Methotrexate and recovery

Medical Q&A [Moderated]
1

Good morning from the UK doctors,

I am currently receiving low-dose Methotrexate for eczema (17.5mg/week) and a Folic Acid supplement (10mg/week). I have been on this course of treatment since July with the dose steadily increasing to the current maintenance level. Rarely see any side effects and unfortunately, I am not seeing results either but that is for my dermatologist to sort out.

My query is whether this treatment may be affecting my ability to adequately recover from training (make gains). This comes after watching Jordan’s video in New Zealand, stress-recovery-adaptation…

I believe that my recovery is slow and gains are not coming as quickly as I would hope. Although this may be more closely correlated with being a later stage intermediate (2.5 years training)? I am running The Bridge V1.0 right now (which I love) and I am seeing progress, however, the numbers which I am hitting are not PR’s. Over the course of 2017, I did a long steady cut (following an RP template) with no regrets other than minor lost strength. So, I am only getting back to old strength levels.

To close my query, I have searched for the answer myself without much success. I have online access to academic journals and of course, Google, but the only luck I have had is in connection with anabolic steroid use and MTX which does not apply to me.

I can absolutely provide more info if needed and hope you can find the time to reply!

Thanks,

Sam

2

Hi there,

Of course, progress is going to slow down as you become more advanced, so it’s hard to tease apart specific interactions. However, with that said, methotrexate is an immunosuppressive medication. There is an important immune response involved in the response to stress and adaptation, so it’s certainly plausible that it could have an impact – though again, difficult to say how significant this effect is, particularly across the wide dose range that MTX is used at.

I don’t know of any literature looking at this off the top of my head, and unfortunately don’t have time to do much literature digging at the moment.

1 Like
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@Austin_Baraki Thanks for getting back to me, it’s greatly appreciated!

What you say makes a lot of sense and goes along with my current train of thought. I’m switching onto Ciclosporin this week, also an immunosuppressive as you know, should I expect my response to be fairly similar?

At least I am not losing strength, so, I suppose with that the impact cannot be too pronounced or negative.

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Yep, I’d expect something similar, though with a different side effect profile.

5

@Austin_Baraki Thank you!