I’ve been a nutrition & fitness enthusiast since I was a teenager. I’m always following the latest supplements and trying to figure out what I can take to enhance my everyday existence. If something as simple as taking certain vitamins can improve my life then it’d be crazy not spend 10 seconds a day to do so…and while there is a lot of literature debating the effectiveness of certain vitamin supplements there has been a LOT of evidence in the last 10 years that shows beyond a doubt that certain vitamin supplements are crucial to functioning at your highest level. If your going to put in the time in the gym to lose weight, gain muscle or achieve whatever your goal is…why on earth would you not make sure you’re getting the most out of it…at least that was what ultimately led me to vitamin B12injections.
Vitamin B12is probably one of the most important vitamins that we don’t get enough of. In fact, nearly half of all the people reading this have some levels of vitamin B12 deficiency and don’t even realize it. The other half can still benefit from supplementing your diet with B12.
I’ve been taking B12supplements since I was in college, but it wasn’t until a coworker of mine went to the doctor with complaints of lethargy that I started researching it more. The doctor prescribed him a special vitamin b12 pill that delivered 14,000% the “recommended daily dose” of B12…and he was supposed to take 1 pill a day. I could hardly believe the label. I knew that massive doses of some vitamins (like vitamin D) could actually be toxic but that isn’t the case with B12….but still, why on earth would he need so much? After researching this, I found that the biggest problem with vitamin B12is that our bodies are so inefficient at processing it.
Vitamin B12 is naturally found in alot of foods but the problem is that B12 needs to be separated from the proteins in food before it can be absorbed by the body. This takes place in the stomach and small intestine with gastric acid. Once the B12 is released from the proteins in food, our body secretes a special protein in the stomach that allows for the absorption of vitamin B12. People that have serious vitamin B12 deficiencies have a condition known as pernicious anemia that prevents their bodies from secreting this absorption-inducing protein. The issue, however, is that even in perfectly healthy adults, so little vitamin B12 can absorbed through the stomach & small intestine. 96% of it simply passes out of our bodies before it can be absorbed….which is why someone like my coworked would need over 100 times the daily allowance…basically as a brute force method to cram the B12 into your body.
The other alternative, that’s been gaining popularity recently, is vitamin B12 injections…which is ultimately the path I took. Like a flu-shot (or an insulin injection), a vitamin B12 shot is an intramuscular injection usually delivered to the thigh or outer deltoid. This allows for the B12 to slowly be entirely absorbed through the muscle. Rather than being lost in your stomach and passing out of your body, the B12 is steadily absorbed by the cells in your muscles and delivered to your body. Vitamin B12 shots have long been prescribed by doctors but until recently they were expensive ($200 each) so only patients with seriously low levels could justify it. But for those of us that aren’t seriously deficient (or just want a boost) $200 a week is just too much…but in the mid-2000′s, as the market for vitamin supplements increased, private labs started developing home injection kits for B12. It’s just like a diabetes kit for insulin but with Vitamin B12 instead.
I was initially very squemish about this since I HATE needles and have passed out giving blood before…but in my obsession to maximize my life I decided that I had to at least try it.
I watched about 50 youtube videos on people self-administering B12 shots (this is the best one I found - which happens to be from the same place I get my shots) and read everything I could find on it. The main thing that put me at ease was learning that IA (intramuscular shots) are very easy and very safe to give. Unlike an intravenous injection which is done directly into a vein, and IA injection nearly impossible to screw up….which is why every place nowadays offers flu-shots.
After deciding which Vitamin B12 shot to buy online (this lab is the only one that uses the right type of B12) I waited for the package to arrive. I ordered a 6 week supply of an entire B-complex formula (since B12 is most effective when combined with other B-vitamins- especially B6). When I got the package and saw the needles I got nervous..but after remembering how painless flu-shots are (and how millions of diabetics give themselves IA shots every day) I knew I could do this.
Because (for whatever reason) I knew that I could survive a flu-shot to the deltoid, I decided on that as my first injection site. Since I’m right-handed I swabbed my left deltoid and prepared the syringe. The dose is 1cc per week (which isn’t too much) injected straight into the muscle. People differ between slowly pushing the syringe into the skin or quickly jabbing it. I slowly (probably too slowly) pushed it into my left deltoid muscle about 3 fingers’ width below the top of my shoulder bone. I was amazed that I actually felt almost nothing. I slowly started injecting the solution and withdrew the syrnge, replaced the cap and that was it. The muscle will be sore for about 30 min afterwards but other than that it was amazingly easy.
The next day, however, the difference was amazing. As I said, I’ve been a healthy eater and active fitness enthusiast for years so I actually didn’t expect to actually feel any better…I thought it’d be more of a “behind the scenes” effect. But the next day I popped right out of bed with a buzz in my stomach. I’m a morning person naturally (I don’t use an alarm clock and I NEVER sleep in past 7:30 even on the weekends) but I still need 5 minutes each morning to stretch and get out of bed. That day I popped right up feeling like I wanted to go run 5 miles right away.
The biggest benefit of B12 is that it helps our bodies convert food into energy…which is why so many people use it to help lose weight. That’s exactly what I felt…as if my metabolism had been re-calibrated slightly higher. It felt like that same feeling I remember in high-school, if that makes sense….that my whole body was burning just a little faster. I did my normal morning workout with a little more intensity…I was a little less full after eating that day and I wasn’t yawning around 3pm like I was used to….and every day was like that (since the vitamin is slowly absorbed over an entire week). After that I was hooked.
If I miss a vitamin b12 shot then I definitely turn to a B12 patch (which is a great delivery source) or Sublingual Vitamin B12
