Help Fight Vitamin B-12 Deficiency Anemia

What exactly is anemia?

Anemia is a condition in which your blood is low on healthy red blood cells. Without enough healthy red blood cells in circulation, your body can’t get the oxygen it needs so you end up with symptoms like:

• Weakness
• Lightheadedness
• Decreased appetite
• Abdominal pain
• Fatigue
• Pale skin
• Weight loss
• Diarrhea
• Tingling and numbness in the hands and feet

What causes vitamin B-12 deficiency anemia?

B-12 deficiency anemia (Megaloblastic anemia) has a variety of causes:

• Pernicious anemia, an autoimmune disease that interferes with your stomach’s ability to produce intrinsic factor, which must bind with vitamin B-12 until it can be absorbed in the small intestine
• Gastrectomy, gastric bypass surgery, or removal of the last portion of the small intestine where B-12 is absorbed
• Digestive disorders such as bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine or parasitic infections
• A dietary lack of meat, eggs or dairy products – the primary sources for vitamin B-12
• Crohn’s disease
• Pancreatic disorders

Why is B-12 so important?

B-12 is vitally necessary for the proper formation of red blood cells. Blood consists of a liquid called plasma and three types of blood cells:

• White blood cells that help fight infections
• Platelets that help your blood clot after a cut
• Red blood cells that carry oxygen from your lungs to your brain and other organs and tissues. Your body must have oxygenated blood to function – it gives your body its energy

All three types of blood cells are produced by regular cell division in your bone marrow – a red, spongy material located within the cavities of many of your large bones.

If your original cells have an inadequate supply of vitamin B-12, your new red blood cells will be abnormally large and your white blood cells will have abnormal nuclei. Both will be destroyed more rapidly in the bone marrow and fewer will make it into your bloodstream, robbing your body of the oxygen it needs to function properly. Large, dense, oversized red blood cells (RBCs) are seen in vitamin B-12 deficiency anemia.

Vitamin B-12 deficiency anemia develops gradually, allowing the body to adapt so that the anemia may be more severe than the symptoms indicate. Left untreated, serious problems can occur in prolonged and severe anemia. Anemia can lead to secondary organ dysfunction or damage, including heart arrhythmia and congestive heart failure.

How is vitamin B-12 deficiency anemia diagnosed and treated?

Many types of anemia exist, each with its own cause – the cause may be an iron or vitamin deficiency, blood loss, a chronic illness, or a genetic or acquired defect or disease. It may also be a side effect of a medication, so it’s important that you work with your health care provider to confirm that you have anemia, which type of anemia it is, how severe it is and how to properly treat it.

Doctors diagnose vitamin B-12 deficiency anemia through blood tests that measure the level and appearance of red blood cells. In vitamin deficiency anemia, you’ll not only have fewer red blood cells, but the red blood cells that you do have will be large and underdeveloped. In advanced deficiencies, white blood cells and platelets also look abnormal under a microscope.

Vitamin B-12 deficiency anemia can often be successfully treated with supplements. However, in many cases, the anemia will reoccur if vitamin B-12 supplementation is stopped. Anemia is a condition that can have serious consequences if left untreated – but it is also a condition that can be readily managed by current therapies.

What’s the best way to get the B-12 you need?

If your doctor has diagnosed you or you think you may be at risk for a vitamin B-12 deficiency anemia, you need the safest, freshest and most effective B-12 supplement available on the market today.

The key is the TriVita original, patented sublingual delivery method: you put a great-tasting, quick-dissolving tablet under your tongue and the vitamins speed directly into your system. Once there, they can quickly go to work – fighting the potentially devastating effects of anemia.