0:00 In April 2025, a 26 year old man comes to a hospital in Chandigarh. For the past three days, he was constantly vomiting. He had severe stomach pain and his body felt completely lifeless. After a few hours, his younger brother also reaches the hospital with stomach pain and vomiting. Then the doctors checked their father and found out that he had also been suffering from fatigue and loss of appetite for a week. When the blood tests were done, one specific result emerged for all three family members. Blood calcium had increased to a dangerous level and their kidneys were failing. The older brother's condition was so bad that he had to be put on dialysis. But the real shock came when the Vitamin D report arrived. Vitamin D, which in a normal person should be 30 to 50 nanograms per millilitre,
0:48 had crossed 980 in the older brother. In the younger brother, it was 976, and in the father, it was 886. That is, the Vitamin D levels were 20 times more than the normal upper limit. But the question was, where did this Vitamin D come from? None of these three had taken any Vitamin D pills or any other supplements. And the most shocking thing was that the vitamin that brought these three to the hospital is the same vitamin that most Indians are struggling with a deficiency of. According to studies, more than 70% of the Indian population has a Vitamin D deficiency. Statistically, out of every 3 people watching this video, 2 likely have a deficiency of Vitamin D. There is another vitamin, Vitamin B12, which about 31% of the population,
1:34 or every third teenager in the country, is deficient in. Let's find out in today's video the reasons behind the deficiency of these two vitamins in the country and what you should do here to address your own deficiency. And by the end of the video, you will also know where this excess Vitamin D in the blood of these three patients came from, because the answer to this question can be in the kitchen of any ordinary home. Many times, the thing that seems obvious results in a different story when you look at the data. This is the same in online shopping. Things often have Big Billion Day's prices written on them. But is this really the cheapest price? The sponsor of today's video, BuyHatke, helps us check this. Before buying anything online, do check the deal scanner and price history graph in the Chrome extension of BuyHatke.
2:22 This will help you find out how much any product was being sold for earlier. Is the price increased before the sale just to show a discount now? You can see this phone with the sale tag at ₹44,999. BuyHatke found this same phone with the same specifications on another website for ₹38,800. A direct savings of more than ₹6,000. And the best coupon is applied automatically at checkout. So do not just look at the sale tag, compare the prices, and you will find the link to BuyHatke's Chrome extension in the description below. Hello friends! Did you know that without Vitamin D, no matter how much calcium you consume, the truth is that only 10 to 15% of it can be absorbed by your body? And if there is a deficiency of B12, from tingling in hands and feet to weak memory, the impact directly falls on the nerves.
3:09 All these vitamins are actually a type of organic compounds that our body needs very much. Vitamin D absorbs calcium from food, and Vitamin B12 is essential for the functioning of our central nervous system. Interestingly, our body can produce Vitamin D on its own. When the ultraviolet rays of the sun, specifically speaking, UV B rays, fall on our skin, they convert molecules called 7-dehydrocholesterol in the skin into pre-vitamin D3. In simpler terms, the sun helps out body produce Vitamin D. But Vitamin B12 isn't produced naturally in our bodies. We need to consume it. One of the best sources is milk. Especially cow's milk is considered an excellent source of Vitamin B12.
