You Can Develop This Skin Disease From Taking Too Much Vitamin B12 Supplement

Your body needs essential vitamins and minerals to function properly. For instance, to keep the cells in your blood and nerve health, your sufficient body amounts of vitamin B12. This important vitamin also plays a major role in the production of DNA.

Animal products such as meat, fish, eggs, poultry, milk, and other types of milk products are good sources of vitamin B12. This essential vitamin, however, is not present in plant foods, and as such, this causes issues with those who have embraced veganism.

Fighting B12 Deficiency

People who wanted to lose weight often use a vegan diet to help them achieve their goals. This is particularly true for those who are strictly observing Veganuary where their diet for the entire month consists mainly of vegetables, fruits, and nuts. This is to help shed off the excess weight gained during the holidays.

Many of those who observe vegan diets know they need to acquire sufficient amounts of vitamin B12 without partaking meat or meat products. Some turn to fortified breakfast cereals while others take vitamin B supplements. While both of these practices help you get the amount of vitamin B12 you need, taking too many supplements may not be good, after all.

The Sign on Your Face

For a long time, some people believe that taking more than the recommended dose of vitamin B12 is good for their health. The findings of a recent study revealed the opposite.

Researchers were able to prove that taking excessive amounts of vitamin B12 can cause negative side effects. One clear indication that a person is taking too much of this supplement is when acne and rosacea begin to develop.

The Study

Huiying Li, an author of this new study and assistant professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, said there is a strong link between acne and B12. She said that high amounts of vitamin B12 in the body leads to acne and rosacea outbreaks. These skin conditions are characterized by red and pus-filled bumps in various parts of the body, particularly the face.

Li and her team investigated the variances between skin bacteria from those who are prone to developing acne and bacteria from those who have clear skin. They then looked at the gene expression of the bacteria, trying to figure out why Propionibacterium acnes, the most common skin microbe, cause pimples to develop only in some people. The researchers found that vitamin B12 somehow altered the skin bacteria’s gene expression. There is a strong possibility this could have caused acne-promoting inflammation.

Researchers say B12 supplements blocked the expression of genes in P. acnes that are involved in synthesizing the vitamin. The research team also said that the genes’ expression was reduced to levels similar to people with acne problems.

Evidence also suggests that high B12 doses can also cause many other health problems, particularly to patients suffering from kidney disease and diabetes.

There is also some evidence suggesting that high doses of B12 may lead to other negative health outcomes in those with diabetes and kidney disease. The findings in this new study show that where there are too much vitamin B12, bacteria undergo changes in gene expression, causing the suppression of the vitamin’s synthesis.