Your Brain On B Vitamins

Hey! Hey! There you are. I thought I heard you fluttering about in cyber-orbit waiting for the virtual cafe to open. I'm tickled pink that you dropped in to day and as usual, your timing is spot on. Coffee's freshly perked and the array of virtual treats is truly splendiferous today! Help yourself, eh! 

Got another message from my pal, Dr. Al. He's big on keeping you healthy ans so am I. In this message, he's on about Vitamin B. My doctor wants me to take about 1200 mcg daily and I get pretty close. Whatever B12 I get in food is supplemented with a 1000 mcg evening power pill so that ought to do it, eh! Here's what Dr. Al has to say...

Dear Bob,

The constant stream of media stories about the power of vitamin B12 for heart and brain health is great, but it’s not really news. We’ve known the benefits of B12 for years.

To me, the real importance of the stories is that they deal another body blow to modern diet recommendations, which tell us that protein from meat is the enemy of good health.

The story the media should be telling is that protein is where nature meant us to get our B12 from. Not from processed grains with added vitamins.

That’s because the only natural food sources of vitamin B12 is meat from animals, including fish.

And make no mistake, B12 is important. In clinical studies, vitamin B12 has been shown to protect and even rescue brain cells.¹ It also improves nerve conduction, which means it enhances the speed of the messages your brain is sending.

The worst part is that if you don’t have enough B12, doctors typically misdiagnose the deficiency and then prescribe drugs that do nothing to address the problem, but instead have plenty of side effects that only serve to make you feel worse!

But you can avoid falling into that trap by remembering that the message is about what’s missing from the foods you’re offered.

Like always, I recommend replacing missing nutrients with food first. Supplements come in if you can’t get enough of the nutrient from food.

With that in mind, here my favorite food sources of vitamin B12:²

Type of Food	Micrograms (mcg) per serving	Percent of RDA
Liver, beef, braised, 1 slice	48.0	800
Clams, 3 ounces	42	700
Crab, raw, 3 ounces	7.6	130
Trout, rainbow, wild, cooked, 3 ounces	5.4	90
Salmon, sockeye, cooked, 3 ounces	4.9	80
Beef, top sirloin, broiled, 3 ounces	2.4	40
Yogurt, plain, 1 cup	1.4	25
Haddock, cooked, 3 ounces	1.2	20

A couple of tips on vitamin B12:

One thing you might notice is that although it definitely has protein, chicken is not on the list. You’d have to eat almost half a chicken to get the same amount of B12 as you can get in just one egg. And eggs don’t have that much vitamin B12.

Also, reflux and ulcer drugs like Pepcid, Prilosec and Zantac, plus some diabetes drugs, can stop absorption of B12.

Which means that in today’s world of processed foods and synthetic medicine, it can be difficult to get enough vitamin B12 from food alone.

If that’s the case, it’s a good idea to take a B12 supplement.

You can get it in a good B vitamin complex that gives you at least 500 mcg (half a milligram) of B12, which you’ll find as cyanocobalamin or methylcobalamin. The latter is a more active form.

There are also B12 sprays, which is a good way to get your B12 as it gets absorbed quickly.

Another way to take B12 is from a lozenge. They dissolve fast and absorb quickly. A good one I’ve seen is from my colleagues at Stop Aging Now. Each of these lozenges gives you 1,000 mcg of the methylcobalamin form to give you more energy, normal cognitive function, and maintain your overall health. 

This effective nutrient is crucial if you want to maintain a strong heart and keep all your memories.

To Your Good Health,
  Al Sears, MD

And a caffo day to you as well!

See ya, eh!

Bob 

PS: Speaking of cyber-orbit, Nong and I went to see 'GRAVITY' on Tuesday. It was in 3D and quite spectacular visually. Don't think I'll watch it again when it hits TV, though. Only two actors in the movie - George Clooney and Sandra Bulloch