Hello Everyone,
Here is some info. I began working on at the beginning of this week. I hope you all find it educational and informative.
I am full support of John Coleman in the great majority of what he shares with us. Thank you John for bringing the actual data to us.
I will propose, however, that it is possible to maintain optimal B-12, homocysteine, and MMA levels on a pure vegan, predominantly (or potentially all) raw diet, without supplementation, if one consumes
chlorella on a regular basis. I'll give three case histories and some recent articles to support my claim.
Case history 1 and 2. Husband and wife, both long term pure vegans, predominantly raw, having been 100% raw for several years at a time.
Both husband and wife had been raw vegans for well over 10 years. They were in their late 20's / early 30's at the time of this first analysis.
Husband: B-12, 327, Homocysteine 13 (reference range 5-15), MMA less than 0.4, where 0.4 or above is abnormal.
Wife: B-12, 288, Homocysteine 9 (reference range 5-15), MMA less than 0.4, where 0.4 or above is abnormal.
Several subsequent tests have shown that they have maintained healthy levels of all 3 since this time, 6 years ago. Neither have supplemented with any B12 or any animal products whatsoever. So here are two long term (about 20 year) pure, largely raw vegans with excellent B-12 status any way you look at it. They both continue to consume several types of algae, including
chlorella.
Case History #3, myself. This is what Charlie requested some time ago.
First test: March 1999. B-12, 159, MMA 2.7, where 0.4 or above is abnormal. Poor B12 status.
All other parameters tested were super-optimal and I felt fantastic. Here is a copy of the note I wrote to myself regarding these lab values at the time I received the data.
"While these levels are clearly out of the "reference" range (for Fat, Toxic Americans), I have to wonder a little if there really is any problem. I have been a vegan for 11 years, mostly raw, and I feel fantastic, exercise a lot (Run 25+ M per week, Gym 2-3x per week) and I feel GREAT! No indications of anemia or neurological problems!! Nevertheless, I don't want to end up with any problems, so I will see what I can do about this."
I tested myself again in August of 1999 as a baseline for testing spirulina.
B-12 was 188 and MMA was 3.7, still out of range.
I consumed 1 heaping TBSP of spirulina every day for three months, and tested myself again in November of 1999.
B-12 was 156, MMA was 0.8 (that went down), and this time I tested my homocysteine, which was 17 (5-15 reference)
Conclusion: Poor B-12 status, but the drop in MMA was encouraging.
Because the MMA went down, I continued consuming spirulina and tested myself again in May of 2001. I wanted to give spirulina a totally fair change to work.
May 2001 data:
B-12: 457, wow! MMA 2.3 (reference range less than 0.4)
Spirulina is known to contain B-12 analogs, and my best conclusion is that this is exactly what I got in this situation. B-12 went up, but the functional indicator of B12 status (MMA) was still poor. If this was truly human active B-12, then MMA would be much lower.
My conclusion was that spirulina did not improve my B-12 status. I would also conclude from this that the B12 analogs in spirulina do not interfere with B12. If that were true, then my MMA would have been higher.
I really wanted spirulina to work, but I cannot argue with the facts that I collected. I started with spirulina, because it is well known, widely available, and relatively inexpensive. If it had worked, then I would have been able to tell others about my experience and recommend it to those concerned about B12.
From there I took some time off and was considering taking a B12 supplement. I stopped the spirulina and went back to my normal mostly raw vegan diet without anything else.
I was considering trying
chlorella as the next step. I was also keeping in mind that the high homocysteine was damaging my blood vessels. Although with all else so good, I was not too worried, but still did not want to push things too far. I decided to try Vitamineral Green. It is a green food formula that contains several types of grasses, vegetables, and algaes, as well as probiotics. The plus is if that worked, then I would be able to tell people about my experience and recommend it. The downside is that if it worked, I would not know which particular ingredient, or combination of ingredients, were responsible for the changes. Again it had been long enough that my B12 status was poor, and I was not willing at that point to try item after item and be B12 deficient for potentially several more years.
So the plan was to try Vitamineral green (VMG) and if that did not work then I would take a supplement. As with anything else, I would always prefer to consume nutrients in food form as opposed to isolated extracted nutrients from supplements.
I got my lab work done again in August of 2002 to establish a baseline because I took some time off.
B12: 248 MMA 1.6 (<0.4 normal) Homocysteine 15.2 (5-15 reference range). I also got my urinary MMA (UMMA) tested. It is supposed to be below 3.8, and mine was 23.3, way too high.
I started consuming 2 heaping TBSP of VMG daily for one month.
September 2002:
B12: 294 MMA 0.3 (<0.4 normal) Homocysteine 13.6.
Wow! I had normal blood MMA for the first time, and homocysteine had come down a little in just one month.
I continued with the VMG.
November 2002:
B12: 418 Homocysteine 10.5
Hcy continues to decline!
December 2002:
B12: 333 Homocysteine 10.2 UMMA 6.0 Blood MMA: 928 (Reference 90-279) The lab I used started sending the MMA to another lab! So were are not comparing apples to apples anymore, but here it is anyway.
Hcy went down a little more, and UMMA went from 23.3 to 6.0, still just slightly above the reference range of 3.8, but a dramatic drop.
I kept consuming VMG for several more months, and got tested again in May of 2003.
B12: 324 Homocysteine 8.7 UMMA 6.1 Blood MMA: 607 (Reference 90-279)
That was it. I was very happy my Hcy came down to 8.7. Both MMA's were still just slightly high, but they came down a lot, especially the UMMA, from 23.3 to 6.1. UMMA is considered to be the most accurate indicator of functional B12 status.
So why do I think it was the
chlorella? Good question.
A recent study done on raw food vegans in Finland found that
chlorella may potentially contain human bioactive vitamin B12. This study examined the vitamin B-12 status in long-term adherents of a strict uncooked vegan diet called the "living food diet."
In the study, 21 long-term adherents (mean 5.2 y, range 0.7-14) of the "living food diet" were compared with 21 omnivores.
The study revealed significantly lower serum vitamin B-12 concentrations in the vegans compared with their matched omnivorous controls.
The vegans consuming
Chlorella algae had serum vitamin B-12 concentrations twice as high as the vegans that were not using it.
Six of nine vegans, that were not consuming
chlorella, showed slow but consistent deterioration of vitamin B-12 status over a 2-year observation period.
On the basis of these results, the researchers concluded that
chlorella consumed in large amounts can supply adequate amounts of bioavailable vitamin B-12.
Researchers who have looked at
chlorella itself directly have found human active B12 in it consistently. That would support this Finnish study, as well as my experience, as VMG contains
chlorella.
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