*Vitamin B12 or cobalamin* is a nutrient that helps keep your body’s blood and nerve cells healthy and helps make DNA, the genetic material in all of your cells.
It is an essential nutrient that your body can’t make on its own, so you need to get it from your diet or from supplements.
Vitamin B12 also helps prevent megaloblastic anemia, a blood condition that makes people tired and weak.
Vitamin B12 binds to the protein in the foods we eat.
Vitamin B12 is naturally present in foods of animal origin, including fish, meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products. In addition, fortified breakfast cereals and fortified nutritional yeasts are readily available sources of vitamin B12 that have high bioavailability.
It can also be added to foods or supplements.
When taken at appropriate doses, vitamin B-12 supplements are generally considered safe.
