IMPORTANCE: Helps in the formation & regeneration of red blood cells, thus helping prevent anemia; necessary for carbohydrate, fat & protein metabolism; maintains a healthy nervous system; promotes growth in children; increases energy; needed for Calcium absorption. DEFICIENCY SYMPTOMS: May lead to pernicious anemia, poor appetite, growth failure in children, tiredness, brain damage, nervousness, neuritis, degeneration of spinal cord, depression, lack of balance.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, cure or prevent disease.

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Other Ingredients:

mannitol, sorbitol and natural lemon flavor.

Cobalamin is more commonly known as vitamin B12. Vitamin B12 is composed of a complex tetrapyrrol ring structure (corrin ring) and a cobalt ion in the center. Vitamin B12 is synthesized exclusively by microorganisms and is found in the liver of animals bound to protein as methycobalamin or 5'-deoxyadenosylcobalamin. The vitamin must be hydrolyzed from protein in order to be active. Hydrolysis occurs in the stomach by gastric acids or the intestines by trypsin digestion following consumption of animal meat. The vitamin is then bound by intrinsic factor, a protein secreted by parietal cells of the stomach, and carried to the ileum where it is absorbed. Following absorption the vitamin is transported to the liver in the blood bound to transcobalamin II.

There are only two clinically significant reactions in the body that require vitamin B12 as a cofactor. During the catabolism of fatty acids with an odd number of carbon atoms and the amino acids valine, isoleucine and threonine the resultant propionyl-CoA is converted to succinyl-CoA for oxidation in the TCA cycle. One of the enzymes in this pathway, methylmalonyl-CoA mutase, requires vitamin B12 as a cofactor in the conversion of methylmalonyl-CoA to succinyl-CoA. The 5'-deoxyadenosine derivative of cobalamin is required for this reaction.

The second reaction requiring vitamin B12 catalyzes the conversion of homocysteine to methionine and is catalyzed by methionine synthase. This reaction results in the transfer of the methyl group from N5-methyltetrahydrofolate to hydroxycobalamin generating tetrahydrofolate (THF) and methylcobalamin during the process of the conversion.

Clinical Significances of B-12 Deficiency

The liver can store up to six years worth of vitamin B12, hence deficiencies in this vitamin are rare. Pernicious anemia is a megaloblastic anemia resulting from vitamin B12 deficiency that develops as a result a lack of intrinsic factor in the stomach leading to malabsorption of the vitamin. The anemia results from impaired DNA synthesis due to a block in purine and thymidine biosynthesis. The block in nucleotide biosynthesis is a consequence of the effect of vitamin B12 on folate metabolism. When vitamin B12 is deficient essentially all of the folate becomes trapped as the N5-methylTHF derivative as a result of the loss of functional methionine synthase. This trapping prevents the synthesis of other THF derivatives required for the purine and thymidine nucleotide biosynthesis pathways.

Neurological complications also are associated with vitamin B12 deficiency and result from a progressive demyelination of nerve cells. The demyelination is thought to result from the increase in methylmalonyl-CoA that result from vitamin B12 deficiency. Methylmalonyl-CoA is a competitive inhibitor of malonyl-CoA in fatty acid biosynthesis as well as being able to substitute for malonyl-CoA in any fatty acid biosynthesis that may occur. Since the myelin sheath is in continual flux the methylmalonyl-CoA-induced inhibition of fatty acid synthesis results in the eventual destruction of the sheath. The incorporation methylmalonyl-CoA into fatty acid biosynthesis results in branched-chain fatty acids being produced that may severely alter the architecture of the normal membrane structure of nerve cells