Vitamin B12 is a crucial ingredient for the healthy functioning of the body, as it is necessary to produce red blood cells.
Signs of a deficiency can develop very slowly, so it can be difficult to diagnose the condition.
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Seeing either of these two changes on your face could indicate that your B12 levels are too low.
Jaundice
Jaundice occurs when a person’s body cannot make enough red blood cells.
It is the red blood cells, which circulate in the bloodstream under the skin, that help give it its normal color.
Weakened red blood cells tend to break down more quickly, releasing bilirubin.
Bilirubin gives the skin the characteristic yellowish hue of the condition.
Also, as the body’s organs become deprived of oxygen, a person you may feel extremely tired.
A study published in the National Library of Health attributes the symptoms to vitamin B12’s role in the production of the DNA needed to make red blood cells.
Without it, the instructions for building the cells are incomplete, and the cells cannot divide.
This causes a type of anemia called megaloblastic anemiain which the red blood cells produced in the bone marrow are large and fragile.
anemia is when you have fewer red blood cells than normal or do you have a quantity abnormally low of a substance called hemoglobin in each red blood cell.
These red blood cells are too large to pass from the bone marrow into the circulation.
face pain
According to Thyroid Patient Advocacy, a sign of vitamin B12 deficiency can appear on the face.
The health site warns:
“This pain varies so much that it would be difficult to describe all the possibilities. It may be a dull ache in the control bone just below the eye. It can also be a sharp stabbing pain in the forehead, sometimes running down from the scalp to the edge of the nose next to the eye. This pain can be excruciating, but it is usually fleeting.»
The Thyroid Patient Advocate also explained that facial pain that could occur usually only on one side of the face at a time.
In a study with MD Edge Neurology, Facial neuralgia and its possible link with vitamin B12 deficiency were investigated.
The study noted: “Vitamin B12 deficiency can cause isolated facial neuralgia, independent of trigeminal neuralgia and peripheral neuropathy, according to research presented at the 14th Congress of the International Headache Society.
“All patients reported decreased sensation of touch and pain, as well as numbness on the affected side.
«The blink reflex and evoked response of the trigeminal nerve were abnormal, and all subjects had low serum B12 levels.»
How to treat a B12 deficiency
Vitamin B12 deficiency anemia is usually treated with vitamin B12 injections.
There are two types of vitamin B12 injections:
Hydroxocobalamin
Cyanocobalamin
The vitamin is also found naturally in meat, salmon, cod, milk and eggs.