Vitamin B12 useful for canker sores
December 29th, 2009 by wordpress
By Reuters Health
February 20, 2009
New York (Reuters Health), Feb 20- The results of a small trial suggest that vitamin B12 is a safe, effective, and inexpensive treatment for repeat canker sores.
“The frequency of (repeat canker sores) is as much as 25% in the general population,” researcher Dr. Ilia Volkov, from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israe, said in a statement.
The cause of recurrent canker sores is unknown. Over the years of treatments, including adhesive pastes, antiseptics, vitamins, herbs, and steroids have been tested. Although these treatments may reduce pain or the numbers of lesions in the short term, very few have had any lasting beneficial effect.
Volkovs team had already discovered that treating recurrent canker sores with vitamin B12 produced lasting results. In their most recent study, which involved 58 volunteers, they wanted to confirm the effectiveness of vitamin B12 by comparing results in treated patients to a comparison group that received inactive placebo.
The results of the study reported in the Journal of American Board of Family Medicine.
Compared to placebo, treatment with vitamin B12 significantly reduced pain, the number of ulcers, and the duration of outbreaks at 5 and 6 months. Moreover, the improvements were not affected b y what the patients blood levels of vitamin B12 were at the start of the study.
In the last month of treatment, 74.1% of vitamin B12- treated patients were free of canker sores compared with 32% of those given placebo.
Exactly how vitamin B12 achieves these beneficial effects is unclear, the author acknowledges. The fact that the treatment worked equally well regardless of the initial vitamin B12 level suggests that the vitamin may possess some unrecognized functions.
Source: Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, January/February 2009.
