SEO details (delete before publishing) Title tag: Vitamin B12 and D Deficiency Symptoms: Causes and Fixes (India) Meta description: Vitamin B12 and D deficiency symptoms are easy to miss. Learn what low B12, D3 and K2 do, how to fix them, and what flaxseed can and can’t do. Slug: /vitamin-b12-and-d-deficiency-symptoms-india/ Focus keyword: vitamin B12 and D deficiency symptoms. Secondary: vitamin K2, tingling in hands and feet, tired all the time, B12 foods for vegetarians, flaxseed benefits Category: Nutrition & Diet Tags: vitamin B12, vitamin D3, vitamin K2, vitamin deficiency, tingling in hands and feet, fatigue, flaxseed, Indian diet Image alt text: Vitamin B12 and D deficiency symptoms: eggs, curd, paneer, methi, ground flaxseed and a morning sun on a balcony

Vitamin B12 and D deficiency symptoms are easy to explain away. You wake up tired after a full night in bed. Your feet tingle in the evening, your legs feel heavy after one flight of stairs, and you walk into a room and forget why. Most of us file all of this under age, work or stress, and sometimes that is the right file. Often it isn’t.

India is one of the places where these two shortfalls are most common. A meta-analysis of 26 Indian studies put the pooled prevalence of vitamin B12 deficiency at about 53%. Specialists quoted in the Indian press put vitamin D deficiency at 70–90% of adults, including urban middle-class people who are not short of food. A third vitamin, K2, gets far less attention, mostly because there is no everyday test for it.

This guide goes through all three: what each one does, what low levels feel like, why the shortfall happens, and what fixes it. It also deals with flaxseed (alsi), which gets pushed as the answer to everything in videos like the one this article started from. It is a good food. It is not a source of B12, D or K2, and the difference matters.

Quick answer: what causes vitamin B12 and D deficiency symptoms?

Low B12 usually comes from a mostly vegetarian diet, from poor absorption (acid-reducing medicines, metformin, stomach or gut problems), or from both. Low vitamin D comes mainly from too little midday sun on bare skin, and it is made worse by darker skin, indoor work, pollution and sunscreen. Low K2 is harder to pin down because it isn’t routinely tested. Food changes help, but a confirmed B12 or D deficiency usually needs a supplement at a dose your doctor sets.

What do vitamin B12, D3 and K2 actually do?

Vitamin B12 is needed to make red blood cells and to keep nerves insulated and working. Without enough of it, red cells come out too large and too few, so less oxygen reaches your tissues, and the nerves that carry signals from your feet and hands to your brain start to misfire. That is why one vitamin can cause both tiredness and tingling.

Vitamin D3 helps your gut absorb calcium and phosphorus, so bones and teeth stay hard. It also plays a part in muscle function and immune signalling. Children with very low levels can develop rickets. In adults, the bone version is called osteomalacia, and it tends to show up as aching bones and weak thigh muscles.

Vitamin K2 works as a kind of traffic controller for calcium. It activates proteins that help calcium settle into bone and teeth, and others that keep it from building up in artery walls. How much that matters for real-world outcomes is still being worked out, and I’ll come back to that below.

Vitamin B12 and D deficiency symptoms to watch for

Low B12 can look like:

Tiredness that sleep doesn’t fix, pins and needles or numbness in the hands and feet, unsteadiness when you walk, poor memory or a foggy head, low mood, a sore red tongue, mouth ulcers, pale or slightly yellowish skin, and breathlessness on small exertion. Nerve symptoms matter most. If they go on for a long time untreated, the damage can become permanent.

Low vitamin D can look like:

Dull aching in the bones or lower back, weak thigh muscles (trouble climbing stairs or getting off the floor), muscle cramps, frequent tiredness and, in some people, low mood. Many people with low D feel nothing at all, which is part of why it is so widespread.

Low K2 has no recognised symptom of its own. Nobody can look at you and say you have a K2 deficiency, which is why it is better thought of as a dietary pattern than a diagnosis.

One caution. Tiredness and tingling are not unique to these vitamins. Iron deficiency, an underactive thyroid, high blood sugar, poor sleep and anxiety can all look the same. That is the reason to get blood tests instead of guessing, and it is also why we wrote about AI self-diagnosis and its limits.

Why are so many Indians low in vitamin B12?

The single biggest reason is diet. B12 is made by bacteria and ends up in animal foods: meat, fish, eggs, milk and milk products. Plants don’t make it. A strictly vegetarian household that eats little dairy can run low for years, and the body’s liver stores can mask it for a long time before symptoms appear.

The second reason is absorption. B12 needs stomach acid to be released from food and a protein called intrinsic factor to get absorbed in the last part of the small intestine. Anything that interferes with that chain can leave you deficient even on a good diet:

• long-term use of acid-reducing medicines (pantoprazole, omeprazole and similar)
• metformin, which is why diabetics are usually advised to have B12 checked from time to time
• autoimmune gastritis or pernicious anaemia
• stomach or intestinal surgery, and conditions such as coeliac disease or Crohn’s
• age, since stomach acid falls as we get older

The video behind this article mentions gut problems and long-term medicines. Add the vegetarian diet and the antacid habit to that list, because in Indian clinics those two are behind a large share of cases.

