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Vitamin B12: Cobalamin
Vitamin B 12, is officially called cobalamin: There are a number of forms of cobalamin available on the market: cobalamin, cyanocobalamin, adenosylcobalamin and methylcobalamin. However,only two are active or effective; adenosylcobalamin and methylcobalamin. Methylcobalamin is the only active form available in the US market and is effective immediately after we absorb it. Cobalamin, which is used in most Vitamin B 12 supplements appears to be totally ineffective, but this is what the majority buys. Cyanocobalamin is effective only when the body is able to convert it into methylcobalamin and this only occurs with a small percentage of people. Many people trying to save money purchased cheaper forms of B12 only find that they had to go to a doctor and receive B12 injections. However, injections are not necessary when methylcobalamin is taken orally.
So why isn’t every company selling methylcobalamin? Two reasons: One, most companies do not do any serious research. They basically copy the majority. Two, there is a huge difference in price. Methylcobalamin costs almost twice as much as cyanocobalamin. Ten years ago the difference was almost 10 times more, but we were willing to do this because we would never try to sell something that was useless. Furthermore, we always try to buy the highest quality. By the way, why do we need to take supplemental B12? Well, guess what? Healthy people do not. Why? Because, if our intestines are healthy we will have normal human-specific friendly bacteria, which naturally produce methylcobalamin.
By the way, Vitamin B12 is a life and health-essential vitamin and nearly 40% of our population are deficient. This means, more meat-eaters are deficient in B12 than vegetarians. Ha! And they thought it was the other way around.
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