Cobalt Health Topic

Learn More About...Cobalt

1. Cobalt Info

   Cobalt's most well-recognized function is as a component of vitamin B12, a vitamin essential for producing red blood cells and maintaining the nervous system. Anemia, specifically pernicious anemia, is one of the obvious symptoms of a cobalt deficiency. A cobalt deficiency is ultimately also a vitamin B-12 deficiency. Vitamin B12 is also essential for maintaining the nervous system. Cobalt serves some of the same purposes as manganese and zinc. Cobalt participates in the Krebs-cycle, which is the process the body uses to break down sugar into energy. Cobalt supplements may be necessary for diets deficient in animal proteins, for strict vegetarian diets, or those with B-12 absorption problems.

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2. Cobalt and B-12 Synthesis

   Cobalt is recognized as essential for vitamin B12 synthesis. Cobalt deficiency retards the complex process of synthesizing vitamin B12.

3. Cobalt for Soil and Animal Health

   Ruminants depend in part upon the presence of the trace element cobalt in the soil to convert fibrous raw materials from forages into nutrient-dense meat and milk. Ruminant animals such as cows can produce vitamin B12 if there is adequate cobalt in the diet. Monogastric ("one stomach") animals are much more dependent upon the intake of actual B12, "ready made" in the diet. Cobalt interacts with iodine to promote normal thyroid function and contributes to resistance against parasites and infection. In humans, cobalt seems to help strengthen the integrity of the blood vessels, stimulate adequate eye mucous for lubrication, improve nail growth and stop the growth of warts. Excessive amounts of copper, zinc and iodine may create shortfalls of cobalt. Like all trace elements in the soil, cobalt is a precursor to enzymes. Cobalt deficiency is associated with the incidence of Johnne's disease, the ruminant analog of Crohn's disease in humans.

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4. Cobalt Cellular Nutrition

   Cobalt is synergistic with nickel. Cobalt specifically affects the right coronary artery, resulting in vasodilation with low levels, and vasoconstriction with high levels, while nickel exerts the same effect on the left coronary artery. Pernicious anemia can result from cobalt deficiency, for which Vitamin B12 is a well-known treatment. Cobalt is an integral part of Vitamin B12 (cobalamin), which is necessary for myelin formation, to supports red blood cell production, and it is also essential for the metabolism of fats, carbohydrates, the synthesis of proteins, and the conversion of folate to its active form. Cobalt or Vitamin B12 deficiency can develop from malfunctioning or surgical removal of parts of the stomach or small intestines, stomach acid-lowering drugs, celiac disease, parasites, or other malabsorption disorders.

5. Cobalt, Vitamin B12 and Myelin

   Vitamin B12 contains cobalt and is exclusively synthesised by bacteria and is found primarily in meat, eggs and dairy products. Vitamin B12 plays a vital role in the metabolism of fatty acids essential for the maintainence of myelin. Prolonged Vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to nerve degeneration and irreversible neurological damage.

6. Cobalt and Athletes

   Currently used methods to enhance athletic performance by increasing the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood usually involve stimulation of erythropoiesis. Cobalt chloride is a well established chemical inducer of hypoxia-like responses such as erythropoiesis.

7. 31-Day Study of Cobalt(II) Chloride (Cobaltous Chloride) Ingestion in Humans

   Study with dietary supplementation in 5 male and 5 female volunteers who ingested approximately 1000 μg cobalt(II) chloride for a period of 31 days. Supplement intake was not associated with significant overt adverse events, alterations in clinical chemistries.

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8. Cobalt: The Vitamin B12 Element

   Cobalt dietary sources, metabolic functions, and deficiency symptoms.

9. Cobalt Nutrition

   The activity and function of cobalt is essentially the same as vitamin B12, hence, meaning that cobalt plays a major role in the process of erythropoiesis, the process wherein erythrocytes or red blood cells are produced.

10. 31-Day Study of Cobalt(II) Chloride Ingestion in Humans

    Data...indicated that peak whole blood cobalt concentrations up to 91.4 μg/L were not associated with clinically significant changes in clinical chemistries. In addition, cobalt blood concentrations and systemic uptake via ingestion were generally higher in females.

11. Effects and Blood Concentrations of Cobalt After Ingestion of 1 mg/d by Human Volunteers for 90 Days

    After 90 days of dosing, mean cobalt blood concentrations were lower in men than in women. Estimated red blood cell cobalt concentrations suggested that cobalt was sequestered in red blood cells during their 120-day life span, which resulted in a slower whole blood clearance compared with serum. Peak cobalt whole blood concentrations ranging between 9.4 and 117 μg/L were not associated with clinically significant changes in basic hematologic and clinical variables.

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Cobalt has not been evaluated or approved by the FDA for the any of the following topics indicated in the links above: anemia, red blood cell formation, vitamin b12 deficiency

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