PA and exercise

[Gunj_redjem]

Does exercise deplete b12 levels...as I exercise sometimes I get extremely tired need rest for long after dat.. is our nerve growth stagnating if we exercise... I do SI twice a week

[fbirder]

No, exercising doesn't increase the need for B12. At least there is no reason why it should and that is not my experience.

What is my experience is that my threshold for exercise changed drastically.

Before I got ill I could walk all day carrying ten kilos of birding and photography gear, up and down hills. As that became more difficult I put it down to aging. Then it became obvious that it wasn't, until I couldn't walk 50 m without having to sit down for 10 minutes.

After treatment started I could exercise more. But, if I overdid it then I was back to being flaked out for a long while after. Taking more B12 had no effect. I had my limit, no matter what I put inside myself (believe me, I tried).

Over the years I tried to build up my threshold with regular, gentle, exercise. I found swimming was great for this (if i got too tired I just stopped where I was - and the car was never more than 100 m away). Nowadays I can walk for miles and miles - as long as I'm not carrying anything. But ask me to do something that requires a short burst of energy (like trying to help jump start a car) and I'm flat out for 10 minutes.

Now I have accepted that I just cannot do some of the things I used to. As have my family and friends. At archery everybody knows that I can't move targets myself, so they will volunteer to do it for me.

[pvanderaa]

You should not be doing strenuous exercises until your nerve damage has healed somewhat. These use up energy and there is not enough red blood cells to carry oxygen so the muscles get tired very fast.

You do need to do gentle range of motion exercises to stimulate nerve repair. Just not strength building exercises until your body lets you.

Stress and worry are the biggest consumers of B12.

Track progress in your logbook as well. Over months and years.

[fbirder in reply to pvanderaa]

There are plenty of red cells. Any anaemia caused by a B12 deficiency will be rectified within a couple of months.

There is no evidence at all that exercise stimulates nerve repair.

[Hidden]

Every person’s body is different and with this particular area of health being scant of research and full of anecdotes I thought I would post my experience. I’ve gone from not being able to stand up or think straight and awake for only a few hours a day to going to the gym most days and losing over 5 stone in the process. I gave up grains and that seemed to alleviate most my issues. I inject in the mornings and sometimes when I get back from the gym as I can hardly walk up the stairs. Then once I inject I’m fine again.

Through using the raw data from my 23andme gene test I discovered I have lots of mutations which affect both B12 methylation and recycling, so for me I tend to lose it easily through the usual things like stress but also through exercise.

I do agree you should take it easy though, it took me over a year to go from not going outside the house to the gym, first short walks, then longer walks, and so on building things up slowly over time.

I don’t like having to inject that much but I do like feeling like I’m living life like a “normal” person and the person I always wanted to be but didn’t know why I could ever seem to achieve before I discovered B12, just wish I’d discovered it years ago and not eaten grains for 47 years lol!

Right, off to get the raisin infused tigernut flour banana bread out the oven before it burns!!!

[fbirder in reply to Hidden]

Everybody has lots of mutations in those genes.

About 0.4% of people have no mutations in the MTHFR gene.

About 45% of people have no mutation in the MTR gene

About 0.02% of people have no mutation in the MTRR gene.

I have 4 mutations in MTRR, two mutations in MTR and two in MTHFR.

[Hidden in reply to fbirder]

Yes, that’s why it’s so helpful to know what specific mutations you have so you can adapt your diet, lifestyle and environment around their needs.

As said, I’m only going from personal experience - you’re more than welcome to come join me on a trip to the gym and watch me burn through my B12 and see how I am after if you want proof!

[fbirder in reply to Hidden]

And how should those 99.98% of people with an MTRR mutation adapt their diet?

[Hidden in reply to fbirder]

Well I would advise anyone to give up the grains and see what happens, we all react differently to stuff but it's not only food and it's not only specific gene mutations, it's the combination of everything.

Take my mum for example, she's been housebound since she had chemotherapy back in January as she has thrombocythemia which is where she produces too many blood platelets yet has none of the gene mutations which cause it, I believe it's because she's been in fight-or-flight mode all her life and it's down to B12 issues even though she has high serum, very high active, and MMA and homocysteine are fine but shows all the symptoms of B12 deficiency and herself recognised that when watching one of the B12 films and saw a man who's body was also wasting away like hers, she was looking like a skeleton.

I say was because we are now in week two of daily injections and up to twice a day. We are in month two of the no grains diet, and two weeks into the auto-immune protocol diet and her leg ulcers, after months of no improvement apart from a little burst post a blood transfusion, are almost gone and the nurses are more surprised each time they come round - which was every day then every other day, now twice a week. Three days ago the nurse said bandages off by xmas, she's now revised that to much sooner.

So sure, argue a moot point about one particular gene - perhaps you've tried things like this yourself and not been able to see much improvement but for me and my mum it's working so I'm sticking to it and going to spread the word as much as I can because getting my 23andme test done was by far the best thing I've ever done.

[Kish2929 in reply to Hidden]

You give a lot of hope.

[Kish2929]

Hi, as suggested in the reply above, start slow and see if you can sustain the intensity. Steadily increase the intensity and try finding your threshold. As for me, I have burning feet and numbness in hands and feet. I started walking for a short intervals first and now able to do yoga for an hour a day. But, when I started increasing the intensity, many symptoms returned and they gradually went off. Do you have numbness in hands and feet? Do you take folic acid as well?

[Jaw1]

I have been wondering this myself. It's not that I am particularly weak or tired but my peripheral neuropathy flares up. I do an hour of clinical pilates twice a week and hour long walks at least once a week - any more than that or after a heavy pilates workout and I have increased pain for about a week. I'm only on monthly injections but seeing the Neurologist for the first time next week so hoping this is increased. I'm sure there are other causes for depletion (see oddb0d posts which I agree with 100%) but would also be interested to hear if people have increases in symptoms or 'flares' after exercise.