Saturday 14 July 2012
Friday 6 July 2012
Pernicious Anaemia, my struggle
In 2009, I had taken myself to the doctors as I was gaining weight, feeling very run down and extremely fatigued, all the symptoms of an under active thyroid. I finally got diagnosed with Pernicious anaemia. Although nothing wrong with my liver, it has the inability to store B12.
The first few weeks I had what they called booster jabs, then every 10 weeks I have to have a top up, for the rest of my life. It took about 6 months for the fatigue to settle down, needless to say it made me feel very depressed, although this is also a symptom of B12 deficiency. Your body needs B-12 for nerve function, red blood cell formation, and the creation of substances such as DNA, hormones and proteins.
In August 2011, last year I decided I wanted to do something about the weight gain, so I took up walking. I was power walking about 15 miles a week. Then in October 2011 I signed up to do the London Moonwalk for Breast cancer research to keep me on track. This marathon walk wasn't until May 2012, so I had something to work towards, but instead of losing weight, I found myself gaining again, a stone! So another trip to the doctors, again they tested my thyroid, and again all clear. The doctors attributed my weight gain to the possibility that I may be peri-menopausal, certainly didn't feel peri-menopausal!
The more research I do on Pernicious Anaemia, the more I find out, yet find not many people suffer with weight gain, it's usually weight loss along with all the other symptoms. In America they give B12 jabs to help people lose weight as it's speeds up your metabolism.
I hate looking at my body image in the mirror, would love to see a fit and tone image. I eat healthy, hard drink any alcohol, don't smoke, love all my vegetables and fruit. I tend to eat I high protein, low carb diet most of the time, avoiding bread as much as possible as it bloats me out.
Bearing in mind my healthy diet, no weight loss is happening so I figured drastic measures needed to be put into place, so today, Thursday 5th July 2012, I went for my enrolment at my local gym, where I was talked through a core fitness programme and discussed nutrition with my trainer. I am going to keep a food diary for the week, so she can see if there are any areas that may need working on. I will keep posting back on my progress to let you know how I am doing.
Would love to have you comment if you a sufferer or any diet advice that worked for you. Thanks for reading
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