From Joseph Mercola, DO
When you experience symptoms like fatigue, numbness, faint nausea, foggy vision or an increased tendency toward forgetfulness, you might entertain many different scenarios. Some of them might be scary, but a possibility you may not consider is that of a vitamin B12 (aka cobalamin) deficiency.
Nearly half of the American population has less-than-stellar blood levels of vitamin B12, but the symptomology is so varied that it’s hard to pin down just how many people suffer from it, according to Harvard Health, which describes the “sneaky” symptomology behind a 62-year-old man’s seemingly unrelated symptoms, developed over two months. According to his case report, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, he had:
Numbness and a ‘pins and needles’ sensation in his hands, had trouble walking, experienced severe joint pain, began turning yellow, and became progressively short of breath … It could have been worse — a severe vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to deep depression, paranoia and delusions, memory loss, incontinence, loss of taste and smell, and more.
It’s problematic that symptoms like the above may cause people to focus on treating them instead of investigating the source of the problem. Sooner or later, though, unless it’s met head-on, a shortage of vitamin B12 in your system can be so devastating that serious disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Crohn’s disease and irreversible brain damage could take their toll.
