Vitamin B₁₂ for Vital Health

Nervous? Stressed? Chronic aches and pains? Sleep problems? A superior form of vitamin B₁₂ called methylcobalamin may be helpful for these situations and more. Methylcobalamin is sublingual, meaning it simply dissolves under your tongue, and appears to have advantages over all other forms of B₁₂, including injections given by your doctor. For most people, methylcobalamin absorbs readily and keeps circulating longer for consistent health benefits.

Importance of Vitamin B₁₂

Vitamin B₁₂ is a water-soluble vitamin necessary for energy production and for the nervous system, where it is needed to produce myelin, the fatty substance that forms a protective sheath around nerves. B₁₂ also supports the production of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that helps with memory and learning and is involved in the synthesis of red blood cells and the genetic materials, DNA and RNA. It can help alleviate depression and increase energy. Vitamin B₁₂ works with folic acid to control homocysteine levels (homocysteine can dramatically increase risk of heart disease and stroke).

Many elderly people suffering from neurological impairment find B₁₂ supplementation improves their cognitive function. Studies show that supplemental vitamin B₁₂ is absorbed better by elderly people than B₁₂ found in food. Shift workers who have trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep can also benefit from sublingual methylcobalamin. Poor sleep quality is probably why they have greater susceptibility to illnesses, including cancer, and have more accidents than other members of the population.

In their new book, How to Prevent and Treat Cancer with Natural Medicine (Riverhead Books, 2002), Drs. Murray, Pizzorno, Birdsall and Reilly comment on the role of methylcobalamin and sleep: "Inside our brain is a kind of master clock that coordinates the timing of many physiological functions. One important role of sleep is to help orchestrate these various biological rhythms. We achieve optimal health if we keep our rhythms in sync...Several studies have shown that methylcobalamin a special form of vitamin B₁₂ is an effective treatment to improve sleep in shift workers as well as in people with excessive daytime sleepiness, restless nights and frequent night time awakenings. The subjects taking methylcobalamin experience improved sleep quality and increased daytime alertness and concentration, and in some cases they also reported improved mood."

Why the Need for B₁₂?

Vitamin B₁₂ deficiency is probably far more common than realized. In fact, our B₁₂ levels decrease every year we age. "Age-related 12> deficiency is associated with hearing loss, memory impairment and psychiatric disorders, along with heart disease and stroke. Alzheimer disease (AD) patients have less B₁₂ in their spinal fluid than people without the disease. They also have less SAMe the substance required to convert cobalamin (B₁₂) to methylcobalamin, the active form," writes Terri Mitchell in Life Extension Magazine (August 1999).

Sublingual B₁₂ as Effective as Injection

Kathryn Slayter of the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre at Dalhousie University has presented the results of a comparative study of sublingual vitamin B₁₂ supplementation versus vitamin B₁₂ injection. Low levels of vitamin B₁₂ have been associated with anemia in eight to 12 per cent of HIV-infected people. After patients were screened at an HIV clinic for decreased vitamin B₁₂ levels, six subjects were enrolled in the study and given either injections or sublingual B₁₂. After one month of therapy, vitamin B₁₂ levels had returned to normal in all subjects. The researchers concluded that sublingual vitamin B₁₂ offers a safe and effective alternative to vitamin B₁₂ injection.