Fact Check: Do Vitamin B12 Levels In Your Blood Increase The Risk of Heart Diseases?

Heart diseases are one of the leading causes of death globally, yet it is not the biggest cause of concern for people. It is not just an unhealthy lifestyle that can push you to cardiovascular diseases. Sometimes when your body lacks important components, it can tip your heart health sideways. Unexpected things like too much stress, lack of vitamin D, as well as too much vitamin B (according to some studies) can increase your risk of heart diseases. However, a surprising deficiency that can increase your risk of heart diseases is B12. However, how is a vitamin, whose role is to support nerve and brain function, responsible for your heart health? How Does B12 Vitamin Affect Heart Health? Another function of vitamin is forming healthy red blood vessels and DNA. While vitamin B12 is crucial for our health, but it hasn't been clear how a person's B12 levels relate to their risk of death. To understand this better, a study published in the 2024 Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, conducted a comprehensive review and analysis of existing studies to find out if there's a link between B12 levels and the risk of dying from all causes, heart disease, or cancer. What they found was that People with very high B12 levels (over 600 pmol/L) had a 50% higher risk of death from any cause and more than double the risk of death from heart disease.Even moderately high levels (400-600 pmol/L) were linked to a 34% higher risk of death from any cause.They analyzed 22 studies that included a total of 92,346 people. The results showed a clear pattern: For every increase of 100 pmol/L in serum vitamin B12, there was a 4% higher risk of death from any cause in the general population.This risk was even higher for older adults, who had a 6% higher risk of death for the same increase in B12 levels.The connection was a straight, linear trend, meaning the risk steadily increased as B12 levels went up. Can A Lack Of Vitamin B12 Also Cause Heart Diseases? To find this a 2023 study published in the BMC, looked at vitamin B12 (B12), a marker for B12 deficiency called methylmalonic acid (MMA), and the risk of death has been unclear, especially for people with coronary heart disease (CHD). This study aimed to explore how MMA and B12—from blood levels, diet, or supplements—are connected to the risk of death from any cause and from cardiovascular issues in adults with CHD. Researchers used data from a major US health survey to conduct this study. They included 1,755 adults who already had coronary heart disease (CHD) and whose levels of B12 and a related marker called MMA were measured. The study also looked at how much B12 the participants got from their diet. These individuals were followed for an average of nearly eight years to track how many of them passed away. The study's key findings were about the connection between B12, MMA, and mortality: Out of the 1,755 people in the study, 980 died during the follow-up period. The study found no significant link between a person's B12 levels (from blood, diet, or supplements) and their risk of death. In contrast, people with the highest levels of MMA had a 70% higher risk of death from any cause and double the risk of death from cardiovascular problems compared to those with the lowest MMA levels. Interestingly, the risk of death from high MMA levels was even greater for participants who had a sufficient amount of B12 in their blood. In fact, CHD patients with high levels of both MMA and B12 had twice the risk of death compared to those with lower levels of both. The study suggests that for patients with coronary heart disease, high levels of MMA are strongly linked to an increased risk of death, especially from cardiovascular causes. This was true even when their blood and dietary B12 levels were normal. This "paradox" may indicate that the body's ability to properly use vitamin B12 is what's important, not just the amount present in the blood. Conclusion Both studies and many experts agree that lack of vitamin B12 is an alarming factor for your heart health, however too much of it is also a risk variable. Before you make changes to your diet, whether to increase or decrease your vitamin B12 intake, make sure you speak to your healthcare professional to get a better idea of how much of it do you need.

Fact Check: Do Vitamin B12 Levels In Your Blood Increase The Risk of Heart Diseases?

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