METHYLCOBALAMIN VS CYANOCOBALAMIN: Which VITAMIN B12 IS BEST

1. Greetings, everyone! I'm. This is the Better Health While Aging Article hosted by Satyam,
2. board-certified geriatrician and the founder of the website betterhealthwhileaging.net. In it, we talk about common health issues that affect people over 60 and the best ways to prevent and manage them. Now, today's episode is going to be a little bit different than the usual ones in that it is a follow up on another recent Articl
3. ticular, it's a follow-up question regarding vitamin B12. As a result, I recently released an episode on B12 deficiency. In fact, it has been very well received. Thank you so much to everyone who watched, shared, and Like. In point of fact, if you enjoyed that episode or the Site as a whole and haven't Like yet, please do so because it really does help the Page reach more viewers and supports my work. So about the follow up, I I want to address a follow up question that many people posted in the comments which related to what type of vitamin B12 supplement to take.

4. I explained in the previous video, vitamin B12 deficiency can typically be treated or prevented with a daily oral supplement of 1,000 to 2,000 micrograms. However, it is true that oral vitamin B12 supplements are available in a few different forms in the United States, most commonly in one of two forms. As a result,

5.people frequently questioned whether they should take methylcobalamin or cyanocobalamin as a vitamin B12 supplement. Now actually, that was not really the most common question. I kept seeing the same question or comment repeatedly: why aren't you telling people that it's really important that they should be taking methylcobalamin?" Even though I didn't go into great detail about it in the first video, I've done my homework, given it some thought, and come to a well-informed conclusion about it.

6.So I decided it would be worthwhile to record a short follow up episode addressing this question, the difference between these forms of vitamin B12 and which one people should take. So specifically in this video, I'm going to start off by covering the main types of supplemental vitamin B12 that are available and how they differ from each other so you can understand that a little better. After that, I'll discuss the findings of the research regarding the use of cyanocobalamin and methylcobalamin to treat vitamin B12 deficiency. I'll also tell you which form I recommend and why at the end. So let's get started.

7.A scholarly paper that was recently published in the journal Molecule was therefore one resource that I found to be extremely helpful when conducting a review of this subject. Permit me to demonstrate this article right now. As a result, this article is a resource that I found extremely helpful in researching vitamin B12 and getting ready specifically to address this very common question. In 2022, a brand-new, highly technical academic paper was published in the journal molecules. The authors, all of whom hold doctoral degrees in pharmacy, are Italian. Clicking here will take you to the Faculty of Pharmacy in Slovenia and the Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Trieste in Italy, where the authors are from. So this is an extremely, extremely detailed take on different types of vitamin B12 and almost everything that you would ever want to know about it. Section five, I believe, contains information that is particularly pertinent to the discussion or question

8. I will address today. But if you really want to know all about this, this is a great resource and I will post a link to it in the notes that are related to this episode. Now, let's review right now together the main types of supplemental vitamin B12 that are available. Therefore, something known as cyanocobalamin was the one that was used the most frequently for a significant amount of time. So cobalamin is the technical name for vitamin B12, and there's often a little prefix before which reflects what type of cobalamin it is. In addition, if you wanted to see this in a chemistry-like format, the molecule of vitamin B12 has a basic structure and one additional location where a small addition can be added. And in cyanocobalamin, the add on is a carbon and nitrogen, which is, you know, essentially cyanide. Additionally, it is a methyl group in methylcobalamin. And I can show you what that looks like in a moment.

9.Therefore, cyanocobalamin is in fact a manufactured form of vitamin B12. I believe it was first synthesized in the 1950s. Because it is so stable, it is fairly simple to store in supplements or on the shelf. It is inexpensive and has been used by medical professionals frequently for decades. So this is the substance that has been used in clinical research for the treatment of vitamin B12 deficiency. It's been used as intramuscular injections. Even today, if you go to the clinic and they are giving vitamin B12 shots, this is probably what you are getting. And it also has been used as a high dose oral supplement. So this is a form of vitamin B12 that we have a lot of experience with and it overall has a very good track record. But there are other forms of vitamin B12.

