After being a vegetarian for more than 30 years, this 50-year-old woman may now be paralyzed.

When she was in her mid-20s, the woman who wants to be known as Tan, said she weighed 55kg at the time at a height of 160cm which led to her decision to become a vegetarian to lose weight.

She then managed to reduce her weight to 45kg.

“I replaced my meat and oily food diet and in return, my weight dropped to 45kg. So, I opted to stay a vegetarian for 30 years.

“Lately, I felt as though my legs were all over the place when I walk, I feel as though both my legs and hands were not functioning anymore,” said Tan, Oriental Daily reports.

She recounted how her worrying condition had led her to the hospital for a medical check up. The doctor who conducted the tests later found out her neurones in the spinal cord was damaged which is odd as someone suffering from that ailment is usually diagnosed with diabetes or from malnutrition.

Test then revealed that Tan was severely lacking in vitamin B12 which the most important nutrient to ensure optimum growth of neurones. In fact, her B12 levels were only at 10%. This incident reportedly took place in Wuhan, China

According to the neurologist quoted in the news report, B12 vitamins help protect and support the neuron growth in our body. Every source of food has B12, and meat contains the highest percentage of it.

Therefore, vegetarians like Tan are easily exposed to these deficiencies. If the neurons in your body is damaged due to lack of B12, the patient may not be able to walk and experience muscle shrinkage.

The doctor also added that while he agrees on how a vegetarian diet could help with weight loss but it is also dangerous if practiced for a long time.

Vegetarians are advised to take the B12 vitamins or consume Marmite as alternatives because these two foods do not contain any source of meat or dairy but could still prevent you from suffering from any neuron damage.

-mD