternative to oral and parenteral cobalamin supplementation Published in Lancet, August 1999

TriVita Sublingual B-12 was originally formulated and patented by Dr. Alfred Libby. Dr. Libby, M.D. holds five doctorates and is recognized as one of the world’s foremost authorities on therapeutic nutrition. Dr. Libby’s medical background in biochemistry and nutrition science includes an association with Nobel Prize Laureate, Dr. Linus Pauling.

TriVita works hard to ensure that you get the safest, freshest, and most effective sublingual tablets available on the market today. Each box of Dr. Libby’s original, patented Sublingual B12, B-6 including Folic Acid is made under the strictest quality controls in the nutritional supplement industry. All manufacturing and laboratory processes meet or exceed the most current Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) as published by the Food and Drug Administration in March of 2003. TriVita also has a Professional Medical Advisory Board to assure safe, effective, and unique solutions to TriVita’s products and to life’s health challenges.

TriVita knows that the results of B12 deficiency can be both devastating and deadly, and that is why we have placed so much care into the making of this revolutionary product. Dr. Libby’s original, patented Sublingual B12, B-6 including Folic Acid has helped millions of people over the years. To date, over 11 million boxes have been sold!

Click here to see 50+ TriVita products dedicated to helping people pursue healthy living

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