Vitamin B12 is a supplement used to support the creation of red blood cells, which transports oxygen to your cells for proper functioning. If you’re low on vitamin B12, you’ll experience a lack of energy and severe fatigue.
Below, you’ll find the best vitamin B12 supplements on the market, ranked and reviewed by our expert health panel.
Rankings
1. Live Conscious Vegan B12
Formulated to support your metabolism and nervous system, Live Conscious Vegan B12 is the best of the best. Research shows that it’s a natural mood booster and improves your memory.
What we like: Live Conscious Vegan B12 comes in high doses of 5000 mcg to help improve your clarity, energy, and focus. Its fresh lemon flavor is tasty, and promotes energy metabolism, and boosts cellular reproduction, which is critical for great health for major organs in your body.
Flaws: It could contain more essential vitamins. Regardless, it’s still our #1 B12 supplement of 2021.
2. Nature’s Bounty
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Nature’s Bounty B12 supplement helps you convert food into energy by supporting energy metabolism. The essential vitamins of this vitamin B12 are important for your overall health and nervous system.
What we like: Nature’s Bounty products are overseen by scientists, manufacturing specialists, and quality experts to produce the highest quality supplement. You won’t find any fillers, additives, or unnecessary ingredients.
Flaws: It doesn’t taste as good as some of the other B12’s may taste.
3. Jarrow Formulas
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Jarrow Formulas B12 protects your brain cells and nerve tissue. It’s best for vegans and vegetarians
What we like: Since this supplement is methyl B-12, it absorbs better than other vitamin B12 products. Methyl B-12 improves your brain health, energy, and overall well-being.
Flaws: The quality of the ingredients isn’t as strong as they could be.
4. Nature’s Made
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With this supplement, you’ll have a better functioning nervous system and convert food into cellular energy.
What we like: Nature Made B12 is the #1 pharmaceutical recommended vitamin B12 product. It’s extremely clean, so its excellent for purists.
Flaws: It’s not the best for vegans and vegetarians.
5. Natrol
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This supplement provides you with healthy nerves and blood cells to remove carbon dioxide and other toxins from your body. It helps improve your nervous systems since it contains 5,000 mcg B-12 fast-dissolving tablets.
What we like: It’s an advanced formula, and it’s tablets dissolve 30 times faster than other pills. This tablet is also amazing with its mouthwatering strawberry flavor.
Flaws: This vitamin B12 is made of cyanocobalamin, which doesn’t absorb into your tissues as good as methylcobalmin.
6. MaryRuth Organics
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If you want a vitamin B12 that tastes delicious, this is the supplement to get. Its gummies are a tasty strawberry flavor and give you an energy boost and better health.
What we like: Mary Ruth’s B12 only has 5 calories per serving, which is great since its a gummy formula. It uses only the best ingredients to ensure quality and purity.
Flaws: Because it’s a gummy formula, it doesn’t absorb into your system fast.
7. Garden of Life B12
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One spray of this vitamin B12 provides you with 500 micrograms of vegan B12 as methylcobalamin. This supports energy, metabolism, and heart health.
What we like: It’s whole food B-12 concentration spray is made from real organic foods. It’s a liquid vitamin that has a tasty raspberry flavor.
Flaws: This vitamin only has 500 mcg of B12, and it’s a spray.
8. Sundown
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Sundown is a vegan formula that supports your energy. It’s non-GMO and has no artificial flavors, dairy, or gluten.
What we like: Its products are made in the United States with only selected ingredients made up of the purest properties.
Flaws: This supplement is made of cyanocobalamin.
9. Solimo
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This supplement promotes red blood cell formation, energy, and metabolism. It converts food into fuel to be used as energy.
What we like: Its raspberry flavor supports cognitive and immune health.
Flaws: It has 2g of sugar.
Who Should Buy Vitamin B12?
Vitamin B12 is beneficial for anyone, although it’s used by people who are deficient in vitamin B12. Being deficient in vitamin B12 can lead to many health consequences. Without adequate vitamin B12, you will most commonly experience fatigue and a lack of energy. That’s because vitamin B12 is necessary for the formation of red blood cells, which is essential to transport oxygen through your bloodstream.
If you’re not getting enough vitamin B12 from your diet alone, then a vitamin B12 supplement is necessary. Many vegans and vegetarians struggle to get enough vitamin B12 because vitamin B12 is abundant in animal products, such as fish, meat, poultry, eggs, and milk.
A vitamin B12 supplement is just as effective as a vitamin B12 injection, and it will save you time and money. You’ll have more energy and better mental health when supplementing with a quality vitamin B12 supplement.