3:54 And here comes the biggest paradox. For Vitamin D, you need sunlight. And India is a tropical country, where there is no shortage of sunlight for most months of the year. So logically, Vitamin D deficiency should be a rare problem in our country. But an analysis of 39 different studies found that approximately 67% of people in India are Vitamin D deficient. That means 2 out of every 3 Indians have a deficiency of Vitamin D. And the same is the case with Vitamin B12. Milk provides Vitamin B12, and India is a milk-loving country. We are taught to drink milk since childhood. But even after this, an analysis of 20 studies found that 51% of Indians have a Vitamin B12 deficiency. How can this thing be possible? In a country where the sources of these two vitamins are so abundant,
4:42 there is a large-scale deficiency of these two vitamins among the people. Before knowing the answer to this question, we have to understand another thing. If you look superficially, you will feel that the ones suffering with deficiency of vitamins, will be among the poorest. But the truth is quite the opposite. In the Health Ministry's Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey, the highest Vitamin D deficiency was found in people living in cities and children from rich households. In this same survey, the same thing came to light regarding B12. Gujarat is considered a wealthy state, yet the deficiency of B12 was found to be the highest among teenagers there. Almost every other teenager was found to have B12 deficiency. And in a study in Pune, 81% of middle-class men in cities were found to have Vitamin B12 deficiency. 81%! This might sound really weird, but think about it,
5:28 where do the people living in cities spend their days? In classrooms, vehicles, in their homes, places without sunlight. Similarly, our cities are settled in such a way that in densely populated areas, buildings are so close and high that sunlight cannot reach inside. On top of that, air pollution also reduces the sun's UV-B rays. But even bigger than all this is our skin. Our skin contains melanin, a natural pigment, which works like a sunscreen, a natural sunscreen. This melanin determines your natural skin colour. People with darker skin have more melanin, and those with fair skin, have lower melanin content. Melanin controls your body's ability to produce Vitamin D.
6:15 Dark-skinned people might have to stay in the sun 3 to 6 times longer than fair-skinned people to produce the same amount of Vitamin D. According to an average Indian skin tone, to make sufficient Vitamin D, direct sunlight should fall on the face, arms, and legs for more than 45 minutes daily. This is the reason why despite so much direct sunlight, Indians have a Vitamin D deficiency. And food doesn't help much either. Because Vitamin D is found in small quantities only in fatty fish, egg yolks, and some mushrooms. But coming to Vitamin B12, the reason behind it is different. The first reason is food. Our body cannot produce Vitamin B12 on its own. So we have to fulfil its requirement from food.
7:01 And here is bad news for vegetarians like me. Because Vitamin B12 is not naturally found in any plant-based food. Because plants do not make B12. It is naturally found only in some animal foods like fish, meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products. This is the reason why the risk of low B12 in vegetarians increases by about 4.5 times. But eating non-veg food is also no guarantee. In a study of men who ate non-veg, B12 was found to be low in almost half of them. And the reason behind this was that the non-veg food people were eating did not contain a sufficient amount of B12. Now, even if there is B12 in the food, it is possible that the body does not absorb it well. Even then you can have a B12 deficiency. Taking diabetes medicine like metformin or acidity medicines for
7:47 years can decrease your body's ability to absorb Vitamin B12. The biggest problem is that whether it is Vitamin D or B12, both deficiencies come hidden. Vitamin D deficiency is often subclinical, meaning no clear symptoms are visible. Therefore, it often goes ignored. Meanwhile, B12 deficiency can take years to show up. An adult needs only 2.4 micrograms of B12 daily. And our body stores about 1 to 5 milligrams of B12. Just think, our body has thousands of days of B12 stock kept. If we reduce our consumption of B12 from today, our body won't even feel the difference for 1,000 days, which is about 2 to 3 years. In such a situation, you won't feel anything, but when
8:34 that stock is finished, then symptoms will start appearing. Now, before moving forward, it is necessary to clarify one thing: there are different numbers regarding exactly what percentage of people in India have Vitamin D deficiency. One study says that one in every five Indians is Vitamin D deficient. Another says that 70% of the population has a deficiency. And the reason is that experts themselves disagree on at what number a deficiency actually occurs. America's Food and Nutrition Board says there is a risk of deficiency below 12 nanograms per millilitre. Whereas Indian doctors consider a level below 20 nanograms per millilitre as deficient. Similarly, there is a problem with B12. It is believed that if there is a B12 deficiency, anaemia, meaning a deficiency of red blood cells, will definitely be seen. But the thing is, this is not necessarily the case.
