Vitamin B12, also known as Cobalamin, helps keep the blood cells healthy. It protects nerve cells and enables their normal growth. Like any other B vitamin, vitamin B12 helps the body to transform food into energy.
Since this vitamin can be found in animal foods, but not in plants, deficiency of this vitamin is common in vegans who don’t eat food enriched with vitamin B12 or take supplements of this vitamin. This can cause paralysis, myelopathy and psychosis. If vitamin B12 deficiency is left untreated, it can lead to anemia, nerve or brain damage.
Some of the foods rich in this vitamin are fish, meat, caviar and dairy products.