An important study was just published in the journal Endocrine Practice (the journal of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists) that set out to determine if undiagnosed Vitamin B12 deficiency is common among people with type 2 diabetes, even when not taking Metformin (which itself causes B12 deficiency). Their findings: “Almost one-half of type 2 diabetes subjects not taking Metformin had biochemically proven vitamin B12 deficiency.” (And they used a very low benchmark, <200 microgram/dL, to qualify as “low”, which we would call severe deficiency.) Their important conclusion that needs to be more widely communicated: “We conclude that Vitamin B12 deficiency is common amongst type 2 diabetes subjects and is nutritional in nature…This indeed is an important finding, as taking oral Vitamin B12 supplementation is easy, convenient and readily accepted by patients. This is a novel finding and stresses the need for aggressive and early diagnosis and treatment to avoid complications of Vitamin B12 deficiency.” Why wait for type 2 diabetes to develop? Take care of any deficiency, a potential contributing cause, earlier at a preventive stage.