This common vitamin deficiency can mimic normal aging
Key takeaways
- Two micrograms is an almost unimaginably small amount.
- In 2026, it is 100 years since George Minot and William Murphy reported that a liver-rich diet could treat pernicious anemia, then a frequently fatal disease.
- But the route to that breakthrough began with an unexpected clue from animal experiments.
Why this matters: new research or scientific developments with potential real-world impact.
Two micrograms is an almost unimaginably small amount. It weighs less than a tiny fragment of a grain of table salt. Yet adults need only around this amount of vitamin B12 each day, depending on the guideline used, to support red blood cells, nerves and DNA production.
In 2026, it is 100 years since George Minot and William Murphy reported that a liver-rich diet could treat pernicious anemia, then a frequently fatal disease. Their work transformed medicine and eventually led scientists to identify vitamin B12 as the substance in liver that treated the disease.
But the route to that breakthrough began with an unexpected clue from animal experiments. The American physician and pathologist George Whipple had shown that liver helped dogs recover from anemia caused by blood loss. Blood-loss anemia happens when the body loses red blood cells through bleeding. Pernicious anemia is different: the problem is not bleeding, but poor absorption of vitamin B12. Even so, Whipple s experiments pointed researchers towards liver as a source of a powerful blood-forming factor.