Why does vitamin D run low in a sunny country?

The skin makes vitamin D when UVB rays hit it. That sounds easy in India, and the numbers say otherwise. The reasons stack up:

• Indoor days. Office, home, car, repeat.
• Timing. UVB is strongest around midday. The gentle sun of early morning has very little of it.
• Glass. Windows block UVB. Sitting by a sunny window or opening the curtains gives you light, not vitamin D.
• Coverage. Face and hands alone make only a small amount. More skin exposed means more vitamin D.
• Skin tone. More melanin means slower production, so darker skin needs longer in the sun.
• Sunscreen and pollution. Both cut the UVB that reaches your skin.
• Season. In north India the winter sun sits low, and skin makes much less vitamin D from about November to February.
• Body factors. Obesity, kidney disease, liver disease and some medicines lower the active level.

Vitamin K2: the one nobody tests

Vitamin K comes in two main families. K1 (phylloquinone) comes from leafy greens such as palak, methi and sarson, and it is mostly used for blood clotting. K2 (menaquinones) comes from fermented foods and animal fats, and some of it is made by bacteria.

The video says low K2 pushes calcium into the arteries and weakens bones. That is the theory, and some of it has support. People who eat more K2 tend to have better bone density and less arterial stiffness in observational studies, and small trials of the MK-7 form show improvements in biomarkers of calcium handling. But the evidence stops well short of proof. Trials in people who already have arterial calcification have mostly found no clear benefit, and fracture reduction has been demonstrated with very high doses of a different form (MK-4), not with the MK-7 doses found in ordinary supplements. So K2 is a nutrient worth getting from food, not one to panic over.

There is no routine K2 blood test in everyday Indian practice, so you can’t confirm a deficiency the way you can with B12 or D. The bacteria in your gut do make K2, which is the video’s point about digestion. How much of that you actually absorb from the large bowel is uncertain, so it is a poor reason to rely on gut bacteria alone.

Where K2 comes from in an Indian diet: egg yolks, liver, full-fat dairy and ghee in small amounts, and aged hard cheese. Natto (fermented soybean) has by far the most, but it is a Japanese food that few people here eat. If you are vegetarian and avoid eggs, K2 from food will be low, and you may want to discuss an MK-7 supplement with your doctor. Leafy greens still matter, because the K1 in them is useful for clotting and some is converted into a K2 form in the body.

One firm warning: if you take warfarin or another vitamin K antagonist, any change in K1 or K2 intake can change how the drug works. Talk to your doctor before adding a K2 supplement.

How to fix low vitamin B12

Food. Milk, curd, paneer, eggs and fish are the dependable sources. If you eat dairy daily, you may get enough, or you may not, because the amounts in dairy are modest. Vegetarians who skip eggs and have borderline levels often find that food alone isn’t enough.

A note on fermented foods. Some bacteria do produce B12, and the video suggests homemade pickles and fermented foods can help. In practice the amounts in home-fermented batter, pickles and chaas are small and inconsistent. They are good for the gut. Don’t count on them to correct a deficiency.

Supplements. For a confirmed low level, doctors choose between high-dose tablets and injections. Injections are typically used when nerve symptoms are present, the level is very low, or absorption is the problem. The dose and the duration should come from your doctor, followed by a repeat test.

Check your medicines. If you take metformin or an acid reducer long term, ask about periodic B12 testing.

How to fix low vitamin D

Get the sun right. Aim for sun on bare arms and legs between late morning and early afternoon, for roughly 20 to 30 minutes a few days a week, which is close to the number in the video. The right length varies with skin tone, season, clothing and sunscreen, so treat it as a starting point and not a prescription. Don’t burn.

A correction to a common mix-up: the pleasant walk at 6:30 in the morning is good for sleep and mood, but it does little for vitamin D. We cover the sleep side of morning light in our guide to light hygiene and circadian health.

Food. Fatty fish, egg yolks, fortified milk and fortified cooking oil, and mushrooms that have been left in the sun. Even on a good diet, food alone rarely lifts a low level.

Supplements. This is the usual route when a test shows deficiency. Doctors in India commonly prescribe a course of high-dose weekly sachets or capsules, then a lower maintenance dose. Self-dosing is where people go wrong: very high doses taken for long periods can raise blood calcium and harm the kidneys. Get a 25-hydroxy vitamin D test first. Labs usually flag a result under 20 ng/mL as deficient and 20–30 as insufficient.

Where flaxseed (alsi) fits, and where it doesn’t

Flaxseed contains no vitamin B12, no vitamin D and no meaningful vitamin K2. If you take it hoping to fix those, it won’t. What it does offer is real:

• soluble and insoluble fibre, which helps with constipation and feeds gut bacteria
• ALA, a plant omega-3. Your body converts only about 5–15% of it to the EPA and DHA found in fish, so it doesn’t replace fish oil
• lignans, plant compounds that act as antioxidants. The video links them to cancer protection, but that comes mostly from observational studies and isn’t proven

How to use it well. Roast the seeds lightly on a dry tawa, let them cool, and grind. Keep the powder in the fridge in an airtight jar and make small batches, because ground flax goes rancid quickly. Start with a teaspoon and work up to one or two tablespoons a day. Stir it into curd, dalia, dal or atta. Whole seeds mostly pass through undigested, so grinding matters.

