My father, who once proudly presented me with a twenty pound pack of the wonder flavoring he found at a Chinese restaurant - MSG - used to travel with what looked like a tumbled city block of antacid boxes. We are talking a heavy duty supply.

At the same time, my father was complaining about how his pots and pans were “sticking.” So, I purchased a really nice non-stick omlete pan for him, which he promptly fried to a frazzle, asking me to get him a new one under the life time guarantee.

Since I did not have the nerve to attempt a return of the once lovely pan, I asked my father if he had that trouble often, pots and pans burning up... not just sticking.

He said yes, it was getting so that he could barely remember anything. He said he’d put something on the stove, then totally forget it.

Although I was sure that the culprit was his antacids, I felt equally sure that if I told him, he wouldn’t hear me. He is pretty devoted to his antacids, not to say that I come in a distant second.

How was I ever going to alert him to hypochlorhydria, the condition where insufficient gastric acid leads to the lowering of vitamin B12 reserves in the body?

I had wondered for only a few days, when I decided to write to him about hydrochloric acid, about how it’s essential to free vitamin B12 from protein. I explained that while he loves liver and prides himself on eating liver and onions three or four times a week, that if he’s following that healthy dinner with a few antacids, one for the antacid affect, one for the added calcium, that he’s counteracting all the potential benefits of the liver.

I mailed the letter, and waited.

And waited.

Just when I was pretty sure that he had taken offense, I heard from him. He said he had read my letter, thought about it, and decided to try some HCL Betaine tablets that he found at the health food store.

Delighted, I wrote back with high praise, and asked him to tell me if his memory improved.

He said he would. About a month later he wrote that he was sleeping better, and he said that more sleep seemed to improve his memory.

Some months later I started my web page, www.health-boundaries-bite.com/Fingernails.html so that information about B12 would get further distribution than to my family.

Incidentally, by the time I was telling my dad about hypochlorhydria and vitamin B12, I already had some permanent nerve damage from having low B12 for too long a time. I really wished, I mean intensely wished, that I had known before it was too late, about how our fingernails reflect our B12 health, so, I decided to pass the information on. I hope you do the same.