Vitamin Information Center

slamabad

Patients with recurrent mouth ulcers, which produce an intense burning sensation and difficulty in eating leading to low food intake and poor health, often have deficiency of Vitamin B12 and Folic Acid.

A cross-sectional analytical study conducted by the Pakistan Medical Research Council (PMRC) speculates that supplementation of Vitamin B12 and Folic Acid is likely to heal mouth ulcers and reduce the misery of patients.

In the present study, 57 patients with recurrent mouth ulcers and 57 age and gender matched controls (not having mouth ulcers) were studied. All patients and controls had their haemoglobin, hematocrit, RBC foliate, Vitamin B12 and serum ferritin levels checked. The results showed significantly low folic acid and Vitamin B12 levels in patients with mouth ulcers while ferritin levels did not show any significant difference in the two groups.

Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis (RAS) is as old as humanity itself and is a Greek term, ‘Aphthai,’ meaning to set on fire in relation to focal painful inflammation of oral mucosa. Other names of RAS are recurrent aphthous ulcer, canker sores, recurrent oral ulcers, and mouth ulcers.

Aphthous ulcers of the oral cavity are very frequently encountered in general practice. Although the exact cause remains obscure, many factors are considered to contribute to the pathogenesis of these lesions, such as immunological factors, local trauma, smoking, stress, hormonal state, family history, food hypersensitivity, infections and allergy. Studies have reported that globally 20% of the world population is affected by the condition, with prevalence as high as 66% in certain populations.

Recurrent aphthous ulcer is a multi-factorial disease with predominantly unknown etiology. Many factors are known to contribute to the pathogenesis of RAS such as stress, immunological factors, local trauma, hormonal state, hereditary and genetic factors, microbial factor, food hypersensitivity drug allergy and hematinic deficiencies.

Hematinic deficiencies are found in 20% of patients with RAS with recurrence rates as high as 50%. It was observed that 60% patients with B12 deficiency, on receiving B12 therapym recovered completely while 70% of patients with RAS improved with hematinic replacement therapy.

Since 1949, the World Health Organization has recognized the public health importance of nutritional anaemia as a major health problem throughout the world, especially in the developing countries. Nutrition surveys in a number of countries have highlighted the widespread prevalence of nutritional anaemia in developing countries. Infants, young children, menstruating and pregnant women are most frequently affected. Foliate deficiency is the second most common cause of nutritional anaemia in the world.

It has been found that out of Pakistan’s total population of 159,196,336, an estimated 2,048,482 people are anaemic out of which 233,793 are suffering from pernicious anaemia, which can cause oral ulceration, mucosal bleeding and glossitis.

Your child’s brain is like an elaborate stage production that needs hundreds of people working behind the curtain to provide the supporting framework for the main actors. The difference is that the brain utilizes vitamins and minerals as its supporting cast instead of lighting technicians and prop masters.

Vitamins and minerals are the architects of the brain, creating and re-creating the brain and nervous system. They grease the wheels of brain function by performing the basic work of transformation in the brain, making neurotransmitters from amino acids, energy from glucose, complex fats (GLA or DHA) from simple fats, and phospholipids from choline and serine.

In the early 1980s, Gwillym Roberts, a teacher and nutritional therapist from the Institute for Optimum Nutrition, and Professor David Benton, a psychologist from Swansea University, developed a study to chart the effect of vitamins and minerals on the intelligence levels of schoolchildren. Thirty children were given a specially designed multivitamin and mineral supplement containing a high level of crucial nutrients. Thirty children were given a placebo.

The research results were published in a 1988 edition of The Lancet. After eight months in the study, no differences were noted in the children who were taking the placebos, while those consuming the multivitamin supplement saw their non-verbal IQ scores increase by more than ten points! Since the original studies, further research has been conducted using lower, RDA levels of vitamins and minerals. These levels, while far lower than those used in the initial study, still increased IQs by an average of nearly five points.

Giving your child the best nutrition from the very beginning of his or her life can reap endless benefits. Just in case you’re skeptical of the impact vitamins and minerals can have early on, a 16-year study by the Medical Research Council should put your doubts to rest. Four hundred twenty four premature babies were fed with either an average milk formula or a formula supplemented with additional vitamins, minerals and protein. At 18 months of age, the babies who had been fed the enriched formula were doing considerably better than those who had been given the average milk, and at eight years of age, the children who had taken the enriched formula had IQs up to 14 points higher!

So, why do IQ scores increase with vitamin and mineral consumption? One possible explanation is that children think more quickly and focus their attention for longer periods of time when they ingest essential levels of nutrients.