Monday, June 4, 2018

VIOLENT BEHAVIOR: A [NUTRITIONAL] SOLUTION IN PLAIN SIGHT

We live in violent times. Americans are seven times more likely to die of homicide and twenty times more likely to die from shooting than people in other developed countries.1 Between 1984 and 1994, the number of young murderers under age eighteen in the U.S. increased threefold.2-4
In the 1990s, a new form of deadly violence raised its head in America. The first mass school slaying occurred in 1992 when Wayne Lo killed a student and a professor at a remote school in Massachusetts. This act set the stage for an escalating pattern of chilling destruction aimed at students and carried out by students, violence that increases every year. From the 1999 Columbine shootings in Colorado to the recent shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, Americans are desperately searching for answers.
In his book Confronting Violence: Answers to Questions About the Epidemic Destroying America’s Homes and Communities, George Gellert, (1997), MD, discusses “tested strategies to prevent violent crime” without providing any evidence that any of these strategies—electronic tracking, hotlines, education, and traininghave actually worked. In fact, it is obvious that they have not.5
The disturbing tendencies we see today contrast strongly with Dr. Weston Price’s descriptions of harmonious, well-nourished primitive cultures—from smiling, joyful South Sea Islanders to highly spiritual Gaelic fisherfolk to Swiss villagers celebrating “one for all and all for one” during their summer festivals.6 Likewise, Dr. Francis Pottenger described peaceful, harmonious behavior among well-nourished cats. Both cats and humans degenerated into disharmonious behavior patterns with the change to foods devitalized by heat and processing.7
Modern commentators are blind to the solution, a solution that is in plain sight: clearly defining good nutrition and putting it back into the mouths of our children, starting before they are even conceived. . . because food is information and that information directly affects the emotions, the nervous system, the brain, and behavior.
FAT-SOLUBLE VITAMINS
The brain and nervous system require specific nutrients to function properly, and the evidence is overwhelming that nutrient deficiencies can lead to aggression and violent behavior. Let’s start with the fat-soluble vitamins, vitamins A, D3, and K2, so important in the diets of primitive peoples.
Preformed vitamin A, called retinoic acid, is critical to brain development. Receptors in the amygdala, hippocampus, and other paralimbic brain regions suggest that vitamin A signaling plays a vital role in cognitive function.8 When vitamin A is lacking during gestation, as it is for most mothers in our fat-phobic society, children may be set up for abnormal behavior patterns later in life.
In animals, vitamin A deficiency results in problems with spatial learning and memory. Vitamin A deficiency may lead to dopamine receptor hypo-activity and the typical symptoms of schizophrenia, such as flat affect, apathy and lack of insight, as well as hallucinations and delusions. 9 Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe and serious brain disorder. People with schizophrenia hear voices and believe people are controlling them.10
Recent studies from the U.K. show that low levels of vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) are associated with increased risk of depression and panic. Researchers from the Children’s Hospital and Research Center in Oakland, California, defined the role of vitamin D in neurological health, pointing out the wide distribution of vitamin D throughout the brain. The vitamin affects portions of the brain involved in learning and memory, as well as motor control.11
Vitamin D is very much involved in production of serotonin, the molecule of willpower, and delayed gratification. Decreased serotonin activity can lead to an inability to create and act on well-formed plans.12
There are many vitamin D receptors in the brain. Bright light going through the eyes increases serotonin productionsunglasses block this effectand sunscreen blocks the vitamin D formation in the skin.13
Studies with rats show that the production of serotonin is directly related to duration of bright sunlight. Sunbathing and exposure to bright light during the day can have a similar effect to antidepressants and, of course, are far safer. Other ways to boost serotonin in the dark of winter are exercise, massage and happy memories,14 and, of course, vitamin D-rich food.
Calcitriol, the hormonally active form of vitamin D, accumulates in the adrenals, and this stimulates the production of the gene for tyrosine hydroxylase, which is involved in serotonin production. Serotonin synthesis is thought to be dependent on the duration of light exposure the previous summer.15
Less is known about the correlation between vitamin K2 status and behavior. However, research has shown that vitamin K2 is involved in the biochemistry of nervous tissue and is needed for the formation of myelin.16,17 Vitamin K2 contributes to the biological activation of proteins Gas6, which are involved in many cellular functions such as cell growth, survival, and apoptosis. In the brain, vitamin K2 also participates in the synthesis of sphingolipids, an important lipid present in high concentrations in brain cell membranes. Vitamin K2 can affect psychomotor behavior and cognition.18 Weston Price cured a child of seizures with high-vitamin butter oil, rich in vitamin K2.19
All these vitamins were consumed in very high levels in primitive diets.19 Today, due to disastrous dietary advice, most people avoid the dietary sources of these critical nutrients—egg yolks, butter, organ meats, meat fats, goose and chicken liver, cod liver oil, fish eggs and oily fish, and some fermented foods like sauerkraut.20

