Does anyone have any experience with extensive and sometimes intense daily exercising and the impact on the b12? Have you had to increase the dose and if so how much?
I started daily injections, 2 yrs ago, back in fall of 2020. I was all but bed ridden then. I still daily inject with cyano. I have ramped up to being more and more active. I've just started to exercise with some significant intensity. 5-7 miles per day or 1-2 hours of activity, either hiking hard hikes or biking in the mountains. I am concerned that I may burn off my b12 store so I would like to get perspective from someone with experience being very active. Perhaps I need to inject more frequently.
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B12life
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That is certainly very strenuous activity! Especially for someone who was more or less bedridden only 2 years ago . That indicates that you had a very severe B12 deficiency , which will take a long time to recover from , or never be 100% recovered . Serious depletion like you had can leave you with irreversible symptoms . But you should be over the moon about your excellent recovery .
There’s no doubt that such physical activity does deplete B12 , I think that you are being over ambitious with your physical activity after a fairly short recovery time .Sorry that I cannot contribute with personal experience on this topic . But after reading posts on this forum for more than 8 years , I think that you have made a very good recovery from a very serious B12 deficiency , and should be delighted with it . I would slow down a bit if I were you and not be overly ambitious .
This may not be what you want to hear ! I hope that someone with personal experience will be able to give you some tips . Very best wishes .
I thank this forum for all the love, science and support! This forum is a god send. Even though I was facing loosing my career 2 years back, I was getting results from the shots so I became a member and from time to time contribute.
I’m a fighter, but I still get nervous about the future and what may come.
Sure enough I feel strange today, if not depleated. I will do my experiments and push the envelope, but ultimately listen to my body.
You have hit the nail on the head when you say that you will listen to your body ! We have to acknowledge that B12 deficiency/ Pernicious Anaemia is a “ Cinderella condition , in which most of the medical profession has no interest . ( no involvement of “Big Pharma” )
We have to look after ourselves , which you are doing brilliantly. At least we have the PAS , where we can always come for advice .
I would second wedgewood 's comment about listening to your body but I would add to that, don't increase your exercise too quickly.
I was also in a position where I could barely exercise and I was only able to keep working thanks to a very understanding manager. When I started self-injecting, I felt better and started throwing myself into exercise, determined to get my fitness back. I started pushing my body, the way I did before B12D and would manage it for a couple of days but then I would crash and feel terrible for a week. I rested, thinking I must of had a mild virus that I hadn't noticed until I stressed my body but when I tried again, the same thing happened and my fitness was actually deteriorating as it was taking me so long to recover. My legs would feel like they are always full of lactic acid, even if I hadn't trained for a few days.
I've been injecting now for a few years and I found that by building my fitness back slowly I've managed to improve it without the crashing. I've not got myself into a position where I can exercise 5 days a week but I still have gentle days of exercise rather than taking them all at high intensity. I'd like to be able to push myself everyday but at least now I can compete hard on some days and still be active on the others.
I think you make a very good point about building up level of exercise slowly Gaudygoat.
I wonder B12life, if it would be useful for you to keep a daily symptoms diary with a note of any exercise done and any B12 treatment. Might help you to see if symptoms are improving or deteriorating.
My stamina has definitely taken a hit. I don't exercise anything like you but I do use my exercise bike twice everyday and go for long walks ( 5miles plus) at a fast pace. I find that towards the end of walks I am a bit unsteady and often have a nap when I get home. I also get very tired when I am on my feet for a long period. I went to a show the other week and was nackered afterwards and I was only moving from one exhibit to another.
Like you it has been two years since I discovered I had B12D. At the beginning I couldn't even walk. My improvement was rapid but it seemed to level out after 6 months. I think I will always have a problem with low stamina.
I started SI in 2017 after diagnosis by Dr Chandy. At the time my exercise was minimal compared to what I was able to do in 2015. I started recovery and was able to do more exercise and started spreading the injections out to 3 weeks and feeling ok. However in summer of 2018 I did 2 back to back 30 mile bike rides in hot weather. The day after I was wrecked all the symptoms came roaring back. So upped the SI to weekly for a few months and recovered. Eventually got back to serious levels of exercise. So my conclusion is that heavy exercise does deplete B12 and you should only restart serious fitness work when you have built up considerable stores and also up the SI as a preventative. I made the same mistake in June of this year due to increasing the gap between injections and am now paying the price. So SI has ramped up I will not make that mistake again !
According to all that is known, B12 is never toxic at any level. Therefore, the greatest risk associated with B12 treatment is under-treating the B12 deficiency. I can understand backing off a little on injections to see what happens. From my understanding of your post, the answer is clear. That said, there might be an upper limit on the amount of exercise you can tolerate at this time. Sorry I am unable to provide personal experience with exercise.
So far I have upped my dose of b12 and continued the exercising (10 mile brisk walk) .
I sometimes get the symptoms of the b12 deficiency as in a distinct stiffness in muscles on my right side and my pecs and shoulders; however, that's when I started upping my doses and it seems to be moving in the right direction.
I also ensure I have enough to eat and sleep well.
In addition the b1 supplement I think has brought me that last mile where I could start exercising.
This is not exact science, but it's my experience.
Like others, if I do weekly shots, eventually over 1-2 months time I feel the effects and it takes time to straighten out. Thus I have stuck with daily shots (w/ cyano).
I hope to continue to journal my journey here and let others know. For those still trying to get their b12 levels up, I agree with what is said here about give it time before doing extensive exercise. I have gradually worked up to this by doing 1 mile walks and only recently really started to push harder. It was 1 year of daily before I really could regularly do any activity. I'm grateful to this forum and PAS for all the support through this journey. I'm not done with the journey just yet. This forum is a daily read for me above and beyond the daily news.
Here we go. You all were right. The extensive exercise did deplete the B12. However, could it be I don't supplement with methyl folate because that never tested low? Could it be I just need to do a higher dose of b12? I will experiment and get back. However, feel free to comment in the mean time. I still aim high and hope to solve this. This is the same determination that got me to find this forum and ride it all out.
I am only hoping to help not hinder or influence in the wrong way, so feel free to tell me if I am crossing any boundaries in this forum.
I've been slowly trying to ramp up on some more strenuous exercise too. The talk below made me think a bit more about exercise, especially the idea that humans never evolved to be sedentary (so it makes sense that it this causes all kinds of illness) but also that we never evolved to engage in strenous physical activity without the necessity to do so - which makes it so hard to motivate yourself sometimes, even though everyone knows getting exercise is important for health.
Some of his tips that I recall were to try to make exercise social and fun, and make commitments, especially to others - e.g. a regular walk or run with a friend, so that you'll still get out and do the exercise even when you're motivationally challenged to get going.
He also mentions theres no optimal "dose" but from looking at his graph on the slide I see about 1 hour, 30 mins of moderate physical activity per day to be about the sweet spot where benefits continue but start to level off. Along with resistance training at least twice a week. I'm a ways off the 1 hour 30 mins but I enjoy at least being aware that ok, this is what I should be working up to.
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