Silent Killers by Dr. Chris
Dr. Chris brings you important information about health, health care, diseases, and a dysfunctional,
I started this page because health is entirely driven by profit in the USA. We have a silent epidemic of vitamin B12 deficiency that is causing permanent neurologic damage to millions of people. There are many reasons why people get vitamin B12 deficiency; one is that you need acid in your stomach to free the B12 from the protein it is bound to in your food. So many people are on medications that reduce stomach acid, that we are causing much morbidity and mortality that essentially goes unnoticed. Because B12 replacement or supplements are inexpensive, you won't get educated on this matter from a television advertisement shown in prime time. Another part of the problem is that B12 normal values as reposted to your doctor have nothing to do with optimal health, but rather abnormally low is what the lowest 2.5% of people tested have for a result. When you have an actual at risk population of about 25%, then only 1 in ten people tested that have a problem will actually be reported as low. Your average physician in practice won't bother to consider that a "normal level" is actually a problem.
The result is people are getting dementia, depression, psychosis, difficulty swallowing, incontinence, and loss of sensation from the resultant nerve damage. If you can't tell how your feet are positioned, for example, you are likely to fall. Falling causes fractures, and fractures are sometimes the proverbial last straw that causes someone to die. It is not unlike how we used to say "any cholesterol under 300 is just fine" because that used to be considered "normal". Heart disease remains the #1 killer in the USA, but back in the earlier 1980s and before, lots of folks were dying due to their :normal" cholesterols (because we didn't know any better). Of course with cholesterol, there became many drugs to treat it, so we had big pharma making sure we heard about how bad cholesterol can be and the importance of treating it.
At a B12 level of 400, there is already a 1% chance of a deficiency at the tissue level, so I recommend making sure one's levels are over 500 to ensure saturation of the tissues.