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Directions:
Take one tablet daily with a meal. Keep bottle tightly closed.
Supplement Facts
Serving size: 1
tablet
Amount Per % Daily
Serving Per Container: 300
Serving Value* |
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Vitamin B-12 |
500 mcg |
8,333% |
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†
Daily Value not established |
Other
Ingredients:
Dibasic Calcium Phosphate, Cellulose, Stearic Acid, Croscarmellose Sodium,
Magnesium Stearate,
Cyanocobalamin.
Warnings:
Do not use if imprinted seal under cap is broken or missing.
Storage:
Store in a cool, dry place, out of reach of children.
If you already are taking
vitamin B-12, could you still be deficient?
The dietary absorption of vitamin B-12 is complex. It's not just a matter of
swallowing a bunch of it (dietary or supplemental) and letting the guts do
the work. There is something called "intrinsic factor" which is made in
certain cells in the stomach that must be present in order for B-12 to be
absorbed at a point in the very end of the small intestine
(the ileum).
The main sources of B-12 include meat, eggs, and dairy products. Acids in
the stomach separate the B-12 from the protein source, at which point it
must combine with intrinsic factor. The vitamin B-12 / intrinsic factor
complex travels through the intestine and is absorbed in the terminal ileum
by cells with specific receptors for the complex.
The absorbed complex is
then transported via plasma and stored in the liver. The interruption of one
or any combination
of these steps places a person at risk of developing
deficiency.
In most cases, vitamin B-12 deficiency is due to an inability
of the intestine
to absorb the vitamin, which can happen in several ways.
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As we age or become overly
reliant on acid suppressing agents like antacids, our ability to produce
gastric acids in the stomach decreases, meaning that the B-12 is less
likely to be released from its food source.
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Deficiency may result from
an autoimmune disease that reduces the production or blocks the action of
intrinsic factor, or from other diseases that result in intestinal
mal-absorption. The most frequent underlying cause of vitamin B-12
deficiency is pernicious anemia, which is associated with decreased
production of intrinsic factor.
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Also, abdominal surgery may
cause B-12 deficiency in several ways. Gastro-ectomy, for example,
eliminates the site of intrinsic factor production. Blind loop syndrome
results in competition for vitamin B-12 by bacterial overgrowth in the
lumen of the small intestine. And surgical resection of the ileum
eliminates the site of vitamin
B-12 absorption.
Other
causes of vitamin B-12 deficiency include pancreatic insufficiency, fish
tapeworm infection—in which the parasite competes for B-12—and severe
Crohn's disease, which results in reduced absorption of B-12 in the
intestine
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