Vitamin B12 and its role in correcting anemia were discovered in 1934. Since then, doctors have administered vitamin B12 injections to treat fatigue and anemia.
Why vitamin B12 injections? Why not a pill? Early on, doctors noted that taking a pill or increasing the amount of vitamin B12 in the diet (usually by eating liver) didn't always help. They discovered that the actual absorption of B12 is a serious problem with oral supplements. Vitamin B12 injections were more likely to make people feel better and to correct anemia. So ever since, vitamin B12 injections were the preferred method for obtaining B12.
Eventually, scientists discovered that a substance called intrinsic factor is necessary to absorb vitamin B12 through the digestive tract. Some people are born without the ability to make intrinsic factor or lack it due to other reasons, such as gastrointestinal surgery. Logically, doctors decided that vitamin B12 injections would help people who don't have intrinsic factor.
Doctors also discovered that vitamin B12 deficiency causes a particular kind of anemia, called pernicious or megaloblastic anemia. But most people who developed megaloblastic anemia were older. It is rarely seen in children. Taking vitamin B12 pills didn't help, so they went back to giving vitamin B12 injections. It turns out that we lose our ability to make intrinsic factor as we age, and large numbers of older people had vitamin B12 deficiency and therefore needed vitamin B12 injections.
As time went on, they discovered more and more people who lose their ability to make intrinsic factor and who need vitamin B12 injections to prevent or correct vitamin B12 deficiency. People with chronic gastritis may need vitamin B12 injections. People who have had surgery on their stomach or intestines may need vitamin B12 injections. People who are colonized with Helicobacter pylori (as most people are) may need vitamin B12 injections. The group of people who might need vitamin B12 injections kept growing bigger and bigger.
So, what's the big deal? Why not just give people vitamin B12 injections? There are several reasons:
- Vitamin B12 injections are painful.
- There can be complications from vitamin B12 injections, such as infection or nerve damage.
- Over time, scar tissue builds up at vitamin B12 injections sites and keeps the vitamin B12 from being absorbed.
Fortunately, vitamin B12 injections aren't the only solution anymore. Now there is another way to take vitamin B12. The B12 Patch is a new product that delivers vitamin B12, avoiding painful vitamin B12 injections.