9:20 Nerve-related symptoms can occur even without anaemia. Therefore, having normal red blood cells does not rule out B12 deficiency on its own. Now, along with these numbers and tests, there is also confusion regarding this thing: what is the actual potential of Vitamin D and B12? What can they do? And taking advantage of this confusion, many people sell supplements. Often Vitamin D is sold as a pill that can protect against cancer and heart attacks. But when a very large randomised trial was conducted on more than 25,000 people in America, in those people who already had enough Vitamin D, there was no evidence that it reduces cancer or heart disease. A review of more than 250 studies found that apart from bone health,
10:06 nothing else has a confirmed relationship with Vitamin D. And in a review of 69 trials this year, these pills did not even significantly reduce fractures in the elderly. Similarly, Vitamin B12 is also often sold as an energy booster. But here too, it has been found that in a person who is not deficient in B12, taking extra Vitamin B12 does not improve athletic performance or endurance. Besides this, some Vitamin B12 supplements like Methylcobalamin are sold by saying that they are premium and better absorbed. But there is no evidence that the absorption of B12 changes according to its form. No matter what form you take B12 in, it is absorbed only as much as the body needs. For this, you do not need to buy any expensive version. Now, here comes a big difference between B12 and D.
10:52 B12 is a water-soluble vitamin. Meaning it can dissolve in water. What does this mean? If you take this vitamin in excess, if you take it in excess, it does not cause any harm. Your body can simply remove it through urine. There is not much danger of an overdose. But the case for Vitamin D is exactly the opposite. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin. It does not dissolve in water. It is stored in our body fat. So it cannot be removed through urine. Therefore, if you take too much Vitamin D, an overdose can happen. As happened in that Chandigarh case which I talked about at the beginning of the video. The question is, how did those three, the father and sons, get this overdose? They hadn't even taken any supplements. The answer is hidden in a cooking oil. The investigation revealed that for the past two months,
11:39 the whole house was using a single cooking oil to prepare food which was bought from a local vendor without a label. In every single millilitre of this oil, 1,286 micrograms of Vitamin D was found. An adult needs only 15 micrograms of Vitamin D for the entire day. This means that in every millilitre, every drop of this oil, 85 times more Vitamin D than the daily limit was dissolved. Imagine, at least one spoon of oil is added to a vegetable dish, which is 5 millilitres. That contained about 250,000 IU of Vitamin D. Doctors usually give a weekly sachet of 60,000 IU, just one spoonful of this oil contained more Vit D than 4 such sachets. And this process continued daily for 2 months. And where did this Vitamin D3 in that oil come from? Doctors believe it came from fortification.
12:24 A process in which vitamins are added to food to increase its nutritional value. They sold it as 'fortified for bone health' and will be good for bones. But so many vitamins were mixed into it that it became poisonous. Perhaps it happened due to a mistake by the person who made this oil. Now the question arises, what can an ordinary family do here? How can you safely fulfil the deficiency of these vitamins? Here are some things that everyone should know. First thing, do not take any supplement without getting your blood test done. You can continue the Vitamin D drops that doctors prescribe for young children without a test. But for an adult person, first you have to get a blood test done to see how much Vitamin D and B12 is in your blood. If a deficiency is found, only then should you take a supplement.
13:11 And that too after asking a doctor. But statistically, because so many people have Vitamin D deficiency, chance that you will also have it. So the first thing I will say is to go and get a blood test done with your doctor. Second, see if you are in a high-risk group. According to the NIH, elderly people, people with intestinal and stomach diseases, vegetarians, and children of vegan mothers all have high chances of B12 deficiency. Similarly, if you have chronic kidney or liver disease, or if you have been taking steroids or anti-epileptic medicines for a long time, you should regularly get a Vitamin D test done and take supplements under the supervision of a doctor. Now, the first choice to overcome B12 deficiency is food, especially dairy products. And within dairy products, especially milk. A glass of milk contains 1 microgram of Vitamin B12.
