Vitamin and C dissolve into the water when a vegetable is boiled, and are then lost when the water is discarded. The body's stores for different vitamins vary widely; vitamins A, D, and B are stored in significant amounts, mainly in the liver, and an adult's diet may be deficient in vitamins A and D for many months and B in some cases for years, before developing a deficiency condition. However, vitamin B (niacin and niacinamide) is not stored in significant amounts, so stores may last only a couple of weeks. For vitamin C, the first symptoms of scurvy in experimental
Vitamin B12 deficiency complex, defined as "myelosis funicularis", consists of the following symptoms: Vitamin B deficiency can cause severe and irreversible damage, especially to the brain and nervous system. These symptoms of neuronal damage may not reverse after correction of hematological abnormalities, and the chance of complete reversal decreases with the length of time the neurological symptoms have been present. Elderly people are at a even higher risk of this type of damage. In infants a number of neurological symptoms can be evident due to maternal malnutrition or pernicious anemia. These include poor growth, apathy, having no desire for food, and developmental regression.