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

PEOPLE WALKERS of LOS ANGELES

Saturday, May 19, 2018

PROLONGED SITTING AND BRAIN ATROPHY. GET UP, GET MOVING, & TAKE RESVERATROL

I got sick of sitting.  Literally.  In those Memorial Day, Twilight Zone marathons, one could easily get sick of sitting.  One, two, maybe three episodes, and I got to get up.  And I did, often to find more productive activities.  

I got sick of sitting, too, when I drove for a transportation outfit in Denver, hauling supplies to hardware and other stores in the mountain towns of Vail, Carbondale, and Aspen.  The schlep from Denver to Carbondale was 3 hours.  That's three hours of straight sitting, and after a handful of stops in the area, I'd have to drive it back . . . another 3 hours sitting.  My legs cramped.  Circulation caused pin-like needling.  It was awful.  And still, I stuck it out.  I needed the money.   
Turns out now that there is scientific proof now for the unpleasant experience of sitting for hours on end.  Today, I sit too much, too, because I work on the computer most of the day.  I've switched that out, however, for a desk of sorts where I can type while standing up.  Find a way to get up.  If you don't have that avaiable to you, then find a way to take breaks at 30-minute or 60-minutes intervals.  Further, we're not just talking about folks who sit for so long but also folks who've handed over too much power to their handheld devices and to sensitive individuals, who used to get tagged as "Emo's."  One should not abscond themselves to the dark recesses of their bed, lights off, blinds closed, with earplugs being their only connection to sensient life.  First, you don't want any part of your body to atrophy.  Zero.  Don't rationalize a foreboding outcome in favor of laziness or somehow justify that because things aren't going your way or you aren't being loved enough.  Remember the title of that Yes song, "Owner of a Lonely Heart"?  Great song.  Not my favorite, but great.  But those lyrics support your strength, since so many times we make emotional decisions based on neediness.  Not good.  
According to the study, the news pertains to middle-aged folks.  That in middle-aged folks, sitting for prolonged periods of time frays the lining of the medial temporal lobe, the Hippocampus being the major brain structure in that lobe.  Think truck drivers, taxi drivers, call-center workers, dispatchers, computer operators, and others.  This affects a lot of people not to make this information alarming news.  But I am not alarming you because you already know this.  But I don't think that UCLA suddenly exercised its empathetic or do-gooder's muscles.  I think that with the number of digital products available to people that American society is losing some brain and brain power.  Kids and adults sit and lie down a lot more now either to bounce around on social media, email, or something fun and interesting on Netflix, Hulu, or Kindle.  More people are on their backs or arse a lot more.  And given how the major media outlets have been bleeding, they are definitely upping their game to grab more and more of your attention.  Some people simply can't put these devices down for fear that they would stop learning something new.  And THAT IS the addiction.  
Prolonged periods of sitting in middle age is tied to brain atrophy, new research shows.
Using MRI, investigators found sedentary behavior is a significant predictor of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) thinning and its substructures and that physical activity, even at high levels, does not offset the harmful effects of sitting for extended periods.
What's at stake is brain volume.  Like so many organs in our bodies, they do give way to age.  Our Thymus, the immune system's master gland, shrinks on average about 1% per year.  Zinc regrows it to its original size, a fact ignored by almost everyone, but the point is that our organs undergo annual shrinkage.  Knowing that, would you still pursue risky behaviors that accelerate this shrinkage or impede their repair and regrowth?  One wonders.  

