Veganism: A Clinical Survey with Observations on Vitamin-B12 Metabolism

Combined degeneration of the spinal cord due to deficiency of alimentary vitamin B12.

“…The authors state: 'the relative high serum B12 level indicates that his B12 deficiency and the spinal cord disease were probably unrelated. ' Smith (1962), who examined a series of 12 vegans, says in passing: 'apart from two vegans with subacute combined degeneration of the cord, there were no abnormal signs of definite significance to be elicited in this series.' Of these two patients too, no neurological examination is reported and no vitamin B12 content of the blood serum.…”

The electroencephalogram in veganism, vegetarianism, vitamin B12 deficiency, and in controls.

“…changes were due to a specific defect in cerebral metabolism. In another study (Smith, 1962) the E.E.G. was found to be abnormal in nine of 11 vegans, the abnormality being associated vwith low serum vitamin B12 levels, the three most abnormal E.E.G.s being associated with values of 48, 80, and 90 ,u,g./ml.…”

“…Clearly these groups differ already in personality as evinced by their choice of diet, and although the Maudsley personality scale is simple to use and has been well-validated, it is hardly a subtle or comprehensive measure of personality, and it was felt that measures of obsessional features or of eccentricity might show better delineation of the groups we studied. An additional factor that might produce high neuroticism scores is the alleged subclinical cerebral effect that may be associated with low serum vitamin B12 values (Holmes, 1956;Smith, 1960;Hunter and Matthews, 1965) and we were interested to see whether the neuroticism scale would show this. The values given by this index were those used by Schrade, et al (1960) to separate body types, values under 500 representing pyknic-endomorphs, between 500 and 700 for athletic-pyknic mesomorphs, from 700 to 900 for intermediate types, and over 900 for the asthenic-ectomorphic type.…”

Complications of dietary deficiency of Vitamin B12 in young Caucasians

“…In a previous investigation of British vegan patients, Smith (1962) has emphasized the paucity of symptoms in these patients, although two of the twelve patients he studied showed evidence of sub-acute combined degeneration. Other reports of complications of dietary B12 deficiency in caucasians include a patient with mild megaloblastic anaemia (Bourne and Oleesky, 1960) and a further patient with sub-acute combined degeneration of the cord (Misra and Fallowfield, 1971).…”