What is vitamin B-12?
Vitamin B-12 is an important vitamin that you usually get from your food. It is mainly found in meat and dairy products. Vitamin B-12 helps make red blood cells and keeps your nervous system working properly. Vegetarians who do not eat meat or dairy products are at risk for low vitamin B-12 usually about 2 years after they become vegetarians. However, most people who have low vitamin B-12 are not strict vegetarians. Most people with low vitamin B-12 levels have trouble absorbing vitamin B-12 from their stomach or small intestines. What happens if my vitamin B-12 level is low? You might not have any symptoms if your vitamin B-12 level is just a little bit low. However, a very low vitamin B-12 level can cause anemia, depression, dementia or a serious problem with your nervous system. Some people with low vitamin B-12 also have high levels of homocysteine (say: “ho-mo-sis-teen”), an amino acid (a building block of protein) in the blood. If you have both of these problems, you may have a h
Vitamin B-12 is known as the anti-pernicious anemia factor. It is also called the extrinsic factor of Castle. It was first isolated in 1948 from liver as a red crystalline compound which contains cobalt and phosphorus. It is a water soluble vitamin and functions as a coenzyme in metabolism. It is called cobalamin because it contains cobalt. The central structure, which contains cobalt, is referred to as a “corrin” ring system. One type of cobalamin contains cyanide, but in the latest edition of The Review of Physiological Chemistry, (p. 180) by Harper, Rodwell, Mayes and Lange, they say that the “cyanide group as a component of vitamin B-12 is an artifact introduced in the procedure used to isolate the crystalline compound from natural sources. It (cyanide) does not occur in the vitamin molecule as it exists in natural materials.” Cyanide is very toxic and the addition of cyanide to a vitamin does not seem to me to be desirable. It is known that this particular form of the vitamin is e
