Category: Nutrition

Around one-quarter of people may have a vitamin B12 deficiency.

Memory and thinking problems can be a sign of vitamin B12 deficiency, research finds.

Similarly, people experiencing a mood disorder, like depression, can also be deficient in vitamin B12.

The body uses vitamin B12 to make red blood cells and to keep the nervous system healthy.

Around one-quarter of people may have a vitamin B12 deficiency

Other, more common signs of vitamin B12 deficiency include feeling tired, experiencing muscle weakness and being constipated.

Memory and thinking problems can strike from an early age.

One study of Colombian children found that children deficient in vitamin B12 were at more than twice the risk of repeating a grade.

Deficient children were also almost twice as likely to be absent from school as those who were not.

The study included 3,156 students aged 5-12 who were attending primary schools in Bogotá, Colombia.

They were tested for a range of nutritional markers, including B12, folate, zinc and vitamin A.

The results showed that 15 percent were marginally deficient in vitamin B12.

Only a deficiency in vitamin B12 was linked to a child having to repeat a grade.

Dr Eduardo Villamor, who led the study, said:

“Vitamin B12 is necessary for adequate brain development.

Deficiency very early in life or in old age has been linked to cognitive and behavioral problems, but it was not known whether it could be related to academic difficulties during school age.

Grade repetition and school absenteeism are important outcomes because they predict school dropout and impair children’s options for educational advancement and development.”

Vitamin B12 deficiency is easy to rectify with supplements or by dietary changes.

Vitamin B12 levels can be boosted through supplementation or by eating foods such as dairy, liver, salmon and eggs.

The study was published in The Journal of Nutrition (Duong et al., 2015).

Taking around 4,000 IU of vitamin D could help to ward off this symptom.

Frequently becoming sick from respiratory infections like colds and the flu can be a sign of vitamin D deficiency, research suggests.

Vitamin D is critical to supporting the immune system and fighting off infection.

Taking around 4,000 IU of vitamin D can help to ward off infections, some studies have found.

One recent study found that taking vitamin D supplements could reduce the risk of infection by 40 percent.

Professor Adit Ginde, the study’s first author, said:

“After studying these patients for a year, we found a 40 percent reduction in acute respiratory illness among those who took higher doses of vitamin D.

Vitamin D can improve the immune system’s ability to fight infections because it bolsters the first line of defense of the immune system.”

The conclusions come from a clinical trial of 107 patients in nursing homes.

Half received high doses of vitamin D supplements (up to around 4,000 IU per day) and the other half lower doses (up to 1,000 IU per day).

They were followed for 12 months to observe the number of acute respiratory infections (ARIs) they suffered.

The results showed that higher doses of vitamin D reduced the risk of ARIs by almost half.

Professor Ginde said:

“This is a potentially life-saving discovery.

There is very little in a doctor’s arsenal to battle ARI, especially since most are viral infections where antibiotics don’t work.

But vitamin D seems able to potentially prevent these infections.”

Taking vitamin D supplements has few risks, although the study did find that the higher level was linked to more falls.

Professor Ginde said:

“If our results are confirmed by a larger trial, high dose vitamin D, ideally using daily dosing to minimize fall risk, has the potential for substantial public health benefit through ARI prevention for the large and growing population of long term care residents.”

Other signs of vitamin D deficiency include fatigue and tiredness, back pain, depression, muscle pain and even hair loss.

The study was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (Ginde et al., 2016).