Hey guys in this week's video we are going to talk about vitamin b12 deficiency symptoms we're
going to be talking about signs and symptoms we're going to be talking about what causes vitamin b12
deficiencies we're going to be talking about how we actually diagnose it and also vitamin
b12 deficiency treatment and also vitamin b12 boosting foods so what foods should be eating so
stay tuned we're gonna go through all of it so welcome to my channel if you haven't been here
before we talk about everything healthcare and medical here on the channel and most importantly
all of the information that we give on the channel is always evidence-based so you know you can trust
the information we've given you also please remember in all our videos the whole video is
chaptered in the description below so at any point you want to find a specific piece of information
feel free to click on the description and click on that relevant chapter however as i always say
make sure you watch the whole video because it's going to make you a bit of a pro at the end of it
lastly before we begin if you find anything helpful in this week's video
please don't forget to click that like button because it's going to help me and it's going to
help the video to grow to a much larger audience now let's begin okay so first of all what is
vitamin b12 vitamin b12 is a nutrient that we all need to keep our nerve and body cells healthy and
active now if you've seen any of my other videos which i do have a video on iron deficiency anemia
which obviously means a deficiency of iron when we have b12 deficiency anemia again it basically
means you have a deficiency of vitamin b12 simple as that now a long-term vitamin b12 deficiency
can cause problems with our red blood cell size you see one of the things that b12 does
is it actually regulates the size of our red blood cells and if we don't have enough of it
our red blood cells can become really big and this is known as megablastic anemia okay which
basically means that they've become really big these blood cells okay now some people are more
prone to becoming b12 depression sometimes again it's just age that can cause it but certain
dietary requirements because then if you're like vegan it can increase your risk of becoming b12
efficient also certain medicines can increase your risk and also if you drink a lot of alcohol
these can all increase your risk of getting a b12 deficiency now without b12 we can have
long-term problems as well one of which is such as heart failure as an increase in your risk of heart
failure and also another problem that you can get with b12 efficiency is nerve damage as well now
one of the main causes of b12 deficiency is caused by something known as pernicious anemia pernicious
anemia is when our body doesn't create enough proteins which are known as intrinsic factors in
our stomach that actually absorb and take in the b12 so basically when we have finished anemia we
can't make these proteins that actually absorb this b12 in okay that means that if you have
pernicious anemia and you take a b12 supplement let's say for example a tablet you're not going
to absorb it you are just gonna it's just gonna go through your system and it's gonna be excreted
okay so with pernicious anemia the only actual treatment for it is an injection of vitamin b12
but we will go through that a little later on so pernicious anemia is our main cause of b12
deficiency but as i mentioned slightly just before it certain other things can increase our risk as
well so for example restrictive diets if you're vegan or vegetarian it can increase your risk
of a b12 deficiency certain medicines if you're taking them for example metformin this can reduce
the absorption of b12 there are other medicines as well that can potentially do this as well certain
conditions such as ibd such as crohn's and colitis these can cause malabsorption where we don't
actually absorb enough of the nutrients and the vitamins that are needed high alcohol intake again
this can affect it as well which again is going to affect those intrinsic factors as the high alcohol
and it's going to stop it from absorbing so these are the other factors that can actually cause a
b12 deficiency but pernicious anemia is probably the most common but these lifestyle factors are
also very important as well okay so now that we're done with the basics and the science behind what
is vitamin b12 deficiency next thing we're going to talk about the signs and symptoms of vitamin
b12 deficiency okay so you now have to remember we spoke about the red blood cells being massive and
this basically means that they have a much larger well smaller surface area because they're so big
this means that they can carry less oxygen and when we can carry less oxygen it's going to then
result in some really telltale symptoms which i've wrote down in typical abraham philosophy
style for you all that i love to do so the first symptom is tiredness okay tiredness is the most
important thing the main symptom that we're going to get from vitamin b12 deficiency next
we've got lester g and lester g is basically where you don't have the energy or you just
can't really be bothered doing stuff which you used to really maybe really enjoy before
as well but you just don't have the energy anymore to do that so that's lethargy i guess they go
ahead and handle tightness the other thing that sometimes people get is a headache again remember
we're going to be supplying less oxygen so it is quite likely you'll get headache these symptoms
usually all come together by the way you might also get a loss of appetite or indigestion okay
now if anyone's getting these sort of symptoms symptoms four and five loss of avocado indigestion
and they're not getting these to these three i'd be more concerned about that to be honest
to speak to someone and to be quite honest with you if you're getting any of these symptoms you
