Is exercising when the body lacks vitamin B harmful?

Not motivated to exercise? It may be because you are feeling exhausted or your body lacks vitamin B, making exercise more difficult.

Essential vitamins and minerals all play an important role in the health and effectiveness of exercise. The lack of nutrients in the body will reduce your energy as well as your ability to exercise at that time.

Vitamin B deficiency, especially vitamin B9 and B12 deficiency, has a significant impact on exercise. The next section of content will tell you how vitamin deficiency affects and how to get enough B vitamins for your body to help you exercise better.

Vitamin B deficiency anemia negatively affects exercise

B vitamins include many types such as vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9 and B12. Among them, vitamins B9 and B12 are the most commonly deficient types.

Vitamins play a role in converting food into energy. Often, vitamin B deficiency is also referred to as vitamin B deficiency anemia, similar to iron deficiency anemia because they reduce the number of red blood cells in the blood.

Anemia caused by vitamin B deficiency produces red blood cells that are egg-shaped, instead of round, they are larger in size but less numerous than normal red blood cells, causing the cells to receive less oxygen than needed.

Vitamin B deficiency can make you feel tired, dizzy… like people with exhaustion

So what is the relationship between vitamin B deficiency and exercise? Vitamin deficiency leads to anemia and thereby also prevents the exercise process from being highly effective. Anemia symptoms can negatively affect your exercise routine such as fatigue, shortness of breath, muscle weakness, feeling fatigued during exercise, nausea, diarrhea, dizziness, difficulty keeping up. balance and irregular heartbeat.

You will not easily recognize vitamin B deficiency anemia because they have similar symptoms to a person who is suffering from exhaustion. Many people think that this is just a temporary symptom, but in fact, you will become more and more anemic if not detected and supplemented at the right time.

Exercising when the body lacks vitamins will make you tired, in many cases leading to the inability to continue exercising. Not only that, weak muscles or symptoms like dizziness can increase the chance of injury during movement. Cells that are deprived of oxygen will gradually have a longer recovery time and limit exercise performance.

Supplement with B vitamins for effective exercise

You already know the bad effects of vitamin deficiency on your exercise results. Therefore, immediately supplement vitamin B to maintain health and exercise efficiency in the best way.

People who are most likely to have a vitamin B deficiency:

• In the elderly, because the body produces less internal factors such as protein for the digestive system to absorb vitamin B12.
• Women who are and are about to become pregnant need a higher than normal amount of vitamin B9, to support the developing fetus.
• People who take antacids, using these drugs for a long time will deplete vitamins B9 and B12.
• People with stomach complications such as celiac disease … make the body not absorb the necessary nutrients.
• Those who are vegetarian or have an unbalanced diet, are less likely to supplement with foods rich in B vitamins.

People with stomach problems often find it difficult to absorb food and therefore lack some essential nutrients such as vitamin B

Foods rich in vitamin B9 for exercisers:

• Dark green vegetables (broccoli, spinach, spinach, etc.)
• Internal organs (liver, kidney, etc.)
• Whole grains (rice, barley, wheat germ, etc.)
• Fruits and juices (especially oranges and orange juice)
• Nuts (sunflower seeds, cashews, flax seeds, etc.)

Foods rich in vitamin B12 for exercisers:

• Eggs, milk and dairy products
• Shellfish (oysters, clams, scallops, etc.)
• Whole grains (brown rice, buckwheat, wheat…)
• Meats, fish (beef, tuna, salmon…)

With the exception of mushrooms and grains, most foods rich in vitamin B12 are of animal origin. That’s why vegetarians are more likely to be deficient in this vitamin. However, if the vegetarian diet is still balanced with nutrition and sufficient nutrients, it will not affect the exercise.

Adults need about 400mcg vitamin B9 and 2.4mcg vitamin B12 per day.

This does not necessarily mean that vegetarians cannot exercise. The American Council on Exercise explains that vegetarian diets may be safe to promote physical activity, but those who are following them need to monitor their diets carefully.

Understanding the harmful effects of vitamin B deficiency and knowing which foods to add will help reduce the risk of nutrient deficiencies and increase optimal training performance.

Vitamin B deficiency and exercise burnout share many of the same symptoms and both affect your muscles and training results.

Reference source

What Happens When You Exercise With a Vitamin B Deficiency? https://www.livestrong.com/article/418931-what-happens-when-you-exercise-with-a-vitamin-b-deficiency/ Access date: 20/05/2020