Vitamin B12 deficiency destroys muscles and accelerates the aging of the body

The energy stations of our cells, known as mitochondria, directly depend on the concentration of this element. Martha Field, associate professor of Nutrition, emphasizes that deficiency immediately affects skeletal muscles. Since muscle tissue requires a huge amount of energy to function, disruptions in fuel production lead to weakness and loss of tone. Experiments on elderly mice confirmed the hunch: adding a vitamin to the rodents’ diet restored the activity of their cellular batteries.

Previously, medicine focused exclusively on the extreme manifestations of vitamin deficiency, such as anemia or cognitive impairment. Now it has become clear that the compound acts as a kind of checkpoint for many biological routes. It regulates fat metabolism and stress response inside the organelles. If there is not enough nutrient, problems begin long before a person feels an obvious malaise, and these hidden failures can affect a variety of body systems.

The prevalence of the problem is particularly worrisome. According to statistics, every fourth elderly resident of developed countries is teetering on the brink of a shortage of this substance. Vegetarians and vegans are also at risk, as meat is the main source of B12. The authors note that even a slight decrease in indicators, which doctors often ignore, makes the body vulnerable to infections and triggers mechanisms of premature aging.

The discovery gives rise to a personalized approach to dieting. Instead of prescribing the same doses of supplements to everyone, in the future doctors will be able to select a nutrition strategy based on the individual metabolic profile of the patient. The team is now preparing to confirm their findings in cellular models in full-scale clinical trials involving humans in order to definitively understand the entire chain of molecular interactions.