Pernicious anemia is caused by vitamin B12 deficiency. Pernicious anemia is occasionally found in children, but it is usually not diagnosed until adulthood, and often late adulthood. Pernicious anemia can develop over time because your liver stores vitamin B12 and reuses it over and over. It can take years for our stores of vitamin B12 to become depleted and to develop pernicious anemia.
Two things cause vitamin B12 deficiency: not getting enough in your diet or not being able to absorb it in your gastrointestinal system. Although we used to think dietary vitamin B12 deficiency was rare, it does occur, and researchers are discovering that most vegans and vegetarians in developed countries have pernicious anemia due to nutritional deficiency of vitamin B12.
Most pernicious anemia, however, is caused by the inability to absorb vitamin B12. Parietal cells in your stomach create a substance called intrinsic factor, which is essential for us to absorb vitamin B12. So.pernicious anemia is caused by vitamin B12 deficiency which is (usually) caused by lack of intrinsic factor. What causes a lack of intrinsic factor?
- Congenital, inborn deficiency. Some people are born without the ability to make intrinsic factor. These individuals have pernicious anemia from birth. This condition is autosomal recessive, which means that the child must receive a gene from both parents to have it.
- Stomach problems. Chronic gastritis can destroy the parietal cells, so intrinsic factor is not released. Stomach surgery can remove enough parietal cells to decrease intrinsic factor production and cause pernicious anemia.
- Autoimmune disorders. Most of the time pernicious anemia is caused by autoimmunity. Your body may develop an immune response to either parietal cells or to intrinsic factor itself.
- Aging. As we age, our stomachs become less able to secrete the substances necessary for digestion, including intrinsic factor. Many people over the age of 60 have pernicious anemia.
Treating Pernicious Anemia
The treatment for pernicious is vitamin B12. In the past, doctors have given vitamin B12 injections to people with pernicious anemia because the vitamin was not being absorbed in the stomach.
Recently, there have been claims that high-dose pills of vitamin B12 are effective in treating pernicious anemia. That may be true in some cases where there are enough parietal cells remaining to absorb a portion of the vitamin. In most cases of pernicious anemia, however, the parietal cells do not function and intrinsic factor is absent, so vitamin B12 will not be absorbed.
A nasal form of vitamin B12 is now available, too, but there have been no studies that determined how effective it is in treating vitamin B12 deficiency or pernicious anemia.
Finally, you can take vitamin B12 through your skin, using the B12 Patch. Vitamin B12 is easily absorbed through the skin and into the bloodstream, making the B12 Patch a painless and effective way to treat pernicious anemia.
