{"id":18619,"date":"2022-01-12T10:00:35","date_gmt":"2022-01-12T15:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=18619"},"modified":"2021-12-29T12:14:06","modified_gmt":"2021-12-29T17:14:06","slug":"older-adults-and-vitamin-b12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2022\/01\/12\/older-adults-and-vitamin-b12\/","title":{"rendered":"Older Adults and Vitamin B12"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"238\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/kindpng_1217317-300x238.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18620\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/kindpng_1217317-300x238.png 300w, https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/kindpng_1217317-768x609.png 768w, https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/kindpng_1217317.png 859w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What do we know about vitamin B12? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>It\u2019s an essential nutrient.<\/li><li>Vegans need to use vitamin B12 supplements\nand\/or foods fortified with vitamin B12.<\/li><li>People, possibly including lacto and lacto-ovo\nvegetarians who eat few animal products often need to use vitamin B12\nsupplements and\/or foods fortified with vitamin B12.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>A recent study (1) adds to our knowledge about vitamin B12\nand supports the U.S. recommendations that older adults (those 51 years and\nolder), whether or not they are vegan, use supplements and\/or fortified foods\nto get their vitamin B12 (2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this study, which was conducted in Ireland, 15% of older\nadults had a condition called atrophic gastritis. People with this condition\nproduce low amounts of acid in their stomachs. Acid is needed to separate\nvitamin B12 from protein so that it can be absorbed. The vitamin B12 in\nfortified foods and supplements does not require stomach acid for absorption.\nNot surprisingly, those older adults with atrophic gastritis were more likely\nto be deficient in vitamin B12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another issue related to vitamin B12 is the use of a\ncategory of drugs called proton pump inhibitors. These medications are used to\nsuppress stomach acid and to treat conditions like reflux and ulcers. Because\nthese drugs reduce stomach acid, they also reduce vitamin B12 absorption. In\nthe study from Ireland, proton pump inhibitors were used for more than 6 months\nby more than a third of older adults. Those taking higher doses (more than 30\nmilligrams daily) had a higher risk of vitamin B12 deficiency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although older adults using vitamin B12-fortified foods 5 or\nmore times a week were at lower risk of developing a deficiency of vitamin B12,\nsome older adults using fortified foods, especially those with atrophic\ngastritis, were at risk of vitamin B12 deficiency. This may be because of the\nrelatively low amount of vitamin B12 used to fortify foods in Ireland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vitamin B12 deficiency in older adults has been associated\nwith depression, confusion, dementia, poorer bone health, and heart disease (3)\nso it is important that older adults are aware of the need to get their vitamin\nB12 from supplements and fortified foods. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s where vegans come in. Many of us are aware of the\nneed for vitamin B12 supplements; we know which foods are fortified with\nvitamin B12. We can share this information with older friends and family\nmembers who should be using fortified foods and\/or supplements as their main\nsource of vitamin B12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To read more about vitamin B12 see:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/nutrition\/b12.php\">Vitamin B12\nin the Vegan Diet<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/nutrition\/vitamin-b12-and-nutritional-yeast.pdf\">Vitamin\nB12 and Nutritional Yeast<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2018\/07\/10\/does-your-favorite-plant-milk-provide-vitamin-b12\/\">Does\nYour Favorite Plant Milk Provide Vitamin B12?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/29\/do-vegetarians-vegans-lacto-vegetarians-lacto-ovo-vegetarians-have-to-take-vitamin-b12-supplements\/\">Do\nvegetarians (vegans, lacto vegetarians, lacto-ovo vegetarians) have to take\nvitamin B12 supplements?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>References<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1. Porter KM, Hoey L, Hughes CF, et al. Associations of\natrophic gastritis and proton-pump inhibitor drug use with vitamin B-12 status,\nand the impact of fortified foods, in older adults. <em>Am J Clin Nutr<\/em>.\n2021;114(4):1286-1294.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2. Institute of Medicine, Food and Nutrition Board: Dietary\nReference Intakes for Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B-6, Folate, Vitamin\nB-12, Pantothenic Acid, Biotin, and Choline. Washington, DC: National Academy\nPress, 1998.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>3. Porter K, Hoey L, Hughes CF, Ward M, McNulty H. Causes,\nconsequences and public health implications of low B-vitamin status in ageing. <em>Nutrients<\/em>.\n2016;8(11):725.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD What do we know about vitamin B12? It\u2019s an essential nutrient. Vegans need to use vitamin B12 supplements and\/or foods fortified with vitamin B12. People, possibly including lacto and lacto-ovo vegetarians who eat few animal products often need to use vitamin B12 supplements and\/or foods fortified with vitamin B12. A [&hellip;]<\/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-18619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18619","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=18619"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18621,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18619\/revisions\/18621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}