Thread by @nob12deficiency

Why social media nutrition activism matters - a short thread ⬇️ A family member with a science degree was stunned to know about the sources of vitamin B12 .

I posted multiple stories about the animal sources of vitamin B12 on WhatsApp status. I love to use Canva & Adobe Express to make stories about cobalamin. I also explained that processed foods such as Kellogs cornflakes, Chocos, Horlicks, Boost, Marmite, etc have vitamin B-12.

So this gent met me in person the same day. Looking at my status on his phone, he asked, "Is this verified news?" I was wide-eyed. Here was an engineer who had biology till class 12. He had completely forgotten that we had learnt about the animal origin food sources of vitB12.

I wiggled my way out of a potential religious or socio-cultural argument by quietly sharing the @NHPINDIA vitamin B12 deficiency page link.
nhp.gov.in/disease/blood-…
When in a spot of bother, run and hide behind the @MoHFW_INDIA website. The online mob calms down. #neurotwitter

I was left wondering, if this is the situation in a well-educated, upper middle class family like ours, among those with university science degrees, what must be the condition among Arts and Commerce students? Should they not at least be made aware of the peculiar sources of B12?

#vitaminb12 is not a magic pill but it is naturally obtained from animal sourced food only. It is not in certain plant origin food unless fortified. Vitamin B-12 does the rock of end to end signalling in the body. Cobalamin helps send signals from nerve endings to the brain 🔃.

Vitamin B12 helps the nerve endings in the stomach to tell the brain that the stomach has been empty for a long time & that it needs food. Then the brain generates the feeling of hunger or hunger pangs. Lack of hunger is therefore a symptom of a vitamin B12 deficiency. #cobalamin

Vitamin B12 helps the nerve endings in the colon & near the anus signal to the brain that the intestines need to be emptied. Then the brain generates the sensation termed 'Nature's call'. Vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to constipation. Don't reach out for laxatives before B12!

These are just few of the important functions carried out by the largest molecular compound among the B-complex vitamins, i.e. vitamin B12, in our bodies. A deficiency of cobalamin greatly increases the chances of stroke and also heart attacks to some extent.

If left undiagnosed and untreated, vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to slow paralysis due to incurable peripheral neuropathy and subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord. It also causes serious psychiatric problems.

Vegetarian friends often ask me how they don't have any trouble. A vitamin B12 deficiency will 1st make the patient very lazy (lethargic) and tired. Both these feelings aren't considered diseases by almost anybody. #medtwitter #neurotwitter

No one deserves to find out about a vitamin B12 deficiency only after they end up with neurological injuries. It will be great if the @MoHFW_INDIA starts an online initiative to educate populations at risk. People should be nudged or prompted to read about vitamin B12. #onehealth