Coronavirus: Dr Nighat Arif discusses benefits of vitamins
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Vitamin B12 is a crucial ingredient for the healthy running of one’s body, as it’s needed to make red blood cells. Signs of a deficiency can develop very slowly and could affect a range of body parts. Occasionally a deficiency may be caused by a condition known as pernicious anaemia. What is it and what are the six symptoms warning you may have it?
Bupa explains: “Pernicious anaemia is an autoimmune disease, caused by antibodies from your immune system attacking your own body tissue, which it mistakes as being foreign. This causes inflammation in the lining of your stomach.
“Normally, a protein known as intrinsic factor, which is made in your stomach, attaches to the vitamin B12 released from the food you have eaten and then carries the vitamin through your bowel wall into your blood.
“If you have pernicious anaemia, the stomach cells that produce intrinsic factor may be damaged, meaning vitamin B12 can no longer be absorbed and a deficiency develops, leading to anaemia.”
The health site listed the six symptoms warning a person may be at risk of pernicious anaemia which include:
Feeling very tired
Breathlessness even after a little exercise
Heart palpitations
Headaches
A reduced appetite
A sore mouth and tongue
Causes
In rare cases, pernicious anaemia is passed down through families.
This is called congenital pernicious anaemia.
In adults, symptoms of pernicious anaemia are usually not seen until after age 30. The average age of diagnosis is age 60.
How to treat B12 deficiency anaemia
The treatment for vitamin B12 deficiency depends on what’s causing the condition.
If the B12 deficiency is caused by pernicious anaemia, a course of injections is usually recommended.
There are two types of vitamin B12 injections:
Hydroxocobalamin
Cyanocobalamin
“If your vitamin B12 deficiency is caused by a lack of the vitamin in your diet, you may be prescribed vitamin B12 tablets to take every day between meals,” explains the NHS.
What foods contain B12?
- Good sources of vitamin B12 include:
- Meat
- Salmon and cod
- Milk and other dairy products
- Eggs
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