The LA Times reviewed the UCLA study and pointed out that 
The study did not find any correlation between subjects' exercise habits and the thickness of either their medial temporal lobe or its constituent structures. That surprised the researchers since other work has found that brain volume is generally greater — and cognitive performance is better — in people who work out more. 
Get that?  The greater the brain volume, the better its function.  And though the point is made
Even for people who are physically active, sitting a lot seems to be bad for your brain,
neither the review nor the study offer nutritional solutions to offset or reverse the damage from long-term sitting.  According to the study, no amount of and no kind of exercise reverses the damaging effects of sitting for prolonged periods of time.  You just can't rebuild brain volume.  Or can you?  And the study, apparently, only looked at the results of long periods of sitting but not what it is about long-term sitting that causes the thinning of the Medial Temporal Lobe where your Hippocampus is located.  Is it the deleterious effects that sitting has on your metabolism?  Is it poor circulation?  These are important questions to ask to measure the seriousness of the condition.  So far, the cause of brain thinning is a mystery.  And the study only shows a correlation . . . and a strong causation as well.  Toward the end of her LA Times review of the study, Melissa Healy does hint that the thinning may, in fact, be caused by poor metabolism.  
The brain, of course, relies on adequate supplies of oxygen and nutrients to maintain itself and resist the depredations of aging. If sitting too long is compromising those supplies, then it stands to reason that our delicate cortical structures will have trouble maintaining the volume and density they had when we were young, Siddarth said.
So the message is clear.  Prolonged sitting is bad.  So get up.  Prabha Siddarth, Ph.D, lead author of the UCLA study, and LA Times' reviewer, Healy, both insist that you get up.  And if you sit long hours during the day, set hourly alarms or email notices on your computer to remind you to get up off your arse. 
For those looking to keep their brains plump and their memories sharp, Siddarth said the message is clear: Get up. Pace while talking on the phone, dance with your headphones on, take a walk at lunch. And if you're at a computer all day, set hourly alarms that remind you to stand and march around.
Okay, so we know that prolonged sitting is bad for our health.  But we already knew this.  Remeber those cross-country treks in the old station wagon in mid-August.  Yeah, that one through Yuma, Arizona, where after driving for 2 hours in the Sonoran Desert, you asked to stop at any gas station or rest stop . . . just to stretch your legs.  There still is one point made in the study that bothers me.  It's "that physical activity, even at high levels, does not offset the harmful effects of sitting for extended periods."  Really?  Exercise cannot replenish brain volume?  Is she sure?  Is she positive?  What about stroke victims?  Don't doctors recommend exercise and better nutrition to get them back to work or to function?  Ditto with brain injured folks, like athletes.  
Now for the good news.  Took you long enough. 
Your brain volume changes through your lifetime.  It's not a one way trip to Hell in a handbasket or as a basket case.  Now the first sentence of the first article I find at NCBI on brain volume states this
Physical exercise has been shown to increase brain volume and improve cognition in randomized trials of non-demented elderly.
Which fits in with the lead author's recommendation to "Pace while talking on the phone, dance with your headphones on, take a walk at lunch."  