Drink water with it. Flax absorbs liquid. Without enough water, all that fibre can bind you up instead of loosening things.

Be careful if you are pregnant or breastfeeding (a tablespoon is generally considered fine, but ask your doctor), if you take blood thinners (large amounts of flax add omega-3), or if you have a bowel narrowing or blockage.

If gut health is what interests you, our explainer on postbiotics and what the evidence says is a useful next read.

Other deficiencies that look the same

If you are tired and tingling and your B12 and D come back normal, the cause is probably one of these:

• Iron. Very common in Indian women and teenage girls. Ask for ferritin along with haemoglobin.
• Folate (vitamin B9). Works alongside B12 in making red cells. A high dose of folic acid can hide a B12 deficiency, which is one more reason to test instead of guessing.
• Magnesium. Low levels can cause cramps, twitching and poor sleep. Pumpkin seeds, nuts, whole grains and greens help.
• Thyroid. An underactive thyroid causes tiredness, weight gain and feeling cold, so a TSH test is worth adding.
• Too much vitamin B6. Long-term high-dose B6 from supplements can itself cause tingling and numbness. A “B-complex” tablet taken for months isn’t harmless.

Colourful vegetables, fruit, pulses, nuts and seeds really do cover most of these gaps, as the video says. A varied plate remains the foundation. The supplement is for the gap a plate can’t close.

What about grounding and morning walks?

Walking barefoot on clean grass is pleasant and gets you outside, and that is a good reason to do it. The claim that it changes your health through some electrical connection to the earth is much weaker. We went through the studies in Grounding (Earthing): what the science actually says. Treat it as a nice walk, not as a treatment for deficiency.

The more useful habit is sunlight at the right time, plus a plate with real variety. For more everyday food guides, browse our Nutrition & Diet section.

Testing and when to see a doctor

Ask your doctor about a serum vitamin B12 test, a 25-hydroxy vitamin D test, and a complete blood count. If the B12 result is borderline, methylmalonic acid or homocysteine can settle it. Add ferritin, TSH and fasting sugar if you are tired and nothing else explains why.

See a doctor sooner if the tingling is spreading, you feel unsteady on your feet, you have trouble remembering things, or tiredness has lasted more than a few weeks. Don’t buy a pack of B12, D and K2 from a chemist and hope. Over-the-counter supplements are easy to find in India, and a lot of the harm comes from using them without a test or a dose.

Frequently asked questions

What are the first signs of vitamin B12 deficiency? Tiredness, pins and needles in the hands or feet, and a foggy head are the usual early signs. Some people also notice a sore tongue or mouth ulcers.

Can I get enough B12 from a vegetarian diet? Sometimes, if you eat dairy every day and your gut absorbs it well. Many Indian vegetarians still end up low, so a blood test is worth having. Strict vegans need a supplement or fortified foods.

How much sun do I need for vitamin D? Around 20 to 30 minutes on exposed arms and legs, a few days a week, in the late morning to early afternoon, is a common starting point. Darker skin, sunscreen, winter and pollution all mean you need more.

Does flaxseed contain vitamin B12, D or K2? No. Flaxseed is a source of fibre, ALA omega-3 and lignans. It can support digestion, but it won’t correct any of these three vitamins.

Do I need a vitamin K2 supplement? Most people don’t need one. Egg yolks, dairy and aged cheese supply some, and the evidence for supplements is modest. Ask your doctor first if you take warfarin, have kidney disease, or are on other long-term medicines.

Can I take B12, D3 and K2 together? They are often sold together, and there is no known problem with the combination in healthy adults. The point is to take only what your tests show you need, at a dose your doctor agrees with.

This article is for general education and isn’t a substitute for medical advice. If you have symptoms that last, get them checked before starting supplements.

Sources

• Toteja GS, Toteja N. Vitamin B12 deficiency: epidemiological trends and risk factors. Frontiers in Nutrition, 2026. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13719891/
• Vitamin D and B12 deficiencies: a growing public health concern in India. Business Standard. https://www.business-standard.com/health/vitamin-b12-d-deficiency-india-silent-epidemic-risks-causes-125080700963_1.html
• India’s vitamin D and B12 paradox. Republic World, October 2026. https://www.republicworld.com/initiatives/india-s-vitamin-d-and-b12-paradox-why-deficiency-remains-common-and-how-to-make-informed-choices-after-diagnosis-2026-10-10-138661
• Vitamin K and bone and cardiovascular outcomes: summary of trials. Examine. https://examine.com/supplements/Vitamin+K
• Vitamin K2 and calcification. PubMed Central. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4566462
• Facts on flax. University of Georgia Extension. https://l-webserver-prod.fcs.uga.edu/docs/FDNS-E-89-66a.pdf