10.In addition, one of three naturally occurring forms of vitamin B12 would be found in meat if you were to examine it. Methylcobalamin is the form that is currently being used the most frequently as a supplement. Now, this can be more expensive often than cyanocobalamin and it is generally going to be a little less stable as a supplement. If you want to know more about that in depth, that other article I was showing you, they go into depth on the stability of these different forms under different circumstances, which is relevant when it comes to the fortification of foods or the production of high quality supplements.

11.So it's less stable. As a supplement, it appears to be less stable, but the body seems to retain it better because it is more bioavailable. And then there are some other forms that exist as well. And I'm going to speak to two others which are the two other naturally occurring forms that we also often find in meat. One is adenosyl cobalamin, that's the form that is probably most prevalent in beef. And another one is hydroxocobalamin. Therefore, for those of you who are interested in this kind of thing, let's quickly examine how these appear from a chemical standpoint. Okay, so this comes from the vitamin B12 page on Wikipedia.

12. This whole thing is the vitamin B12 molecule, and the part that differs between the various forms of supplemental vitamin B12 is this tiny spot that says R. Therefore, it could be the adenosyl group; technically, it is a 5 deoxyadenosyl group. It could be a CH3 group, a methyl group, or a hydroxy group. Oh, or a cyanide group, CN and so that is the difference. And that's going to be relevant because as I'm going to explain to you, no matter which form you take in, when it comes into the body, the body removes that little R group for a while and then later on in the cells, that group will be added back, generally either a methyl group or an adenosyl group. Those are the actual forms that are utilized within your cells.

13.Thus, four forms of additional vitamin B12. And in the United States, the ones that are most commonly found in oral supplements are cyanocobalamin and methylcobalamin. And so again, to kind of compare them. So cyanocobalamin is the form usually used in medical clinics. It is the form that is referenced, for instance, in UpToDate.com, which is the most commonly used clinical reference in the United States that is used by physicians. Methylcobalamin, on the other hand, is the form that, in my experience, has historically been frequently recommended by naturopaths, practitioners of functional medicine, and other kinds of health professionals. Additionally, because it is one of the biologically active forms of cobalamin, it has been hypothesized to be superior. It's a naturally occurring form of cobalamin.

14. Additionally, it has been assumed that its effectiveness in the body must be greater. However, the real question we ought to ask ourselves is whether there is any evidence to suggest that one form of vitamin B12 performs significantly better than the other. That is also what I will discuss with you today. So what is the current scientific understanding of vitamin B12? Again, if you really want to learn everything there is to know about this, I strongly suggest that you read the paper and the resource I mentioned, especially Section 5 2. However, the section that explains the various forms of vitamin B12 and how they are processed in the body includes the following highlights: Therefore, the body absorbs all four forms of vitamin B12 either through intrinsic factor or passive diffusion in individuals with pernicious anemia who do not produce intrinsic factor. And once more, if you're not sure what all of that means, please watch the first video on vitamin B12,

15.where I'll explain it in detail. So all four forms do get absorbed into the body and then they are converted to a cobalamin intermediate in the cytosol. That is how it is in the cells. Even though this is very technical, it will say that the ligands of the particular form of supplemental vitamin B12, methyl and cyanohydroxyadenosyl, are removed. So again, that little R group that I was showing you in the diagram of vitamin B12 that gets taken off, doesn't matter which form you took into your body, it will get taken off by the body and then later the intermediate is converted into methylcobalamin in certain parts of the cell or into adenosylcobalamin in the mitochondria. So the conclusion of those authors was that therefore, for the greater part of the population, the bioavailability of all four vitamin B12 forms cyanocobalamin, hydroxycobalamin, methylcobalamin, or Adenosylcobalamin is con