Nutrition & Diet Excess vitamin B12 Might Be Deadly?

Excess Vitamin B12 May Be Deadly
Very high blood levels of vitamin B12 were tied to an increased risk of early death.


At the end, they say it's just an association, NOT causation, so why the dramatic headline??? šŸ˜ 
They want clicks. Headline-writing used to be such an art, but nowadays, it's all about clicks sadly, even if the headline is misleading or downright incorrect or irrelevant, which happens a lot.
 
Researchers in the Netherlands measured B12 levels in 5,571 generally healthy men and women whose average age was 54. None were taking supplements. They followed them for an average of eight years......
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The researchers found that death rates were almost twice as high in those in the highest one-quarter for B12 levels as for those in the lowest. The reasons are unclear.
ā€œHigh amounts of vitamin B12 are often taken without a medical indication,ā€ said the senior author, Dr. Stephan J.L. Bakker, a professor of internal medicine at the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands. Excessive levels of B12, he said, ā€œmight change the gut microbiota in ways that could be harmful ā€” no one really knows.ā€
Okay- I'm calling B.S. on this "study"- or at least this particular report of it. They don't say exactly how high the "highest one-quarter" B-12 levels were. And if none of the study participants were taking supplements, how did their B-12 levels get so high? Within the past two years (I think), I came across a news report that most people in the U.S.- including non-vegetarians- were thought to have B-12 levels lower than recommended. And although I don't remember the source off-hand, I'm pretty sure the source had no biases about veg*nism, one way or the other.
 
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No as it's water soluble and excess amounts are floushed out via the urine.
Is it flushed out directly from the stomach or is it first absorbed into the bloodstream? If the latter, then it might show in blood samples.

Certain illnesses can promote high reading of Vit B12 :

Conditions that can increase B12 level include:

Source : Mountsinai.org
The study looked at "generally healthy men and women".
 
If you're interested in the subject, you may find this of interest, I did:

 
Here's an interesting, very recent (2019) peer-reviewed study that shows correlation (but not causation) between supplemental vitamin B12 intake and the risk of hip fracture: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2733176 .

As noted in the peer-comments section of the article, it may be that women with pre-existing osteoporosis are more likely to take vitamin supplements. That is to say: The osteoporosis may have led to higher vitamin intakes, not other way around.

I look forward to more studies on this topic.
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