This is Why Vitamin B12 is So Important

By Dov Michaeli, MD, PhD

Vitamin B12’s metabolic reach includes DNA synthesis, hemoglobin production, & nerve function. Perhaps that’s why body stores are huge relative to daily intake.

Why is vitamin B12 so important? It’s because it plays a critical role in many of the body’s most important functions. Consider this:

• It’s necessary for the synthesis of DNA and RNA
• It plays a role in the maintenance of the nervous system
• it is involved in hemoglobin production

Vitamin B12 is also a necessary co-factor in 3 important biochemical reactions:

• The conversion of methylmalonic acid to succinyl coenzyme A
• Conversion of homocysteine to methionine
• And, conversion of 5-methyltetrahydrofolate to tetrahydrofolate.

In short, vitamin B12 has a deep and wide metabolic reach.

First of all, the term vitamin is used to describe compounds that are essential for normal function but cannot be synthesized by the human body. They must, therefore, be acquired from the diet-or nowadays via pills known as supplements.

Vitamin B12 belongs to a family of naturally occurring cobalt-containing compounds known as cobalamins. It…