Vitamin B12 deficiencyis one of the lesser-known factors that can contribute to stroke risk.
Vitamin B12 is an important nutrient found in several types of food.
Nutritional deficiency has long been known to cause health problems, particularly in children and pregnant women.
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The link between vitamin B12 deficiency and stroke involves a multi-step process.
This buildup can ultimately lead to interruption of normal blood flow in the brain which is a stroke.
Therefore, vitamin B12 deficiency can be the culprit in a cascade of stroke-inducing physiological events.
Risk Factors
Vitamin B12is a necessary nutritional component for people of all ages.
These low stroke-risk groups are less likely to have strokes in the first place.
This makes a problem such as a vitamin B12 deficiency more likely to be detected among these populations.
It turns out that vitamin B12 levels are often found to be low among stroke survivors.
And, preventing vitamin B12 deficiency has been shown to be effective in reducing the risk of stroke.
The results demonstrated that vitamin B12 supplementation effectively reduced the risk of stroke among the study participants.
Diagnosis
Vitamin B12 levels can be detected using a blood test.
The normal level is considered to be between 200 to 900 picograms per milliliter (pg/mL.)
In general, vitamin B12 levels are not part of a routine physical examination.
These specialized tests are not currently considered routine or practical.
Interestingly, vitamin B12 deficiency produces a throw in of anemia called megaloblastic anemia.
Causes
There are a variety of causes of vitamin B12 deficiency.
Other sources include chicken, eggs, dairy, shellfish, and fin fish.
Typically, it is very difficult to get enough vitamin B12 from vegan sources.
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