13:58 That means you can get 50% of your daily requirement from here. Apart from this, curd and eggs are also good sources of Vitamin B12. Read the labels carefully while eating. While taking fortified food, look at the name and quantity of the vitamin on the packet. And look for the FSSAI logo with the +F mark. Do not buy an unlabelled product under any circumstances. Otherwise, the same thing could happen as it did to the family in Chandigarh. Third, now come the supplements. If your diet does not meet the requirements, then it is important to take supplements. For me, personally, my diet does not meet my requirements, so I have to take both Vitamin D and B12 supplements. Supplements come in many forms. They can be taken through injections, through sachets that you mix with food, or even droplets.
14:44 The most popular option in India is sachets, which most Indian doctors suggest to their patients. If you go to a doctor and find yourself deficient in Vitamin D, the doctor will give you a sachet that looks like this. It usually contains 60,000 IU, i.e., 1.5 mg of Vitamin D. And they will tell you to take it once a week for about 12 weeks. The important thing to remember is that you should not take it every day, but once a week. The second option is oral solutions. Bottles that contain Vitamin D in the form of liquid or droplets. Often, in most brands, each drop has about 1,000 IU Vitamin D, and you have to take only 1 to 2 drops a day. But it depends on the brand, and the quantity can be different. So it is important to check the label
15:30 and take as much as the doctor says. Personally, I prefer to take this because it becomes a habit. You do not have to think every day whether you should take Vitamin D today or tomorrow. You take it every day. You take 1 to 2 drops with your breakfast and your requirement will be met regularly. You should take it for a long period. Because it contains the lowest amount of Vitamin D per dose, the risk of overdose is minimal. And even if you miss a day or two, it is not a big deal. You can continue following your routine the next day. Similarly, tablets are generally suggested for Vitamin B12, which you take with water. Because it is water-soluble. Generally, you should take fat-soluble things with food, with fats, and water-soluble things with water.
16:16 But if there is a severe deficiency in B12, doctors can suggest injections. Like hydroxycobalamin injections twice a year. Which is a type of Vitamin B12. If the body is not able to absorb B12, then injections have to be taken every 2 to 3 months, often for life. And if your levels have become normal after taking B12, that does not mean you should stop taking tablets. You should not stop on your own. Because vegans and many vegetarians have to take it for a long time. Possibly for life. So you should consult a doctor before making changes. In the Chandigarh case, even after treatment, even after 4 months, all three of them had Vitamin D levels at the top of the normal range. Because the amount of Vitamin D stored in fat does not leave the body for months. It gradually accumulates and the overdose also gradually decreases.
17:05 Remember, the answer to vitamin deficiency is neither fear nor blind faith. The answer is information. First, get your test done, then ask the doctor, and then change your diet according to your needs. If you need it, take supplements. And ask yourself from time to time, how much of the supplements you are taking should you continue to take? Now, you will notice one thing here, that I have not suggested anywhere to just go in the sun and complete your Vitamin D requirement. First, how much Vitamin D you get from the sun depends on your skin colour. The darker your skin colour, the less Vitamin D your body can make, and the longer you have to stand in the sun. But the second and most important reason is that harmful ultraviolet rays also come from the sun. These are the same ultraviolet rays whose exposure
17:50 causes ageing of your skin, wrinkles, skin damage, and furthermore, increases the risk of skin cancer in the long term. You heard it right. The same ultraviolet rays with which your body makes Vitamin D, which is beneficial for your body, are the same ultraviolet rays damaging your skin and increasing the risk of skin cancer. This is why it is always said that when you go out in the sun for a long time, apply sunscreen. And if you have sunscreen on, your body will obviously not be able to fulfil the Vitamin D deficiency. The same applies to your eyes. Will you believe me if I tell you that your chances of needing glasses will be reduced if you spend more time in the sun? Daylight exposure can actually improve your eyesight.
18:36 If you want to know how, I have explained it in detail in this video. In this video, I have explained how you can prevent needing glasses if you do not have them. It is very interesting and 100% scientific. You can click here to watch it. Do not forget to check out BuyHatke. The link will be in the description. Thank you very much!