need to speak to a healthcare professional but if you're just getting the two of them and not the
other three then it might probably not be a b12 deficiency but it's still really really important
to speak to a healthcare professional because any loss of appetite or any indigestion and
you haven't spoke to your healthcare professional about it can be a sign of other things for example
the first thing that comes to my mind is you know cancer symptoms and hopefully it will not
be that and i don't want to scare you all but it's also not a joke and we need to take these sort of
symptoms seriously but these are the main symptoms of a vitamin b12 deficiency tiredness less degree
headaches loss of appetite and indigestion please remember those and now we will move to the next
scene now as i explained these are pretty general symptoms that we can all experience from time to
time for a range of different reasons part of normal life like working an extra shift which
causes tiredness or a headache or eating too much spicy food and it might cause indigestion
but if and when these symptoms become long-term or severe then you should definitely speak to
your healthcare professional for advice and as i explained earlier as well if you're getting sort
of loss of appetite and digestion anything like that always speak to your healthcare
professional now with the b12 deficiency as i explained earlier we're going to be carrying less
oxygen so it's quite normal as well for you to be a lot more short of breath during usual activities
you might also have pale skin that can sometimes happen as well you might also have a more rapid
heart rate and also feeling a bit dizzy sometimes that can be quite normal as well
so those are the sort of symptoms to look out for as well but please do remember if you ever
experience any chest pain with any of this please call the emergency services straight away whatever
it is in your country 99991 whatever it is call them straight away as it could be something else
now if you remember back to when i was talking about what b12 is responsible for one of the
things that vitamin b12 is massively responsible for is keeping our nerves nice and healthy and in
working order one of the things that i see quite commonly in patients with vitamin b12 deficiencies
is pins and needles okay so that loss of sensation again this is due to that deficiency of b12 so the
nerves aren't working right and patients sometimes get a lot of sense and pins and needles okay other
things that they can get as well because remember the nerve system is related sometimes patients can
get visual disturbances sometimes they can also get memory problems or just forgetting things so
these are quite common if you're getting any of these sort of symptoms again you need to speak
to your healthcare professional but again remember it could be a sign of a b12 deficiency if it goes
hand-in-hand with the other symptoms that we've been speaking about and other symptoms to be
aware of which are less common but it's good to be aware of with b12 efficiency sometimes you can get
increased mouth ulcers you can also get a sore red tongue and sometimes you can get a yellow tinge
to your skin i will leave all of these in the description below please remember if you ever feel
like you have a b12 deficiency and you're showing any of these symptoms you need to speak to your
healthcare professional that is the most important thing because remember when i said earlier about
the causes the main cause of a b12 deficiency is usually due to pernicious anemia which is
where we don't have those intrinsic factors to absorb it so if you do have penicious anemia
and you think oh it's okay i'll take a vitamin supplement i'll take some b12 supplements it's
not gonna work because you're not gonna absorb it just like you're not absorbing it from your food
you're not gonna absorb those tablets so you need to speak to a healthcare professional because
vitamin b12 is so vital for your body to function healthily for your cells for your nerve cells they
all need there and i hope this all makes sense okay so i hope you find this information helpful
so far if you found any of this information new please don't forget to click that like button it's
going to help me and it's going to help the video grow to a larger audience so more people can learn
about b12 deficiencies so the next thing i want to talk about is let's say you've gone to your
surgery you've gone to healthcare professional what are they going to do well they're going to
take a full history of you find out what symptoms you're having find out how long it's been going
on for check your lifestyle check your diet all these sort of things that we spoke about earlier
and they will do a blood test as well blood test is one of the most important parts because they're
going to do a full blood count they're going to check you for it check your b12 and also they
might check you know for your intrinsic factors as well to see if they're negative or positive okay
so that's just a bit of a outline of what's going to happen when you speak to a healthcare
professional now this type of blood test helps reveal a wealth of information on your blood cells
including their average size the concentration of them in your blood and how much hemoglobin they
can carry although it's important to note that in some cases even though you have a b12 deficiency
your b12 blood results may come back as normal this is because most blood tests are done on a
routine basis are only able to measure the total amount of b12 in your blood now this is quite
rare but it's important to remember because the b12 blood test cannot differentiate between the
active and the inactive form so let's say if you do a blood test and it's in the normal range it
might actually be in the abnormal range because we can't see how much of the active and inactive b12