DANCE, WALK, TAKE A HIKE
But the study on prolonged sitting was done independent of examining mitigating factors, like exercise and diet, and instead relied on patient reporting.  But that in no way diminishes or devalues the importance of her finding and the lesson drawn from the study: GET UP AND GET MOVING.  That same NCBI report on brain volume concludes
On the basis of published findings showing growth of brain volume with a physical exercise intervention [], we hypothesized that the Walking [aerobic exercise] and Tai Chi [non-aerobic] exercise groups would demonstrate increases in brain volume when compared with the No Intervention group. We further hypothesized that those who walked faster would benefit more than those who walked slower.
So increases in brain volume COMPARED TO . . .  the non-intervention group.  When I walk in the mornings, I see several large groups of Chinese men and women in red T-shirts and white slacks stepping, moving through the air, reaching, and choreographing Tai Chi moves on the morning lawn accompanied by Chinese renditions of mid-century American and English rock-n-roll.  

A word on Tai Chi from that same article. 
The finding that a presumably less aerobic form of exercise, Tai Chi, had the greatest effect on brain growth and cognitive performance was unexpected, although modest gains in aerobic fitness have been demonstrated in clinical trials comparing Tai Chi participants to no intervention []. Tai Chi, which has been described as a type of moving meditation [], requires continuous and sustained attention to maintenance of posture.
What does the Medial Temporal Lobe do that makes it so important? 
It's "essential for declarative memory (conscious memory for facts and events)." 
The medial temporal lobe includes a system of anatomically related structures that are essential for declarative memory (conscious memory for facts and events). The system consists of the hippocampal region (CA fields, dentate gyrus, and subicular complex) and the adjacent perirhinal, entorhinal, and parahippocampal cortices.  [. . . ] this system (a) is principally concerned with memory, (b) operates with neocortex to establish and maintain long-term memory, and (c) ultimately, through a process of consolidation, becomes independent of long-term memory, though questions remain about the role of perirhinal and parahippocampal cortices in this process and about spatial memory in rodents.

Notice how your brain is almost shaped like a mushroom cloud.  It's explosive.  

NUTRITIONAL REPAIR
Yes, there is hope; in fact, beyond hope, antidotes to this reduction in size.  I don't know how many times I've written here about Benfotiamine.  You can see its benefits here and here.  And two, I would get started on an exercise program that targets the brain.  If your joints are a bit crippled, try IP6 to loosen them up.  Benfotiamine should be considered part of a daily brain regimen.  


Here's why there's hope.  The hippocampus-based relational memory [is] sensitive "to the effects of nutrition."
 And this
Long thought of as the top of the body’s food chain, the brain has been shown in recent research to be sensitive to processes occurring elsewhere in the body. Lifestyle factors such as dietary intake, body mass, and physical fitness that affect bodily health can also influence brain structure and function in both humans and animals. 
This is good news.  As is this:
Hippocampal size is also known to increase in response to lifestyle factors including aerobic exercise, education, and intensive cognitive training, such as that experienced by London taxi drivers in training or medical students studying for a certification exam (). Interestingly, as further discussed below, components of dietary intake have beneficial or detrimental effects on hippocampal health (). 
Folic acid is excellent for the brain and the spine.  Seems to me that if you nutritionally support these structures, knowing that a feedback loop exists, that the nutritional support for one organ will support others nearby and distal.  Think of exercise.  When you do some squats notice how the strength in your haunches and legs transfers to other areas, like your lower back and your spine.  The same thing happens with nutrition. 



Finally, Bill Sardi says that you have to be crazy not to be taking Resveratrol for brain health.  The evidence is clear, in fact, it's visually clear: Resveratrol reawakens your brain.  See for yourself.  Find his Longevinex here

Thursday, May 10, 2018

AN ANNOUNCEMENT THAT BENFOTIAMINE CURES AND PREVENTS ALZHEIMER'S IS EXPECTED SOON

A few quotes from Bill Sardi.  

