The Signs & Symptoms of B12 Deficiency

A 40-year old reporter loses his ability to write, falls when he attempts to walk, and becomes so confused that his wife suspects early-onset Alzheimer’s … A beautiful, normal eight-month-old baby gradually loses her speech, stops responding to her parents and eventually can’t even sit up by herself … A 20-year-old woman becomes severely depressed and attempts to kill herself …  A ballet dancer undergoes cosmetic surgery and ends up nearly unable to walk ... A 69-year-old woman develops balance problems, falls and fractures her hip … A 38-year-old woman condemned to life in a wheelchair after gastric bypass surgery … An 86-year-old man becomes delusional and kills his wife … A 54-year-old woman experiences paranoid delusions and violent outbursts, coupled with symptoms her doctor diagnoses as multiple sclerosis … A 4-year-old boy is diagnosed with autism … A 73-year-old whose doctors attribute his repeated falls to old age or possible “mini-strokes” … A young woman unable to concei...

This disorder isn’t very well-understood. Patients who have this problem experience severe pain in certain areas of the body, called ‘pain points.’ The pain is excruciating and unbearable for some and it is said that it is a result of the brain over-reacting to painful stimuli. Other symptoms include confusion, trouble concentrating, dizziness, depression, sleeping problems, etc. These should sounds very familiar by now. Therefore, you can see that numerous conditions present with symptoms very similar to those caused by B12 deficiency. In addition to keeping patients untreated and at risk for permanent damage to their body, doctors cause loss of extremely large amounts of money when they misdiagnose these disorders. Most of these conditions need chronic therapy by expensive drugs and sometimes even hospitalization. Misdiagnosis is thus costing us our health as well large sums of money.

As its name implies, this condition causes fatigue, dull pains and feeling tired all the time despite getting enough sleep. B12 deficiency causes the same, remember?

Parkinson’s disease causes problems in normal daily activities such as buttoning up one’s shirt, walking, etc – basically impairing your coordinated movements. When B12 deficiency affects your nervous system, it can cause very similar symptoms.

Diabetes causes damage to your nerves, causes tingling and sensations of pins and needles (these are the ones most commonly seen but just about any nerve can be affected causing symptoms related to the nerve involved.  For example, if diabetes affects the nerve that supplies the muscles of your eyes, you’ll get double vision and problems in moving your eyes). Again, B12 deficiency could do that too.

Another auto-immune condition, this disease eventually rips of the myelin sheaths off of your nerves, very much like B12 deficiency does. Needless to say, it causes very similar symptoms. This disease affects many people,  usually in their 20’s and 30’s, comes all of a sudden in attacks withcompletely symptomless periods. It causes walking problems, deterioration of vision, failure to balance oneself, etc – pretty much all the same as those caused by B12 deficiency.  Interestingly, many people who have MS also have a B12 deficiency.

This is an autoimmune disease in which the lining of the GIT is damaged and it results in diarrhoea, abdominal pain, blood in stools, indigestion, malabsorption, etc – all very similar to those caused by a B12 deficiency.

This is a condition somewhat poorly misunderstood by doctors when it comes to how and why it begins and affects certain individuals. It is characterised by bouts of diarrhoea or constipation or both. In addition, vague symptoms such as indigestion, bloating, abdominal pain, etc are also felt. These symptoms are very real but there’s literally no cause within the body that points at why the patient has these issues. You might remember that B12 deficiency affects your gastrointestinal tract (because these cells are rapidly growing) and causes similar vague symptoms.

When your brain is affected by B12 deficiency, you could develop symptoms such as memory loss and failure to concentrate – something called dementia. Alzheimer’s also closely mimics B12 deficiency, owing to its manifestations of a decreased short term memory, irritability, and personality changes.

Since low B12 causes high homocysteine levels (which leads to atherosclerosis or thickening of your blood vessels), you might suffer from heart attack and heart failure, having all the symptoms of heart disease. In addition, you might have strokes and get permanent damage to your brain.

Depression, lethargy, excessive somnolence (sleeping too much), etc – those are the symptoms of hypothyroidism.  But even low B12 levels can cause the same problems, as you already know. In addition, those who have pernicious anaemia are at higher risk of getting hypothyroidism – they’re linked both ways!

Low levels of vitamin B12 affect all the systems of the body, as shows below: The Gastrointestinal Tract : Bloating, indigestion, constipation, diarrhoea, Abdominal discomfort or pain, oral ulcers, gingival bleeding (bleeding from the gums), loss of appetite, weight loss, thickening of the tongue and malabsorption. The Cardiovascular System : Chest pain, heart attacks, stroke, increased heart rate, deep venous thrombosis (a condition in which clots form in the veins of the legs, causing pain and putting the patient at risk of dying suddenly due to breakage of these clots and transfer to the blood vessels of the lung, blocking them in turn and causing respiratory failure) and enlargement of the heart. The Nervous System : Altered sensations, depression, psychosis, mania, confusion, fatigue, suicidal thought, anger, phobias, apathy, irritability, delusions, hallucinations, loss of memory, exaggerated reflexes, tremors, cramps, numbness, pins and needles sensations and paralysis. The Immu...