How We Ranked
We made sure our highest ranked vitamin B12 supplements had the correct doses to reap the greatest rewards. Live Conscious is our number one ranked vitamin B12 supplement because it’s extremely bioavailable since it contains 5000 mcg of daily dosage to supercharge your energy and replenish clarity and focus. Natrol is an advanced formula tablet that dissolves 30 times faster than pills and also has 5,000 mcg B-12.
Garden of Life ranked well because one spray of this supplement gives you 500 micrograms of vegan B12 as methylcobalamin. This is the best form of vitamin B12 because it absorbs more efficiently into your tissues. Jarrow Formulas was among our top 5 ranked since it’s a methyl B-12 and absorbs better than other vitamin B12 products.
Since you’ll be taking this supplement daily, a tasty flavor was factored in when researching each vitamin B12 supplement. Solimo is the last ranked on our list, but it sneaked in because of its delicious raspberry taste – while also supporting cognitive and immune health. MaryRuth Organics is another tasty supplement with its luscious strawberry flavor, and it only has 5 calories per serving.
FAQs
Q: What is vitamin B12 good for?
A: Vitamin B12 supplements can potentially help to prevent anemia, birth defects, osteoporosis, and macular degeneration. B12 also plays a role in mental health, memory, energy, heart health, and hair, skin, and nail health. Low vitamin B12 levels are all too common (1). If your vitamin B12 levels are low, you could experience strange sensations, numbness, or tingling in your hands, legs, and feet.
Q: What foods contain vitamin B12?
A: Vitamin B12 is in animal products including fish, meat, poultry, eggs, and milk. With that being said, vegans and vegetarians struggle to get adequate B12 from diet alone. Vegetables and fruits don’t contain any B12.
Q: How much vitamin B12 should you take daily?
A: Always follow the recommended daily dose as specified on the product label. If you are concerned that the recommended amount it too much or too little talk it over with your doctor.
Q: What medications should not be taken with vitamin B12?
A: Medications that decrease the absorption of vitamin B12 should not be taken with vitamin B12. These medications include colchicine, metformin, extended-release potassium products, antibiotics, anti-seizure medications, and heartburn medications.
Q: How long does it take vitamin B12 supplements to work?
A: You can expect results from vitamin B12 within 48 to 72 hours of taking one. However, it can take a few months to notice substantial improvements.
Q: How long does it take to recover from vitamin B12 deficiency?
A: It takes time to recover from vitamin B12 deficiency. The results may be gradual and you may not see substantial improvement for 6 to 12 months (2). In the first few months, you may not notice anything.
Q: Should I take vitamin B12 in the morning or night?
A: It’s best to take vitamin B12 in the morning since it can boost your energy. If you take it at night, it may cause restlessness since it can give you a boost in energy.
Q: Does vitamin B12 make you sleepy?
A: No, vitamin B12 does not make you sleepy. In fact, it provides quite a bit of energy. On the opposite end of the spectrum, a vitamin B12 deficiency can make you sleepy though since fatigue is the main side effect. Being low in vitamin B12 causes the body to have fewer red blood cells, which is responsible for transferring oxygen to the other parts of your body.
Q: Does vitamin B12 give you energy?
A: It can. Vitamin B12 converts the food you eat into glucose, which gives you energy. Vitamin B12 also makes red blood cells, which bring oxygen to your tissues. Together, these should provide you more energy.
Q: Can low vitamin B12 cause weight gain?
A: There isn’t much evidence to suggest that vitamin B12 can cause weight gain. However, since it does cause fatigue among other side effects, this could lead to weight gain since you may not have the energy to workout. Exercising requires energy and a vitamin B12 deficiency may make physical activity unbearable.
Q: Does vitamin B12 raise blood pressure?
A: No, vitamin B12 doesn’t raise blood pressure. Vitamin B12 could lower your risk of hypertension (3) since it prevents the build-up of the amino acid homocysteine. This amino acid is associated with heart disease, and high blood pressure is linked to heart disease. Since vitamin B12 can improve your blood pressure, it’s excellent for your heart health. Your brain and heart are two vital organs for your body, so improving these two organs will have immense benefits for your body.
Q: Does vitamin B12 help you lose weight?
A: Vitamin B12 may help you lose weight since it gives you more energy and speeds up your metabolism. If you have more energy, it will be a lot easier to exercise and make progress with your fitness. Furthermore, vitamin B12 prevents osteoporosis. If your bones are stronger, you can lift weights and push yourself in the gym, which helps significantly with weight loss.
Q: What is the best form of vitamin B12?
