{"id":14651,"date":"2019-12-20T09:00:03","date_gmt":"2019-12-20T14:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=14651"},"modified":"2020-01-27T12:58:09","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T17:58:09","slug":"vitamin-b12-as-methylcobalamin-or-cyanocobalamin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2019\/12\/20\/vitamin-b12-as-methylcobalamin-or-cyanocobalamin\/","title":{"rendered":"Vitamin B12 as methylcobalamin or cyanocobalamin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

From a reader:<\/em> A relative told me that older people (I am in my 70s) should take vitamin B12 as methylcobalamin instead of cyanocobalamin. She also said that I should eat eggs once a week instead of taking a vitamin B12 supplement. Is this correct? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your relative is correct that\nvitamin B12 is important \u2013 it\u2019s an essential nutrient. You can read more about\nvitamin B12 on our website<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My favorite source for most items related to vitamin B-12 is veganhealth.org<\/a>. This website has materials developed by several vegan dietitians including Jack Norris, Ginny Messina, and myself. Jack knows a tremendous amount about vitamin B12. He provides a good discussion of the different forms of vitamin B12 here<\/a> and here<\/a>. He concludes, \u201cCyanocobalamin is a well-studied, reliable, inexpensive form of vitamin B12.\u201d The National Institutes of Health<\/a> concludes, \u201cExisting evidence does not suggest any differences among forms [of vitamin B12] with respect to absorption or bioavailability.\u201d I think cyanocobalamin is the form that has been shown to reverse a vitamin B12 deficiency in older people and would recommend using that form unless you have a condition that contraindicates use of cyanocobalamim<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although eggs do contain a bit of\nvitamin B12, vitamin B12 is poorly absorbed from eggs. Additionally, because 10\nto 30% of people older than 50 years are estimated to have low stomach acid\nwhich decreases vitamin B12 absorption from food, the Institute of Medicine recommends that vitamin B12-fortified\nfoods or a vitamin B12 supplement be used to meet much of the vitamin B12\nrequirement for those 51 and older.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The contents of this posting, our\nwebsite, and our other publications, including Vegetarian Journal, are not\nintended to provide personal medical advice. Medical advice should be obtained\nfrom a qualified health professional. We often depend on product and ingredient\ninformation from company statements. It is impossible to be 100% sure about a\nstatement, info can change, people have different views, and mistakes can be\nmade. Please use your best judgment about whether a product is suitable for\nyou. To be sure, do further research or confirmation on your own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD From a reader: A relative told me that older people (I am in my 70s) should take vitamin B12 as methylcobalamin instead of cyanocobalamin. She also said that I should eat eggs once a week instead of taking a vitamin B12 supplement. Is this correct? Your relative is correct that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14651"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14865,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14651\/revisions\/14865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}