Vitamin B12

A silent crippler stalks millions of North Americans--and any of us may be its next victim.

This crippler is a master of masquerade, striking different people in different ways. It afflicts one person with tremors, makes another depressed or psychotic, and causes agonizing leg and arm pains or paralysis in still another. It can mimic Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, early Parkinson's disease, diabetic neuropathy, or chronic fatigue syndrome. It can make men or women infertile or cause developmental disabilities in their children. Other times it lurks silently, stealthily increasing its victim's risk of deadly diseases ranging from stroke and heart attacks to cancer.
This medical disorder stems from a vitamin deficiency, but your standard multivitamin pill won't prevent it in many cases, and even high-dose oral formulas of this vitamin may not help. It's considered an "old people's disease" by doctors, but it can strike any person at any age, and it sometimes hits children the hardest.

The disorder is vitamin B12 deficiency. If you develop this deficiency it's easy to spot, easy to treat, and easy to cure--but only if your doctor diagnoses you before it's too late. Unfortunately, that frequently doesn't happen.
This isn't a new or fad disease. In fact, you'll find it listed in the textbooks of any first-year medical student. It's not a rare disease, either: If you're over forty, you're at an elevated risk for dangerous B12 deficiency, and if you're over sixty, you have up to a 40 percent chance of having dangerously low B12 levels.


What do these people have in common?
* A 40-year old Washington Post reporter who loses his ability to write, falls when he attempts to walk, and becomes so confused that his wife suspects early-onset Alzheimer's.

* A beautiful, normal eight-month-old baby who gradually loses her speech, stops responding to her parents, and eventually can't even sit up by herself.

* A 20-year-old woman who becomes severely depressed and attempts to kill herself.
* A ballet dancer who undergoes cosmetic surgery and ends up nearly unable to walk.

* A 35-year-old man who starts wetting himself and can no longer walk steadily or grip with his hands.

* An 86-year-old man who becomes delusional and kills his wife.

* A 54-year-old woman experiencing paranoid delusions and violent outbursts, coupled with symptoms her doctor diagnoses as multiple sclerosis.

* A four-year-old boy diagnosed with autism.

* A 73-year-old whose doctors attribute his repeated falls to "mini-strokes."

* A young woman unable to conceive.

* A grandfather transformed, in less than a year, from a healthy jogger to a depressed, confused man diagnosed with senile dementia.

Here's what these patients don't have in common: a correct diagnosis. Instead they have a plethora of incorrect, often hopeless diagnoses: mental retardation, autism, multiple sclerosis, psychosis, senile dementia, transient ischemic attacks, depression, diabetic neuropathy. But, in reality, they all suffer from the same medical condition: vitamin B12 deficiency.

The Author, Sally Pacholok, R.N., BSN, is an emergency room nurse with eighteen years of experience. She received her bachelor's degree in nursing from Wayne State University. Prior to entering the field of nursing, she received an Associate's Degree of Applied Science with magna cum laude honors. She is also an Advanced Emergency Medical Technician (A-EMT), and worked as a paramedic prior to and during nursing school. She has worked in health care for a total of twenty-five years, and has cared for thousands of patients. In addition, she is an Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) provider, and has assisted instructors at a local community college in training paramedics in ACLS. She is a Trauma Nursing Core Course (TNCC) Provider, an Emergency Nurse Pediatric Course (ENPC) Provider, and a member of the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA). In 1985, Pacholok diagnosed herself with vitamin B12 deficiency, after her doctors had failed to identify her condition. As a result, she is passionate about the need to educate the public about the dangerous consequences of this hidden and all-too-common disease. Jeffrey J. Stuart, D.O., a physician who has practiced emergency medicine for twelve years, is board certified in this field. He is also certified in Advanced Trauma Life Support, Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS), Advanced Pediatric Life Support, and Neonatal Resuscitation. Stuart received his Doctor of Osteopathy degree from the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine. His training includes field amputation and hazardous materials decontamination, and he has also participated in training sessions with the Detroit Metropolitan Airport SWAT team. Dr. Stuart participated in visual brain research at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, in 1987, and was involved in cholesterol metabolism research at the Rockefeller University Hospital in New York City in 1985. He is a member of the American Osteopathic Association, the American College of Osteopathic Emergency Physicians.