Treatment of vitamin B12 deficiency in elderly decreases the high levels of lipid parameters: A retrospective study

Abstract

The majority of people around the world experience the effects of the inadequacy of vitamin B12. A cross-sectional study was carried out at the beginning of April to end of December 2019, to examine the impact of vitamin B12 inadequacy and its treatment in improving total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and triglyceride (TG). The data that contains the levels of vitamin B12, lipid parameters (total cholesterol, LDL, HDL and TG) were gathered from 400 patients (n =400) from various clinical research centres situated in the capital of Jordan, Amman. The patient’s samples were classified into multiple age groups. The data of both total cholesterol and LDL levels were gathered from thirty-five (n=35) patients, their age group is between 55-66 and have begun treatment of vitamin B12 deficiency by intramuscular infusion (1.0 mg) of vitamin B12. Almost 20.5% of the studied individuals (n=400) are found to be vitamin B12 deficient, as the level of vitamin B12 was equal to (<190 ng/ml). The age group (56 - 66) years old was found to have a significant decrease in vitamin B 12 (p< 0.01) and this results was associated with a critical increment in the levels of both total cholesterols (p < 0.01) and LDL p< 0.02) on contrast with other age groups. Our results did not reveal any significant changes in the levels of other lipid parameters in all age groups. Intramuscular injection treatment for thirty days reduces significantly (p< 0.01) the level of vitamin B12. This treatment strategy leads to a decrease in both total cholesterols (p< 0.01) and LDL levels (p< 0.01) substantially.