Vitamin B12 deficiency: Two sensations felt on the body indicating your levels are too low
Vitamin B12 is a crucial ingredient for the healthy running of the body, as it’s needed to make red blood cells. Signs of a deficiency can develop very slowly, so it may be difficult to diagnose the condition. Feeling any of these two signs on the body could indicate a deficiency.
As vitamin B12 is necessary for nerve cell production, you may experience a “strange” sensation in the body if you’re deficient in the vitamin.
ADA – a global health company founded by doctors, scientists, and industry pioneers – commented that a vitamin B12 deficiency isn’t uncommon among people over the age of 50.
It added that “strange sensations” could appear “in the hands, legs or feet”.
You might even experience pins and needles, which takes place when the blood supply to nerves is cut off.
The NHS describes pins and needles to feel like “pricking, tingling or numbness on the skin”.
The two main warning signs found on the body indicating your B12 levels are pain in hands and nerve shock on the side of the body.
Pain in hands
Sharp stabbing, tingling pain in the palm of one or both hands may be an indication that your B12 levels are dangerously low.
This occurs suddenly and for no apparent reason in a spot directly below the ring finger, approximately where the first palm crease is, explained the Thyroid Patient Advocacy.
The site continued: “If B12 deficiency is not treated, a tingling pain may begin to occur along the outside edge of the hand, starting from the wrist.
“This pain occurs when the wrist is flexed backward.”
Nerve shock on body
Nerve shock in the side of the body is another warning sign of low B12 levels.
“It can be felt coming on a few seconds before it hits, and then it hits almost like a mild but deep electric shock and quickly subsides,” said the Thyroid Patient Advocacy.
“It can occur at the side of either hip or on either side of the upper body, along the ribs.
“Worse yet, it can occur consecutively in at least two or three locations, one right after the other.”
A simple blood test done at the GP’s clinic can determine whether or not somebody is deficient in vitamin B12.
The doctor will also want to discuss symptoms and look at your medical history to help form a diagnosis.
Typically, B12 injections or prescribed oral supplements will be prescribed to treat the nutrient deficiency.
Treatment may be for a few weeks, months, or lifelong, depending on the underlying reason behind the vitamin B12 deficiency.
Source: Read Full Article
