Is reverse osmosis slowing you down?

That glass of water treated by reverse osmosis (RO) water purifier in your home is certainly keeping you healthy. But it is believed that it may be responsible for filtering out minerals that help assimmilate vital nutrients and produce vitamin B-12.

Of course, scientific studies and researches are yet to establish this, but conjectures by physicians point a finger at the consumption of  RO water for increasingly large-scale vitamin B-12 deficiency.  

Vitamin B-12 deficiency can cause various health problems. Constant back pain, knee pain, fatigue, lack of concentration, loss of appetite, shortness of breath, bleeding gums and even nerve damage (in extreme cases) can be caused by deficiency of vitamin B-12. Vegetarian diet is considered as primarily responsible for the deficiency and RO water further worsens it.
Dr Rajesh Saighal, secretary, Ahmedabad Family Physician's Association (AFPA), says that he gets around 15-20 patients each month who are suffering from B-12 deficiency. "There could be two reasons for this. Most people in the city prefer vegetarian food which, unfortunately, is deficient in vitamin B-12. The second reason could be that B-12 isn't easily absorbed by the stomach.

Hence, even the B-12 in non-vegetarian food is not wholly absorbed in the body," he said.  A number of family physicians in the city are observing that they are giving shots of vitamin B-12 to an ever increasing number of patients more often.

Apart from helping in the prevention of megaloblastic anemia, which makes people tired and weak, vitamin B-12 is also helpful to the body to keep its nerves and blood cells healthy and make DNA. It is a water-soluble vitamin. Vitamin B-12 contains the mineral cobalt.

Dr Bharat Dave, honorary spine surgeon at VS Hospital and NHL Medical College, explains the reasons for blaming RO water for vitamin B-12 deficiency. "There is significant rise in vitamin B-12 deficiency. Many things can be blamed for this including, environment, increased consumption of RO water and food habits. RO water purifiers wash away minerals including iodine and vitamin B-12.  This is the belief of doctors as no proper  scientific study has been done to establish this. There is a three to four fold increase in the number of patients with B-12 deficiency," he said.

Dr Sanjiv Shah, director of pathology department of Sterling Hospital says, "It is my observation that number of cases of blood test for checking vitamin B-12 deficiency has increased."