you have in your blood and conversely you can also have a low b12 result even if you're not actually
deficient sometimes you see this in pregnant eddies or people taking the contraceptive pill
so what your healthcare professional will then do is use a range of different symptoms and
history taking that they've done on you to see if you actually have a b12 deficiency or not
and it's also common practice for your healthcare professional to do other checks as well especially
if you're symptomatic let's say to do tests on your liver to do tests on your thyroid because
all of these have very similar symptoms as well so please bear that mind as well
don't be shocked if you're getting blood tests for your liver or your thyroid even though you're
thinking it might be a b12 deficiency this is completely normal to be tested okay so now let's
move on to treatments of a vitamin b12 deficiency so in terms of treatments we have two forms of
medication that we can give which is b12 basically we've got tablet form which is cyanocobalamin
that's the one that we prescribe here in the uk and we also have the injectable form which does
come inside of cobalamin but here in the uk we'll give hydroxycobalamin because it usually lasts a
bit longer so that's the two forms now please do remember when you are getting prescribed a b12
supplement let's say whether it's a tablet or an injection we really need to check for
that pernicious anemia i know i spoke about it a bit earlier please remember
if you have penicious anemia and you're taking a b12 supplement as a tablet
you're not going to absorb it just like you're not absorbing it from your food because you don't
have those intrinsic factors to take in that b12 okay it's just going to get excreted out
therefore if you have penicious anemia you will need an injection whether it's hydroscopy
injection an intramuscular injection or a sign a covalent injection that is what you will need
okay because the tablets just aren't going to do it for you also please remember that when you have
pernicious anemia it is generally lifelong so you will need to continue with the top-ups of
the injections but if your b12 deficiency is caused by dietary or lifestyle factors and you
don't have pernicious anemia which means that you have the intrinsic factors most likely it
will get treated with the tablet form of b12 and then afterwards your healthcare professional will
advise you on lifestyle and diet just to keep your b12 at the level now when it comes to foods that
are rich in vitamin b12 good sources can be found in fish eggs meat and dairy products and if you
follow a vegan diet soy products nutritional yeast fortified cereals and fortified breads are also
options okay so i really feel like we're getting somewhere now we've spoke about b12 deficiency why
it happens what it does the signs the symptoms of b12 deficiency and the treatments but please
do remember please do not avoid treatment if you have a b12 deficiency it's really important it's
treated properly because the lack of b12 long term can increase your risk of heart failure it can
cause brain problems it can cause nerve problems it can even cause an increased infertility
and even in pregnant ladies as well it can cause problems for the baby in terms of their spinal
cord and brain development as well so b12 is a very important vitamin that we need okay so when
it comes to seeking medical attention as i said earlier if you think you have a b12 deficiency
you need to speak to your healthcare professional it is so important because vitamin b12 is critical
for so many things that we spoke about in this video so if you think you have a b12 deficiency
if you have any of these sort of signs or symptoms a box is going to be here for you
pause the video we've already gone through these signs and symptoms but pause it now if you want
and give it a read if you think you have any of these symptoms speak to your healthcare
professional so they can do the correct history taking examination blood tests everything you
need to do to check what is causing it that is the most important thing that you take home
from this video please don't think you can just treat a b12 deficiency on its own because you
cannot because if you haven't done a blood test to check for your intrinsic factors it is completely
pointless to take a b12 supplement so please don't fall for what everyone's telling you there's a lot
of misinformation out there about this sort of stuff but it's really important you find out if
you have pernicious anemia or not that is the most important thing also please do remember if you are
pregnant and you think you have a b12 deficiency as well please please please speak to a healthcare
professional again it's really important it's checked out and the levels are put into the
correct range so it looks like we've come to the end of this week's video you are now a vitamin b12
pro you now know all about what visible b12 does you now know about the symptoms of vitamin b12
but you shouldn't see the signs you now know about the treatments and when to see medical
advice so you're a bit of a pro on it so tell your friends tell your family tell your loved ones tell
whoever you think might have a b12 deficiency and tell them to go and speak to the healthcare
professional i really hope that you found this information helpful if you've got any of your own
kind of symptoms that you'd like to leave as well leave it in the comments below i'd love to read it
and i'm sure other people would love to read it too they might be able to relate to it it'd be
really helpful actually as i always say at the end of every single video please do always remember
that you're awesome and i'll see you next week hey guys thanks for watching this week's video make
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