Understanding Vitamin B12

Vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin) makes healthy red blood cells. Vitamin B12 protects myelin, the fatty material that covers your nerves and enables you to transmit electrical impulses (messages) between nerve cells. These messages make it possible for you to see, hear, think, move, and do all the things a healthy body does each day. In 2005, the Canadian Medical Association Journal reported that low blood levels of B12 in older people are linked to higher levels of homocysteine (a minor risk factor for heart disease).
Vitamin B12 is unique. First, it’s the only vitamin that contains a mineral, cobalt. (Cyanocobalamin, a cobalt compound, is commonly used as “vitamin B12” in vitamin pills and nutritional supplements.) Second, it’s a vitamin that can’t be made by higher plants (the ones that give us fruits and vegetables). Like vitamin K, vitamin B12 is made by beneficial bacteria living in your small intestine. Meat, fish, poultry, milk products, and eggs are good sources of vitamin B12. Grains don’t naturally contain vitamin B12, but like other B vitamins, it’s added to grain products in the United States.