some causes of B-12 absorption problems

[Guest guest]

Lately, I have come across information about some causes of things that can

cause trouble in absorbing B-12.

I decided to share it since there has been a thread in the past concerned

about B-12. Of course, there are probably lots of reasons that I haven't

listed here. This is sorta long and kinda off subject but this is the main

vitamin that us vegans supposidly have to think about.

 

(most of below can be found in the books Hepatitis Liver disease by Melissa

Palmer, and

Arthritis: don't learn to live with it by Carlton Fredericks)

 

The liver and one's stomach acid are two very important factors for

synthesizing B-12,

but since B-12 is water soluble vitamin that means that even an injured liver

should work good enough but even so some people still have trouble.

 

There are a lot of things that can hurt the liver. Even the infamous

epstien-bar of mononucleosis or worse of the chronic fatigue syndrome can

cause liver damage. Hepatitis A is actually quite common, and it can spread

just person to person, and children tend to be symptomless and have less

hygienic habits therefore they are one of the major routes of transmission of

the disease, but so is contaminated water such as when one travels. Or eating

contaminated foods such as milk, strawberries, pasties, hamburger meat, and

salads and shellfish has a high incidence, so does clams, oysters and

mussels, or eating out and having an infected food worker not wash hands

between defecating and serving you!

 

Also Aflatoxin is a toxic byproduct for a fungus (mold) that commonly poisons

foods such as peanuts, soybeans, corn and rice in some parts of Africa and

Asia because those foods were stored in hot humid conditions for prolong

periods of time which made them prone to mold.

 

Medications that interfere with stomach acid can create a B-12 deficiency.

Such as pepcid, axid, tagament, and zantac or proton pump inhibitors such as

prilosec and prevacid, even antibiotics such as Ciprofloxin or clindamycin

(cleocin) erythroycin, metronidaxole (Flagyl) even oral contraceptives can

cause liver tumors. (so has anabolic steroids for muscle growth).

All NSAIDs (anti-inflamatories and analgesic drugs) have the potential to

cause liver injury. The NSAIDs that are frequently associated with liver

injury are aspirin (ASA), diclofenac (Voltaren) and sulindac (Clinoril). And

neproxen (anaprox) ibuprofen (motrin) have caused acute hepatitis in some

people. and nethotrexate has caused cirrhosis.

Excessive amounts of Acetaminophen (Tylenol) or combining it with alcohol can

cause death due to liver failure. Note: acetaminophen is an active ingredient

in over 200 medications, including Nyquil and Anacin 3.

 

Certain herbs can be bad on the liver such as Buckthorn, comfrey, penny

royal, valerian, mistle toe, Jin Bu Hua, Ma Huang (ephendra), senna, ragwort,

sassafras, Pau d'arco, skullcap, t'u-san-chi!

 

Also an excess of certain vitamins and minerals can damage the liver such as

Iron, because excess Iron is stored in the liver.

 

And of course pesticides, and other poisons even house hold cleaners can

injure a liver.

 

Since alcohol interferes with absorption of vitamin b-12, a vitamin b-12

deficiency could develop if a person consumes an excess amount of alcohol

despite a well-balanced diet. Not to mention a liver damaged by alcohol

unable to assimilate the b-12.

 

Stomach acid is vital for absorbing vitamin b-12. Older people tend to make

less stomach acid and therefore at a risk to b-12 deficiency.

 

It seems that chronically bad food combining can interfere with some people's

ability to make enough stomach hydrochloric acid.

 

Also a deficiency in stomach acid and/or a deficiency in internal production

of a cofactor (intrinsic factor) is needed for absorption, so swallowing a

pill may be unpredictable. IN such a case it is better to get it

intravenously or through a lozenges that is dissolved sublingually (under the

tongue) absorption.

 

Some symptoms of a deficiency include mood swings, irritability, rapid heart

rate, fatigue, short-term memory loss, and sever psychosis. (unfortunately

this list has a lot in common with a less serious problem of hypoglycemia)

B-12 is necessary to activate folate. so a b-12 deficiency tends to cause a

folate deficiency.

 

Generally speaking B-12 deficiency is rare. And our bodies need very little

of it to maintain good health plus our bodies store it for long periods of

time. However being vegan and living in a time where we must scrupulously

clean our foods thus washing away the bacteria that would be on the food we

consume to provide adequate b-12 we need to be careful of our sources.

 

Sorry if I totally bored Y'all, I just kept running into the information so I

thought it was a sign to pass it along. I guess I found it interesting

because I didn't know about the liver being so important for b-12 and

although I knew it was a digestion problem of seniors (the people who usually

get the deficiency despite eating animal oriented foods) I didn't know it was

mainly because of stomach acid deficiency.

 

with best regards

kim aka mamatazz

ps-I consume lots of Red star nutritional yeast and it is in most of my

recipes (the b-12 is one of the few vitamins that is heat stable) I have yet

to try lozenges of B-12 but I am now thinking about it, even though I have no

signs of deficiency.

 

By the way, to protect the liver, I think I will occasionally take some of

the herb " milk thistle " which has been documented to rejuvenate livers.