Tired, listless, overstimulated? It's a familiar one. The condition could be due to a vitamin B12 deficiency. So why not take the shortcut and cover the need via the pill? Because not all preparations are good, as Öko-Test says.
Vitamins are micro-nutrients that are essential for the body. And indeed, the term vita comes from Latin and means life. However, scholars disagree as to whether an additional intake of the various substances in the form of dietary supplements is necessary. The common family doctor usually comes to the conclusion that healthy people get enough of it through a balanced diet and that an additional supplement is only good for the manufacturer.
Vitamin B12 is also welcome. This should provide the necessary drive in life and help against tiredness, listlessness and irritability. However, as more and more people reduce their meat consumption or adopt a plant-based diet, the market for vitamin B12 supplements is booming. Because cobalamin, as it is scientifically called, is found almost exclusively in animal foods. However, since the body, with a few exceptions, cannot produce vitamins itself, it is also dependent on the supply of B12 through food. This means that if you are vegan or strictly vegetarian, you have to get vitamin B12, which is significantly involved in blood formation, cell division and nerve function, in other ways. A deficiency can have serious health consequences such as nerve damage, which in the worst case are irreversible.
If there really is a defect. Whether this is actually the case can only be shown by measuring the corresponding blood values. But since such an examination is not covered by health insurance, an examination is usually not carried out and the preparations are simply thrown in on suspicion.
Öko-Test wanted to know what common vitamin B12 preparations are good for and examined 29 of them. These include 3 over-the-counter and pharmacy-only medicines and one over-the-counter traditional medicine (Vitasprint). Another product - the "Vitamin B12 Loges 1000 µg capsules" - is a food for special medical purposes.
tenor of the investigation? Anyone who is healthy and eats animal-based foods does not need B12 supplements. Neither against "tiredness and exhaustion", as several providers suggest, nor "to ensure energy and performance in everyday life". In contrast, the effectiveness of the three pharmacy-only drugs "B12-Asmedic drops", "Vitamin B12-Ratiopharm 10 µg, tablets" (both "very good") and "B12 Ankermann 1000 µg, tablets" ("good") as well as the vitamin B12 capsules from Loges ("very good") sufficiently documented. They are used in the event of a vitamin B12 deficiency or to prevent it.
The "Vitalis Vitamin B12 Ampoules, Raspberry" from Aldi Süd for EUR 0.48 per maximum recommended daily dose of 17.5 µg (EUR 0.48) was the only B12 food supplement to be rated "very good". Because most of the other dietary supplements in the test contain more than 25 micrograms (µg) of vitamin B12 per recommended daily dose. From the point of view of the testers, who followed the maximum quantity suggestions of the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, they are sometimes extremely overdosed. Many of the dietary supplements are only rated "satisfactory" or "sufficient".
In three dietary supplements - including the two rated "poor" - "Doc Morris vitamin B12 mini tablets" and "Vitamaze vitamin B12 drops", the B12 levels measured in the laboratory deviate too much from those declared. In fact, both preparations contain 150 µg and 500 µg respectively of vitamin B12. That is 20 or 50 percent more than indicated.
The losers in the test, however, were the "Vitasprint B12 drinking bottles" from the manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline, which were penalized as "insufficient" and cost 2.60 euros per highest recommended daily dose. The effectiveness of the product, which is approved as a traditional medicine, is not sufficiently proven for the declared area of application "traditionally used to improve general well-being" from Öko-Test's point of view. Four grades were deducted for this. In addition, two marks for the fact that there is no indication on the packaging and the package insert of the Vitasprint B12 drinking bottles that a vegan or strictly vegetarian diet can lead to a B12 deficiency.
(This article was first published on Friday, January 27, 2023.)
