Are Vitamin Deficiencies All That Bad? The Consequences of Late Diagnosis
Vitamin deficiencies might just be more dangerous than you might think… To discover more, you came to the right place!
Vitamin deficiencies are no joke. Diet science is becoming more prevalent in medicine in the 21st century and, as a result, we are learning a lot about the link between dangerous health conditions and vitamin deficiencies.
The conditions caused by these deficiencies aren’t only damaging to the person with them. In fact, a mother with B12, C or D vitamin deficiencies may also experience problems with unborn children during pregnancy. This may even run the risk of your child being born with birth defects.
It’s the job of your doctors, especially if you’re pregnant, to give you this information, and if your child is thus born with a defect, further action can be taken. What’s more, even if you’re not pregnant, but you feel as though your vitamin deficiency wasn’t taken seriously enough, claims can be made. In these cases, you have every right to contact a medical negligence firm, like Minton Morrill Solicitors.
Education is key for us to start taking vitamin deficiencies seriously, and understand what we, as patients, are entitled to. So, here, we’ll be covering the main types of vitamin deficiencies, vitamin deficiency symptoms and the conditions they can lead to. This way, you should acquire more of an understanding as to why you need to get a diagnosis as early as possible…
Common Types of Vitamin Deficiencies and Their Symptoms
There are various types of vitamin deficiencies, all with their own symptoms, but we’re currently seeing spikes in certain deficiencies as society changes. B12 has become a more common deficiency due to the prevalence of vegan diets over the last decade. What’s more, vitamin D deficiency has gained prominence due to COVID, and the supposed effects of it on the virus.
Considering the 21st century is seeing a predominance of vitamin D deficiency and vitamin B12 deficiency, let’s dive into these a little further…
Vitamin D Deficiency
Vitamin D is an extremely important vitamin in that it functions like a hormone, meaning all the cells in your body have a receptor for it. It’s made from the cholesterol in your skin when it’s exposed to sunlight. You can also find it in fatty foods and dairy products.
The purpose of this vitamin is to regulate the amount of calcium and phosphate in the body. These nutrients are needed to keep bones, muscles and teeth in good shape. It stands to reason, then, that vitamin D deficiency symptoms include bone deformities in children, such as rickets, and bone pain in adults leading to a condition called osteomalacia.
There has been some evidence suggesting it also reduces the risk of coronavirus, but this research is still early days, and the results have not yet been confirmed by the NHS or other prominent medical bodies.
Even so, the importance of getting enough of this vitamin can’t be overstated. So, taking 10 micrograms of vitamin D a day should quell any chance of becoming deficient in it.
If you want to get your vitamin D naturally, you need to spend a lot of time in the sun and eat oily fish, eggs, red meat, liver and some fortified breakfast cereals. The cholesterol in these foods can then be converted to vitamin D by sunlight.
Vitamin B12 Deficiency
Vitamin B12 is another important vitamin that has had a recent uptick in cases. The best sources of vitamin B12 are meat, salmon, cod, milk, cheese, eggs, and some fortified breakfast cereals. So, considering the prevalence of vegetarianism and veganism in today’s world, it’s no surprise this is a growing issue.
This vitamin is involved in the making of red blood cells, releasing energy from food, and using folic acid. Since it’s so important in creating red blood cells, a lack of it in the body can cause vitamin B12 deficiency anaemia. This condition causes the body to make abnormally large red blood cells that don’t function properly. The symptoms include:
- Extreme tiredness
- A lack of energy
- Pins and needles
- A sore and red tongue
- Mouth ulcers
- Muscle weakness
- Disturbed vision
- Psychological problems, including depression
- Problems with memory, understanding and judgement
The causes of vitamin B12 deficiency are pernicious anaemia, where your immune system attacks healthy cells in your stomach to the point where they can’t absorb vitamin B12 from food.
If you consume a vegan diet, it’s vital that you take B12 tablets or injections. A little extra tip, for you Marmite lovers out there; this black goo, eaten traditionally by UK residents, contains B12 and is devoid of animal products. However, this wonder goo doesn’t contain enough B12 to live on, so supplementation is recommended regardless of how much Marmite you eat.
There are other vitamins your body needs to survive, but at the risk of listing them all, it’s probably time to move on to how a delayed diagnosis of vitamin deficiencies can lead to the development of dangerous conditions.
How a Delayed Vitamin Deficiencies Diagnosis Could be Dangerous
If you suspect you might be lacking an important vitamin based on the above information, it’s important that you get a vitamin deficiency test. You can go to your GP, or local hospital, and ask for a vitamin screening which monitors levels of A, B1, B2, B6, C, E, D and Beta Carotene.
If you’d rather not go through the medical system just to see if you have vitamin deficiencies, you can purchase a home test kit where you collect a blood sample and send it into an NHS-accredited lab. They will then send your results by post. Some companies even provide you with a personalised supplement plan.
If you choose not to test whether you have vitamin deficiencies, you run the risk of developing a serious medical condition. To use our examples from the above section, some side effects of long-term vitamin deficiencies include:
Long-Term Vitamin D Deficiency Side Effects
- Heart disease and high blood pressure
- Cancer, such as colon, prostate and breast cancers
- Infections and immune system disorders
- Multiple sclerosis
- Diabetes
Long-Term Vitamin B12 Deficiency Side Effects
- Problems with the nervous system
- Heart conditions
- Risk of developing heart failure
- Temporary infertility
- Pregnancy complications and birth defects
These conditions are detrimental to the health of anyone, some of which are life-threatening. If you eventually get the appropriate treatment, some of these conditions can improve, but others, such as an issue with your nervous system, can be permanent.
Your Unborn Baby and Your Vitamin Deficiency
Both a vitamin D deficiency and a vitamin B12 deficiency can harm your unborn baby if you’re pregnant. Vitamin D plays an important role in bone metabolism and reduces the chance of low birth weight, pre-eclampsia and preterm birth.
Pre-eclampsia occurs when the pregnant mother’s blood pressure is too high at the same time as having protein in her urine. The symptoms include headaches, heartburn, vomiting and oedema. Without immediate treatment, pre-eclampsia can lead to a combined liver and blood clotting disorders, and even a stroke.
Vitamin B12 deficiency can be just as dangerous as vitamin D. It can increase the likelihood of neural tube defects, which are birth defects of the brain, spine or spinal cord, for example, spina bifida and anencephaly. All-in-all, you don’t want to be caught short without a diagnosis if you want to avoid any of these conditions, for your sake, and the babies.
Think You Might Have a Vitamin Deficiency?
To sum up, what we’ve discussed in this post, vitamin deficiencies are pretty difficult to deal with, and often go undiagnosed. They are both damaging in the short term and can be fatal in the long term.
If you run the risk of being vitamin deficient, whether that be D because you have darker skin, or B12 because you’re on a vegan diet, get yourself tested as soon as possible. There are new advancements in vitamin science every day, and the more we are aware of how necessary they are, the safer we will all be.
Hopefully, this post has inspired you to look into vitamin deficiencies, so you can go forth and learn about the ones we haven’t mentioned here. Good luck on your journey to vitamin health, try not to worry too much, and just be sure to get yourself checked, to ensure your health.
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