If vitamins essential to health were to enter a popularity contest, vitamin B and many of its components probably wouldn’t make it to the final round.
Other vitamins and supplements (such as vitamins C, D, calcium, and omega-3 fatty acids) tend to attract more industry attention, with $88.3 billion (U.S.) spent on vitamins and supplements worldwide each year, according to Euromonitor International.
But without the eight different, individually important elements of the B vitamin complex, we’d have much less energy, we’d feel more anxious and irritable, and it’d be much harder to maintain healthy hair and skin.
“B vitamins affect the entire body, from the top of the head to mood, to intestinal constipation and, in severe cases, tingling in the hands and feet,” says Kerstin Koenig, M.D., associate medical director for Abbott’s diagnostics business, based in Wiesbaden-Derkenheim, Germany. Koenig, a nutritional therapist, is part of a team of scientists and physicians working on immunoassays run on Abbott’s ARCHITECT system in medical laboratories used in hospitals and outpatient facilities. These assays determine and measure substances present in a person’s blood.
In this case, Abbott’s Active B12 test measures how much of this vitamin is readily utilized and absorbed by the body, allowing for early detection of deficiency. Because vitamin B testing isn’t always included in routine blood tests and deficiency symptoms aren’t always obvious, people often don’t realize their levels are low, says Abby C. Sauer, a registered dietitian with Abbott’s adult nutrition business, based in Columbus, Ohio.
“We don’t give the B vitamins much thought because they help all the other functions of our bodies work. They’re obscure, not exciting or sexy. There’s so much of them that it’s hard to connect with what they do. Many adults over 65 are deficient in vitamin B12 due to the body’s (declining) ability to process and use the vitamin.” Sauer says most people can get the vitamin B12 they need from a balanced diet or with a balanced energy drink such as Ensure, but he adds that people with gastrointestinal or digestive disorders, as well as strict vegetarians and vegans (who get their vitamin B12 nutrients from meat, eggs and dairy products) also need to make sure they get enough.
The various forms of this wonder vitamin are really do Let us help you live a healthier life.
