Pain, pain go away: Vitamin B12 repels painful canker sores.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—You’ve no doubt had a canker sore. We all have. These shallow, acutely painful sores, also called aphthous ulcers, appear on the inside of your lips and cheeks, at the base of your gums, or under your tongue. They don’t last, but while there they bedevil your speech and make eating an exquisite torture. Cankers aren’t cancerous, or even contagious, but they are common and can be very painful. They tend to recur. And there’s no known treatment—until, perhaps, now.

THE DETAILS: Researchers from Ben-Gurion University in Israel gathered 58 people with recurrent canker sores, and divided them into two groups: Thirty-one people received daily tablets of 1,000 micrograms of vitamin B12, while 27 were given a placebo. Both groups were quizzed about their canker sores at the end of each month of treatment. After receiving vitamin B12 for 5 months, the B12 group had fewer, less enduring, and less painful canker sores than before. During the sixth and final month of the study, 74 percent of people in the B12 group had no canker sores at all. Why? The researchers couldn’t pinpoint a reason.

WHAT IT MEANS: According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, canker sores can be triggered by a grab bag of causes—including stress, poor nutrition, food allergies, and menstrual periods. With no pinpointable cause, they’re tough to treat. And since many go away on their own after a week or so, most physicians don’t recommend treating them anyway. A “cure” for recurrent canker sores is, within this context, nothing short of headline news.