Vitamin B12 deficiency can turn into a debilitating disease with ongoing repercussions, nothing is as simply prevented as largely ignored. Vitamin B12 deficiency often initially presents itself as fatigue, in today’s busy world it is often chalked up to lifestyle and ignored, over time the results can be devastating and irreversible.
Neurological Implications of Vitamin B12 Deficiency
With the initial onset of Vitamin B12 deficiency the neurological implications may not be immediately obvious. The symptoms are usually dismissed as being stress related. The initial neurological implications can be very mild, a change in mood, some occasional forgetfulness an increase in irritability – all symptoms that can also be attributed to stress and other lifestyle issues. Over time the symptoms may increase to include depression, memory loss, dementia and psychosis.
The treatment for the Vitamin B12 deficiency is Vitamin B12 shots that will cure the underlying deficiency but may not help to regain the mental faculties that were lost during the deficiency period.
There are some implications that prolonged Vitamin B12 deficiency can result in permanent damage to the nervous system and permanently effect brain function.
Alzheimer’s disease
Alzheimer’s disease is a debilitating disease that effects many millions of people around the country. Primarily Alzheimer’s is thought of a disease that effect older folks, but in cases of early onset it can affect people as young as thirty five. Little is known about this debilitating disease other than the damage that is causes to the brain and the lives that it destroys.
There is no sue reason as to why Alzheimer’s sets in or what the cause is. There are several theories, one of which seems to correlate a relationship between Vitamin B12 deficiency and the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. The testing and research is still in the early stages but it is hypothesized that a prolonged Vitamin B12 deficiency can contribute to the onset of Alzheimer’s disease with the most radical theory hypothesizing that Alzheimer’s disease is actually caused by Vitamin B12 deficiency.
There seems to be a strong correlation between those that have been determined to have suffered from Vitamin B12 deficiency and a high rate of the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease.
There have been cases where a patient was diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer’s when in fact it was a Vitamin B12 deficiency.
Vitamin B12 deficiency causes nerve damage over time and some of those nerves that are damaged are located in the brain, the damage is irreversible and likely cannot be corrected. There are scientists that have set out to prove that the relationship between Vitamin B12 deficiency and Alzheimer’s disease is beyond coincidence and is actually a causal relationship.