Should one take vitamin B12 injections for deficiency?

Vitamin B₁₂ deficiency for prolonged periods can cause permanent nervous system damage. It can also cause heart disease, stroke, and brain damage.

Many individuals with severe vitamin B₁₂ deficiency are advised vitamin B₁₂ injections. However, there is an interesting way to look at this.

In the developed world, the diet is rarely deficient in vitamin B₁₂. It is often based on animal foods such as meat and dairy, which are high in vitamin B₁₂. Some of the vegetarian foods are fortified with vitamin B₁₂. So it is uncommon to develop vitamin B₁₂ deficiency in the western world due to insufficient presence of vitamin B₁₂ in diet.

Typically, 6% of the people in the developed world have vitamin B₁₂ deficiency. Most often, it is caused by an inability to absorb vitamin B₁₂ properly in the intestines. Giving vitamin B₁₂-rich foods or supplements by oral root won’t help in such situations. So western medical protocols involve vitamin B₁₂ injections.

In countries such as India, nearly 47% of the people have vitamin B₁₂ deficiency. It is mainly because of vegetarian diets of people as well as non-fortified vegetarian foods. So it is not the malabsorption of vitamin B₁₂ but its inadequate presence in the foods, which is the main cause of its deficiency in India and similar countries.

So people in India are better off trying vitamin B₁₂ supplements first, before resorting to injections. Do discuss this point with your doctor. To learn more about B-vitamins: Everything you want to know about B–vitamins.

First published on: 9th June, 2022
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