Vitamin B-12 shots can provide important health benefits for people who're deficient in this vitamin, but the injections won't necessarily help you to lose weight. Many weight-loss centers use vitamin B-12 shots as part of their programs, but the medical evidence supporting the vitamin's use in weight loss is scant, at best. Before you receive vitamin B-12 injections for weight loss or any other purpose, consult your doctor.
Warning
Because vitamin B-12 shots aren't medically proven to promote weight loss, you should talk with your physician about the injections before receiving them, MayoClinic.com warns. Vitamin B-12 supplements and injections could pose health risks for certain people and interact negatively with certain other medications. Taking extra vitamin B-12 could increase your risks for complications following coronary stenting, cautions the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Although rare, some people may experience serious allergic reactions to vitamin B-12 injections, which could even become life-threatening, says the University of Michigan Health System.
Benefits
Despite their likely ineffectiveness in promoting weight loss, vitamin B-12 oral supplements and injections have many real health benefits for people with certain medical conditions. Most commonly, vitamin B-12 supplements and injections are used to help treat pernicious anemia and other medical conditions that cause a B-12 deficiency, MayoClinic.com notes. People who have malabsorption disorders, gastritis or ulcers due to Helicobacter pylori bacterial infections, or HIV/AIDS are all very likely to have a vitamin B-12 deficiency, according to the University of Michigan Health System. Vitamin B-12 supplementation can help treat people with deficiencies who also have depression, anemia, high homocysteine levels, age-related cognitive decline, canker sores, chronic fatigue syndrome, cystic fibrosis, low-back pain, osteoporosis and sickle cell anemia. Vitamin B-12 supplements or injections may help in treating sleep disorders, restless leg syndrome and fatigue, as well as help reduce the risks for certain types of cancers, cardiovascular disease and stroke, notes the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Misconceptions
Although some people believe that vitamin B-12 injections can boost their energy and metabolism to help lose weight, these effects aren't likely to occur unless you have a B-12 deficiency, MayoClinic.com says. Excess vitamin B-12 won't necessarily increase energy or metabolism, either. In fact, no conclusive scientific evidence supports the use of vitamin B-12 shots for promoting weight loss, and weight loss isn't listed as a recommended use for B-12 supplementation.
