Reply to I’m 53 and I’m losing muscle fast. Any suggestions on how to regain muscle?

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Reply to "I’m 53 and I’m losing muscle fast. Any suggestions on how to regain muscle?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]How did you figure out your vitamin deficiency?  Which vitamins?[/quote]

It was a B1 (thiamine) deficiency. It was the third neurologist I saw who sent me for the lab work almost as an afterthought, having told me I was probably just suffering bad perimenopause. Essentially I think she thought I was malingering, because multiple MRIs and other tests had ruled out all the zebras they were looking for - initially suspected to be rrMS but MRIs were clear then I was tested for every kind of autoimmune disorder they have tests for all negative. The whole experience was a huge revelation about how middle aged women are treated in our healthcare system, even by many women doctors - I got a lot of condescending and dismissive attitude.

Thiamine deficiency is called beri beri, and comes in wet version which damages the cardiac system not infrequently resulting in death, and dry version which damages the neurological system and can also eventually result in death. It is considered rare in western countries, or at least that is what they tell medical students and the info online says the same - that in the west it is typically a disease of alcoholics who drink their calories and have very poor nutrition. Since this happened to me I did a boatload of research and found medical journal articles on recent research that establishes around 20% of very well nourished - e.g., obese - are presenting with thiamine deficiencies, so it is quite clearly not so rare.

I was obese and only drink 4-6 glasses of wine per year, 2 each at Thanksgiving, Xmas and Easter. I had suffered digestive issues for years following gallbladder removal and had developed an absorption disorder- thiamine is water soluble so it washes out quickly and even if you get enough from thiamine rich foods if your body cannot absorb you will quickly become deficient. Because I would sometimes have better absorption I experienced the symptoms on and off, which is why rrMS was first suspected. I am grateful that it wasn’t worse because I had the deficiency for half a decade before it was diagnosed and had my gut been even worse I probably would have died from it.

Vitamin deficiencies in middle age and beyond are actually fairly common, not because we don’t have access to good foods but because unhealthy guts don’t function as well at absorbing nutrients and many standard American diet consumers have very unhealthy guts by middle age. [/quote]

You should write and pitch an article about this, so more women are informed. [/quote]

+1 Such an article could save lives.

I had never heard of this until recently when an acquaintance was diagnosed with another absorption disorder.

Glad you are doing better PP.[/quote]

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