What is Vitamin B9 deficiency?
Folate deficiency is uncommon since it’s found in a wide variety of food. A folate deficiency usually coexists with other nutrient deficiencies because of its strong association with poor diet, alcoholism, and malabsorptive disorders.
The main groups likely to develop a folate deficiency are people with alcohol dependence, childbearing women, and those suffering from a rare genetic disorder which impairs the body’s ability to convert folate to its active form.
Common vitamin B9 deficiency symptoms:
- Megaloblastic anemia
- Weakness
- Fatigue
- Difficulty concentrating
- Irritability
- Headache
- Heart palpitations
- Open sores on tongue
- Open sores in mouth
- Changes in color of skin
- Changes in color of hair
- Changes in color of fingernails
What causes a vitamin B9 deficiency?
- Alcohol dependency
- Pregnancy
- Celiac disease
- Inflammatory bowel disease
- MTHFR polymorphism (a rare genetic disorder)
Further reading: Harvard School of Public Health, National Institutes of Health