About: Vitamin B12 is an essential Vitamin that your body needs but cannot produce. Vitamin B12 benefits your body in many important ways: boosting your energy, improving your memory, and helping prevent heart disease. Additionally, Vitamin B12 helps with red blood cell formation and anemia prevention. Healthy red blood cells are small and round, whereas Vitamin B12 deficient blood cells become larger and typically oval shape Vitamin. Due to this larger and irregular shape, the red blood cells become unable to move from the bone marrow into the bloodstream at an appropriate rate, causing anemia. Dosely uses the cyanocobalamin form of B12 because it can be converted to both of the active forms of Vitamin B12 that your body requires (methylcobalamin and adenosylcobalamin). Methylcobalamin cannot increase levels of adenosylcobalamin, so it is recommended to treat Vitamin B12 deficiencies with cyanocobalamin. Additionally, one study found that cyanocobalamin is more effectively absorbed than methylcobalamin.
Benefits: Energy, Brain Function, Nervous System
Found in: Red meat, seafood, and dairy products
Deficits & Storage: Vitamin B12 deficiency is very common. Although Vitamin B12 is naturally occurring in animal products, vegan B12 (like Dosely’s) is more rare. Additionally, your body requires very specific conditions to successfully absorb B12. B12 is readily absorbed in the last part of the small intestine, which leads to the large intestine. However, to be absorbed, B12 must combine with “Intrinsic Factor”, a protein produced in the stomach. Without Intrinsic Factor, B12 moves through the intestine and is excreted from your body. Therefore, we suggest avoiding those fancy delayed-release supplements that claim to bypass the stomach. They can be hard on your liver and don’t actually assist with absorption for many micronutrients, such as B12. B12 is also unique when it comes to storage. Unlike the other water-soluble vitamins, B12 is stored for long periods of time in the body, mainly in the liver. Thus, excessive doses are unnecessary.
Learn more with these 16,893 studies on Vitamin B12 and counting.
