There are many unpleasant vitamin B12 deficiency symptoms to deal with, such as weakness, chronic fatigue, digestive disorders, etc. Many of these symptoms are widely known to people, but what they do not know are the possible causes of Vitamin B12 deficiency. Let’s take a look at 7 possible causes of it.
- Too much alcohol
The problem is that no matter how much of vitamin B12 you consume, it won’t get absorbed by your body, lest you produce a protein, called intrinsic factor. This protein is produced in our intestine. Alcohol greatly affects intestine and brings down the production of this protein.
- Certain drugs
Certain drugs can lower your intestine acidity. If it happens over a long period of time, it can lead to decrease in intrinsic factor production and vitamin B12 absorption.
- Atrophic gastritis
This condition often times affects elderly people. At this, the intestine gets thinned down and the production of the protein, used for vitamin B12 absorption drops down.
- Small intestine conditions
Among the causes of vitamin B12 deficiency symptoms, there are various diseases or surgeries on intestine. If a part of intestine is being cut out, this reduces or eliminates the production of intrinsic factor and stops the absorption of vitamin B12.
- Pernicious anemia
Again, this condition causes the drop in production of the intrinsic factor and prevents the absorption of vitamin B12 from foods.
- Vegetarianism
Vitamin B12 is mostly found in animal foods, and mainly in meats. So, even those vegans, who consume milk and eggs, still do not obtain enough of Vitamin B12 from natural foods. The same is true about babies, who feed on breast milk of their vegan mothers. They may experience vitamin B12 deficiency with all the following negative health consequences.
- Diet problems
Sometimes, people consume too much of highly processed food. Vitamin B12 is mostly contained in natural, organic foods and meats. If you do not have enough of such food in your diet, you run a risk of developing vitamin B12 deficiency.
It has to be mentioned that Vitamin B12 deficiency does not develop over the night. The symptoms of its deficiency may not manifest right away. Nevertheless, such deficiency may gradually undermine your health and lead to various health problems. That is why the causes of vitamin B12 deficiency symptoms should be widely known and timely the deficiency timely treated.
You might also want to read about vitamin B deficiency symptoms.