We founded the cluB-12 in January 2020 to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and coordinate research into Vitamin B12 between Scientists and Healthcare Professionals. cluB-12 has grown rapidly since and its members include some of the world’s leading pioneers in B12 research and education.

We meet bi-weekly online and enjoyed our inaugural symposium in Cambridge this year. All meetings are recorded and made available to members: View an Introduction to cluB-12 - Julian Owen - September 2022

Vitamin B12 plays crucial metabolic roles across the life-course and in particular during pregnancy and in early development (first 1000 days of life).(Niklewicz, 2022)

Evidence now implicates vitamin B12 deficiency with increased risk to a range of neurological, vascular, immune, and inflammatory disorders.

Some of the many clinical features of B12 deficiency are, but not limited to, cardiomyopathy, blood and bone marrow disorders, infertility, taste and glossitis impairment, neurological disorders, impaired cognition, irritability, depression, delusions and psychosis.

With recent estimates suggesting high rates of B12 deficiency among the vegetarian and vegan populations, particularly in pregnant women or women of child-bearing age who, for ethical and health reasons, are shifting towards higher consumption of plant-based foods in ever- increasing numbers. The Vegan Society encourages annual B12 status check and acknowledge the unreliability of the current serum B12 test especially with vegans using any form of algae due to its false B12 content.

One of cluB-12's main objective is to find a more reliable B12 level test than the currently available Serum B12 Competitive Binding Luminescent Assay (CBLA) with only a 35% sensitivity for B12 deficiency. (Clarke, 2007)

This fundraising will start to help towards some of the costs involved in the project and hopefully see a world where B12 deficiency is no longer under-diagnosed and under-treated. Primarily we need a community platform to ensure optimal collaboration between experts across the world. We have chosen Hivebrite which has helped many charities to date.

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Our beautiful daughter, Georgina Elizabeth Owen, followed a vegan lifestyle for 3.5 years with sporadically replenished Vitamin B12. She restarted 1mg Methyl-cobalamin spray after 6 months without. Three weeks later, she took her own life suffering an “acute delusional episode” on the 21st of September 2019 at age 21.

Had Georgina followed the The Vegan Society's advice things may have been diffferent; ‘If for any reason you choose not to use fortified foods or supplements you should recognise that you are carrying out a dangerous experiment - one that many have tried before with consistently low levels of success’.

As a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon I have since dedicated much time establishing cluB-12 in the hope of avoiding another preventable tragic loss of life and in so doing re-discovered the strong links between low B12 and diseases such a Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s; encouraging projects to re-examine these

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See cluB-12's first peer reviewed publication: The importance of vitamin B12 for individuals choosing plant-based diets.