One,
There is a doctor in Italy who is astonishingly curing Parkinson's disease with B1 shots (mostly among alcoholics).   
Two, 
Because of poor absorption, it is unlikely the best diet or fortified foods can overcome a state of B1 deficiency. 
Three,
Vitamin B1 is well provided but just not absorbed or is rapidly excreted (diuretics). 
Four, 
An announcement of the highly absorbable fat-soluble form of vitamin B1 (Benfotiamine) cures and prevents Alzheimer's disease is expected soon
And Five,
One of the ways widespread nutritional deficiencies remain hidden is that blood tests only reveal what is called the reference range (commonly occurring range), not the healthy range.
I remember sitting in an Anatomy class at UC Irvine back in 1990 and how the professor made the comment that vitamin supplements only produce expensive urine.  My thought that followed was "Why would he make such a claim?  Was it to direct all health authority to the practitioners of health, to doctors?  Was he a spokesman for doctors?"  I didn't know.  I didn't know his credentials.  I should have checked.  But it was an Anatomy class.  He made other cracks, too, that I didn't like.  Years passed before I began to understand how universities are staffed with folks loyal to the medical industrial complex and not necessarily to human health.  This is one reason I appreciate the work of nutritional journalists, especially Bill Sardi.  
Sardi in his article, "Just Remember Dietary Supplements Are Not Supported By Science And Are A Waste of Money," reminds us, perhaps constantly so, that nutritional supplements play an important, nay, vital role in providing health, in recovering from illness and injury, as well as stave off the ravages of age-related diseases.  Troubling is the fact that we don't read as much as we should learn about the benefits, or that we begin to read regrettably when it is a bit late.  In his latest reminder, Sardi lists the benefits of certain vitamins. 
Folic Acid prevents spinal defects during birth.
In the 1990s grain products were fortified with folic acid to prevent birth defects (spina bifida, anencephaly) . . . 
Folic Acid prevents strokes; prevents deaths from stroke, and facilitates better and faster recovery.  You probably need to be on Folic Acid daily to get these results.  I wouldn't wait until after the fact if you know what I mean. 
and a decline in stroke-related mortality was reported. Researchers then subsequently reported that 31,000 stroke-associated deaths may have been prevented by folic acid food fortification. Folic acid blood levels doubled during this period (from 6.6 to 15 nanograms/milliliter per blood sample) with an accompanying 14% decline in homocysteine blood levels, which was believed to be the mechanism responsible for the decline.
If you're not familiar with Bill Sardi, a nutritional journalist who has been studying, reviewing, reporting on the supplement industry since the 1970s, and you're unsure whether to take his word, then check his sources.
Here is the Lancet:
Then in 2007 The Lancet journal reported that folic acid (vitamin B9) supplementation reduces stroke risk by 18%.
Here is the Journal of the American Medical Association:
Then again in 2015 the Journal of the American Medical Association reported the combined use of a blood pressure pill (enalapril) and folic acid, but not the drug alone, significantly reduced the risk for first stroke.
Maybe my old UC Irvine Anatomy professor could read an article or two by Bill Sardi and learn . . . learn something beyond the 3 x 5 index card of allowable opinion on vitamin supplements.  But it appears that my old Anatomy professor was not alone, that, in fact, there was an industry consensus that multivitamins were a waste of money.  Read for yourself.
Thereafter organized medicine reached a consensus that:
Dietary supplements are still popular despite little evidence they're useful. – Science-Based Medicine
Study after study has demonstrated that favorites like multivitamins don’t actually improve outcomes on a number of health measures. - VOX.com
Multivitamins are a waste of money, doctors say. – Scientific American
There is no evidence that taking a multivitamin regularly has the ability to ward off chronic diseases. – LiveScience.com
Thankfully, opinions change.  The results of Folic Acid on stroke and its effects are a stunning 73% decline.  
Fast forward to today. . . . News reports claim a massive 73% decline in strokes and stroke-related death among the highest risk patients and a 21% decline in stroke overall with folic acid supplementation.
If we're 65 and older, we should be taking Folic Acid daily.  
About 795,000 people suffer a stroke each year in the U.S. and more than 140,000 people die from stroke. Most strokes occur among adults over age 65. If a recent study holds true for every senior American, the consumption of a multivitamin with folic acid could reduce the number of strokes from 795,000 to 628,050 (166,950 fewer strokes). Stroke death rates would dramatically plunge too. And they say vitamin supplements are worthless. Go figure.
Folic Acid reduces strokes in folks with high blood pressure from 5.6% to 1.8%.  Can you doctor's prescription claim that?  Ha.
Strokes occur among individuals who have high blood pressure. Their risk for stroke is 5.6% and folic acid drastically reduces this risk to 1.8% in high-risk groups.
Imagine the savings in healthcare costs if folks supplemented daily with Folic Acid.  I didn't realize that stroke-related costs run $34 billion a year.
With strokes costing $34 billion a year, a public health agenda to encourage all senior Americans to supplement with folic acid could theoretically reduce strokes costs to $26.9 billion, a savings of $7.9 billion.
According to the Census Bureau, there were 49.2 million Americans over age 65 in 2016. At $.20 [cents] per folic acid pill, it would cost $3.59 billion for American seniors to protect themselves from a stroke. Net savings would be ~$4.3 billion. It appears modern medicine is throwing away health dollars and lives for its bias against dietary supplements. Obviously, folic acid pills far exceeded what food fortification began over two decades ago.
Folic Acid is required for DNA repair.  Blood vessels are damaged without adequate folic acid.  
The researchers noted that a low folic acid level was associated with a low blood platelet count. Folic acid is required to repair DNA. It then follows that wall of blood vessels and blood platelets are damaged and platelet count declines without adequate folic acid. Blood platelets are responsible for blood clotting, a necessary part of wound healing.

