The name of your B vitamins makes a huge difference!

When you do your research, you’ll find out whether your vitamins came from nature or were synthesized in a laboratory (synthetic).

Certain synthetic vitamins have been proven to be dangerous, causing cardiovascular disease and even cancer!

Quality is often a serious problem when it comes to over-the-counter vitamins, but now we are talking about safety.

***Synthetic Vitamin E, Beta Carotene, Vitamin C, and B Vitamins have all been linked to serious health issues, diseases, and even death.

For example, Synthetic B Vitamins were Linked to Increased Cancer Risk + Death…….. Oh My!

A 2009 follow-up study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) analyzed 2 prior double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials.

Out of 6,837 patients, those who supplemented with synthetic vitamin B12 and folic acid experienced:

*21% increase in cancer
*38% increase in death from ANY disease

That same review noted a separate folic acid trial, which actually INCREASED the number of cancerous polyps compared to the placebo group.

How can this be? And why isn’t it all over the news and social media??

When you understand how synthetic B Vitamins are made you can better understand the dangers.

Firstly, they are not methylated like they are in nature, so your body can’t process them. That’s a BIG problem for the 40% of our population with genetic mutations who can’t convert folic acid into usable B9.

What does Methylation mean?

I’ll write an entire blog on this issue, so for now I’m going to keep it simple.

Basically, methylation is a chemical reaction that occurs in every cell and tissue in your body.

If we look at the chemistry, methylation is the process of adding methyl groups to a molecule. Well, doesn’t that sound simple….

A ‘methyl group’ is a chemical structure made of one carbon and three hydrogen atoms. Methyl groups are chemically inert, so when they are added to a protein (the process of methylation), it changes how that protein reacts to other substances in the body, thus affecting how that protein behaves. Enzymes, hormones, and even genes are proteins, therefore the process of methylation affects your genetic expression, detoxification, and enzyme activity to name a few.

You may have heard of DNA sequence variants called Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP); there are some that prevent some people from “methylating” properly, so taking certain supplements, in the proper form is essential, synthetics can be especially harmful to those with these mutations.

For example, Methylated Folate is called 5-methyl tetrahydrofolate or MTHF (this is the good one), so don’t take anything that lists Folic Acid, this is synthetic.

Secondly, certain B Vitamins need to be with other natural co-factors and nutrients in order to be properly absorbed and utilized, like how they are found in real foods… But isolated synthetic B Vitamins often don’t come with these, so you’re wasting your money.

Have you ever had bright yellow pee after taking your B complex? Well, that is what I call “expensive urine”, because you’re peeing out most of your B Vitamins.

See, they are really difficult to absorb, even the natural ones, so add the fact that most are synthetic and you’re hardly getting much of what you paid for and likely doing yourself more harm.

Thirdly, absorption is an issue as we age. There is a small part of your colon that absorbs B 12 and this portion of your intestines shrinks as you age, leaving less surface area available to absorb the good stuff. It’s well known that elderly people need more B Vitamins than younger folks.

Keeping your gut healthy, helps increase your ability to absorb your nutrients.

I have an entire book on Gut Health and how to repair your gut.

Avoiding things like gluten, dairy, processed foods, soy, and sugar can make a huge difference.

Fourthly, manufacturers are taking the cheap route! Most Vitamin B12 supplements on the market are Cyanocobalamin, synthetic, cheap, and contain a cyanide component. Ummm, that’s a poison! No thank you.

How are these synthetic vitamins made?

They’re often derived from coal tar, cyanide, petroleum, and even genetically modified bacteria. Yuck!

Good Kinds of B12

  • Methylcobalamin
  • Hydroxocobalamin

Bad Kinds of B12

  • Cyanocobalamin

Absorbable Forms of B Vitamins

  • Injections of B 12 intramuscular (doesn’t hurt a bit, it can go in your thigh or butt muscle)
  • IV B vitamins, get into your body quickly and bypasses possible absorption issues
  • Liposomal B Vitamins, when the liposomal delivery system is done correctly and the molecules are small enough to enter through the cell wall, then the B vitamin can be deposited directly where it needs to be.

Food Sources of B vitamins

  • Organ meats: may sound gross but they are so nutritious for you. There are also grassfed organ meat pill supplements. Paleovalley makes a good one.
  • Eggs (a challenge because they are high on the hidden allergen list and they cause inflammation in many people)
  • Meat especially beef , and also chicken and turkey (often difficult to digest as we get older so taking digestive enzymes and Betaine HCL with pepsin and gentian bitters can really help you digest and absorb your nutrients)
  • Salmon- make sure to get wild, no added colorants, or sustainable raised without hormones and antibiotics
  • Leafy Greens like spinach, collard greens, and turnip greens
  • Oysters, clams, mussels
  • Nutritional/Brewers Yeast: can be an issue if you have candida or other digestive issues
  • Trout
  • Sunflower Seeds

The study we just discussed was inspired by a 20-year-long research project that showed people who ate more fruits and vegetables tended to have less cancer.

They were trying to replicate those results with supplementation, but they used synthetic nutrients instead.

They were missing one very important thing… food! And the complex chemical structures that Mother Nature intended for us.

Food is medicine!

And you must be digesting and absorbing well to receive the benefit of all of your healthy eating

The moral of this story is to get your nutrients from FOOD or supplements made from REAL whole foods and ditch the synthetics. And get the healthy B 12 (oral, injection or IV) and the proper methylated folate.