Contents:
- Medical Video: Benefits Of B Vitamins | Critical For Good Health
- Benefits of vitamin B12 for the body
- 1. Maintain bone health and prevent osteoporosis
- 2. Improve mood and reduce symptoms of depression
- 3. Maintain heart health
- 4. Prevent anemia
- 5. Reducing the risk of macular degeneration
- 6. Prevent dementia
- 7. Prevent birth defects
Medical Video: Benefits Of B Vitamins | Critical For Good Health
One vitamin that plays an important role in maintaining a healthy body is vitamin B12. Unfortunately, unlike some vitamins that can be produced by the body, you have to get vitamin B12 from daily food (mainly from meat, fish, and milk) or from supplements. For adults in general, the recommended daily intake of vitamin B12 is around 2.4 mcg while more pregnant and lactating women need more. Indeed, what are the benefits of vitamin B12 for health?
Benefits of vitamin B12 for the body
In the body, vitamin B12 supports the normal function of nerve cells, the formation of red blood cells, until the formation of DNA. The following are some of the benefits of vitamin B12 for the body.
1. Maintain bone health and prevent osteoporosis
Research conducted on more than 2,500 adults shows the fact that people who are deficient in vitamin B12 have lower bone density. Low bone density makes bones easily fragile, increasing your risk of osteoporosis.
2. Improve mood and reduce symptoms of depression
Vitamin B12 works to metabolize serotonin, a hormone in the brain that is responsible for stabilizing emotions and creating a feeling of calm and happiness. Therefore, someone who is deficient in vitamin B12 is more prone to experience mood swing and against the risk of depression.
Other studies have found that taking antidepressant drugs coupled with the intake of vitamin B12 supplements reduces the severity of depressive symptoms during relapse, compared with depressed patients treated with antidepressants only.
3. Maintain heart health
Another benefit of vitamin B12 is maintaining heart health. This vitamin helps reduce levels of homocysteine (amino acids) that are too high. High homocysteine is one of the main risk factors for heart disease. Increased levels of homocysteine that are too high can damage the lining of the arteries and make it easier to form blood clots that can later clog the lungs, brain and heart.
There is some evidence that research also states that vitamin B12 can help control cholesterol levels and high blood pressure. In addition, vitamin B12 is also able to control the buildup of harmful plaques in the vessels (atherosclerosis).
4. Prevent anemia
Vitamin B12 works to help the body produce healthy red blood cells. That's why adequate vitamin B12 intake can prevent anemia. Anemia is a condition of lack of blood characterized by general symptoms such as weakness, fatigue, lethargy, and pale skin.
5. Reducing the risk of macular degeneration
Macular degeneration is a vision disorder associated with aging, so it is more common in older people.
Quoted from Healthline, the researchers found evidence that routine taking vitamin B12 supplements can reduce homocysteine. Besides increasing the risk of heart disease, too high homocysteine can also increase the risk of macular degeneration.
The study was conducted on five thousand women aged 40 years and over for seven years. One group was given a placebo pill, while the other group was given a combination of vitamins B12, B6, and folic acid. As a result, groups that were given vitamin B12, B6, and folic acid decreased the risk of macular degeneration by 34 percent lower and 41 percent lower for more severe types.
6. Prevent dementia
Vitamin B12 supports the normal functioning of brain nerve cells, thus preventing shrinkage of brain size (atrophy) that occurs due to the death of nerves (neurons).One study shows the fact that strengthens that lack of vitamin B12 levels can worsen memory.
The healthier, more numerous, and the stronger the connection between neurons in your brain, the lower your risk of experiencing memory loss related to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and dementia.A study in people with dementia in the early phase showed that a combination of vitamin B12 and supplements of omega-3 fatty acids helped slow memory decline.
7. Prevent birth defects
Another benefit of vitamin B12 is that it helps support the health of your pregnancy. Research shows that the fetal brain and nervous system require adequate levels of vitamin B12 from the mother to develop properly.
Lack of vitamin B12 in early pregnancy can increase the risk of birth defects, such as neural tube defects.Pregnant women with vitamin B12 levels lower than 250 mg / dL are three times more likely to give birth to children with birth defects. Meanwhile, pregnant women whose vitamin B12 levels are below 150 mg / dL have a five times higher risk than women whose daily vitamin B12 intake is sufficient.
In addition, vitamin B12 deficiency can also cause premature birth or miscarriage.