If this is true, and I have no reason so far to doubt it, why then do university professors, representatives for modern medicine, continue in their claim that vitamin supplements and multi-vitamin supplements, in particular, are of no benefit?  

Sardi addresses this too. 

HOW MODERN MEDICINE CONCLUDES DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS ARE UNNECESSARY

Here is how modern medicine comes to its erroneous conclusion [that] dietary supplements are not needed: 
. . . a good diet will provide all the nutrients necessary for health. 
Of course, that position is self-serving as modern medicine games human populations for more disease to treat.
A good diet is not enough to stave off disease or to maintain health.  And I particularly like Sardi calling out "high-calorie malnutrition."  Wow.  I wonder if one of the reasons that vitamin supplementation is frowned upon by the medical industry and its representatives at the universities is that for vitamins to be effective, one must remove sugars, high-glycemic carbohydrates, and alcohols from one's diet.  These foods are representative of huge industries.  You tell people that B1 improves this, restores that, and prevents this on condition that they stop consuming one of these foods, then you might see the conflict of interest that the university reps protect.  
Beriberi, the name for the disease that emanates from a deficiency of thiamin (vitamin B1), is broadly prevalent [in] well-fed societies as it is induced by "high-calorie malnutrition" given that added sugars, carbohydrates, alcohol, and even tea block its absorption. 
Okay, here is another bullet point for those 50 and up managing stomach acid.
The progressive decline in stomach acid secretion with advancing age is yet another reason why B1 deficiency is highly prevalent but unrecognized. 
What is interesting that B1 deficiency is not easily recognizable or detectable.  Sardi says that "it defies detection as a collective disease." And my guess is that the physician who doesn't know much about nutrition, will diagnose B1 deficiency as some psychiatric condition and compel him to write a referral to a psychiatrist rather than informally recommend a patient to take 2 B1 tablets every day for the next week, then call him by week's end.  
Derrick Lonsdale, the reigning expert on vitamin B1, says thiamin deficiency has a low mortality and a long morbidity.
That low-mortality and long-morbidity mean that a B1 deficiency won't kill you, but it will present the symptoms of illness, the kind that is chronic or "long morbidity." 
Because B1 deficiency is associated with so many maladies (autism, diabetic complications, disruptive autonomic [nervous] system disorders, heart failure, neuropathy, sudden infant death, alcoholism, it defies detection as a collective disease. An announcement of the highly absorbable fat-soluble form of vitamin B1 (Benfotiamine) cures and prevents Alzheimer's disease is expected soon. There is a doctor in Italy who is astonishingly curing Parkinson's disease with B1 shots (mostly among alcoholics).
B1 can be found aplenty in our food supply and even through supplementation.  Supply is not the issue: absorption is.  
Because of poor absorption, it is unlikely the best diet or fortified foods can overcome a state of B1 deficiency. Once classified as a prison camp for malnutrition disease, beriberi is now prevalent as a disease of overconsumption. A sub-disease population is beriberi induced by water pills (diuretics). Modern medicine can't imagine how a B vitamin deficiency prevails in a well-fed population. Vitamin B1 is well provided but just not absorbed or is rapidly excreted (diuretics).
What's terrible is that the symptoms of a B1 deficiency show up as mild cognitive, even psychiatric in nature, and so not knowing that they are deficient in B1, some folks seek relief via marijuana, which only exacerbates the symptoms.  Ugh.  
According to the US Department of Agriculture "only" 18.4% of Americans consume an inadequate amount of thiamin (that's ~57 million Americans), not enough to cause a run on health food stores, but millions more simply don't absorb or retain B1. The B1-deficient run for marijuana instead.