A: Methylcobalamin (4) is the best form of vitamin B12 since it seems to be better absorbed in your tissues than cyanocobalamin. Your brain, liver, and nervous system will use this form better, and many of the vitamin B12 we have ranked on our list contains this vitamin B12 complex.
Q: Why does vitamin B12 make me tired?
A: Normal B12 levels will not make you tired, but B12 deficiency might. If you’re deficient in vitamin B12, your body won’t be able to transport oxygen to the rest of your body efficiently in order to provide your body with energy.
Q: How much vitamin B12 should I take for nerve damage?
A: You should avoid taking any more than 200 milligrams of vitamin B12 a day to prevent nerve damage.
Q: How can I increase my vitamin B12 naturally?
A: To increase your vitamin B12 naturally, eat more beef, liver, chicken, and fish.
Q: Can low vitamin B12 cause anxiety?
A: Yes, since vitamin B12 deficiency affects your nervous system and red blood cells, it has the potential to contribute to anxiety (5). Low vitamin B12 can also lead to other psychiatric symptoms, such as panic, depression, and hallucination.
Q: Does vitamin B12 keep you awake at night?
A: Since vitamin B12 can boost your energy, it could in theory keep you awake at night if you take it in the evening. For this reason, it’s best to take it in the morning.
Q: Can you take vitamin D and vitamin B12 together?
A: Yes, since vitamin D and vitamin B12 are dietary supplements, you can take them together. This will be great for your bone health (6) since both vitamins help support strong bones and prevent osteoporosis.
Q: Does vitamin B12 help with depression?
A: It may, but there are no guarantees. Low levels of vitamin B12 can cause depression, so increasing your vitamin B12 intake may improve depressive symptoms.
Q: What does a vitamin B12 deficiency tongue look like?
A: A vitamin B12 deficiency tongue makes the tongue sore and a beefy-red color. It can also cause glossitis and swelling of the tongue, making it look smooth.
Q: Does vitamin B12 make you urinate more?
A: The scientific evidence suggests “no” (7). Vitamin B12 doesn’t cause you to urinate more unless you overdose on it. If you take too much vitamin B12, more will be excreted in your urine, but how often you urinate will not be affected.
Q: Can low vitamin B12 cause joint pain?
A: Yes, low vitamin B12 can cause joint pain since a deficiency can cause osteoporosis. Vitamin B12 along with vitamin D is beneficial for your bone health.
Q: Who needs vitamin B12 supplements?
A: Some people will obtain enough vitamin B12 through foods alone, however, anyone can benefit from a vitamin B12 supplement, especially if you’re not getting enough from foods. Older adults, people on strict plant-based diets, and anyone with a digestive disorder may benefit from a vitamin B12 supplement the most.
Q: Does vitamin B12 make your heart race?
A: A vitamin B12 deficiency could make your heart race along with shortness of breath. That’s because low vitamin B12 levels means you’ll have less red blood cells, and your heart may beat faster to compensate.
Q: How do vegans get vitamin B12?
A: Vegans often end up B12 deficient (8). But they can get B12 from fortified foods such as plant milk, some soy products, and some breakfast cereals. But the best way for vegans to get vitamin B12 is to take a vitamin B12 supplement.
Q: Can low vitamin B12 affect mood?
A: Yes, vitamin B12 affects the chemicals in your brain that can affect your mood. A vitamin B12 supplement may help decrease your anxiety and depression.
Q: Does vitamin B2 help with running?
A: Vitamin B12 helps convert carbs into energy and since red blood cells are imperative for endurance activities, vitamin B12 should supply runners with more oxygen. In theory, this should help a person run a bit longer and stronger.
Q: What happens if your vitamin B12 is too high?
A: Typically, any vitamin B12 that you take that goes unused will be excreted out of your body through urine (9), however, megadoses of vitamin B12 could lead to outbreaks of acne and rosacea.
Q: Does vitamin B12 deficiency cause leg pain?
A: Vitamin B12 deficiency may cause leg pain.
Q: Do vitamin B12 supplements work?
A: Yes, vitamin B12 supplements provide your body with many benefits. In fact, a vitamin B12 supplement is just as effective as a monthly vitamin B12 injection. A vitamin B12 supplement improves your energy, mood, memory, heart, skin, hair, and nails. It can also reduce osteoporosis and your risks of anemia.
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Recap
Vitamin B12 is a water-soluble vitamin essential for the formation of red blood cells and ensuring the proper functioning and health of your nerve tissues.
Unfortunately, many people don’t get enough vitamin B12 from their diets alone, especially vegans and vegetarians. Without adequate vitamin B12, you may experience anemia, depression, and osteoporosis. This is what makes supplements so valuable.
For cpoe.org’s #1 recommended vitamin B12 supplement, click here.