[BESIDES B1 & FOLIC ACID, THERE IS] ANOTHER OVERLOOKED B VITAMIN DEFICIENCY

Healthy ranges used to measure values in your blood are mistaken and often result in poor detection of B12 deficiency.  
Pernicious (vitamin B12) anemia is prevalent depending upon the blood level used to define deficiencyUp to 40% of US adults may be B12 deficient. One of the ways widespread nutritional deficiencies remain hidden is that blood tests only reveal what is called the reference range (commonly occurring range), not the healthy range. If massive numbers of people are B12 deficient then that becomes the reference range, which mistakenly can lead to the false belief an individual has a normal (common) blood level but is deficient.
Doctors misdiagnose all the time, often for self-serving interests. 
It is common for doctors to look at a blood test and mistakenly conclude whatever symptoms a patient is suffering from are not caused by a shortage of vitamin B12.
False normal B12 blood tests are common. This is likely why many older adults with so-called normal blood levels experience clearance of symptoms upon B12 supplementation.
For me at least, B12 gave me back my circadian rhythms, and I am able to return to a regular sleep pattern, one where my sleep is uninterrupted and deep; not long, just deep and I wake rested.  B12 does this.  
B12 deficiency may be rampant, especially among certain groups (vegetarians, gastric bypass patients, users of B12 depleting drugs (metformin, antacids), yet public health authorities will claim prevalence of deficiency is low. A US Department of Agriculture report issued over a decade ago noted that 4 or 10 Americans "may be flirting with vitamin B12 deficiency." 
Even milder symptoms that we dismiss with a wave of the hand could be a B12 deficiency.
Many chronic unsuspected symptoms of B12 deficiency such as a chronic cough and back pain, may never be counted in estimates of the prevalence of B12 pathology.
The comparative costs of supplementation are in your favor. 
JUST REMEMBER, the prevailing position by modern medicine, despite the science, is that vitamin supplements are needless. You must be a crazy, eccentric, ignorant, easily misled fool to be caught taking dietary supplements. Best to take them in your closet where nobody will see you. Because of this attitude, many patients simply hide the fact from their doctors [that] they are loading up with vitamins every day. Still, Americans only spend ~$8 a month on dietary supplements and ~$250 a month on drugs. It should be the other way around.