Anemic? Please Help

[Dessert_All_Day]

Peat recommends generally minimizing iron consumption. If you're looking to hedge against his advice, why not just get a bit more from foods rather than supplementing? Supplementing a potentially toxic heavy metal seems unnecessarily extreme.

 

[tara]

Peat recommends generally minimizing iron consumption.

Not for the minority of people who have iron-deficiency anemia.

 

[Dessert_All_Day]

Not for the minority of people who have iron-deficiency anemia.

I didn't realize it'd been established that OP had iron-deficiency anemia; please disregard my previous comment.

 

[What-a-Riot]

Would supplementing vitamin c to increase iron absorption rather than a taking a concentrated iron supplement be a reasonable first effort in iron deficiency anemia?

 

[Makrosky]

Don't take vitamin C with iron pills.

Iron and ascorbic acid form a potentially toxic cocktail.

Thanks Giraffe!

 

[tankasnowgod]

Hey there Dave,

I used to have very high iron (Ferritin was around 444), and through blood donation and some dietary changes, I lowered it considerably. I had it checked recently, and my Ferritin level was at 18. I personally didn't really notice any negatives, but decided to ease up on some of the iron reduction strategies I had been using. I had donated blood not that long before, and hemoglobin was actually the highest it had ever been at 15.6. I would echo a lot of the ideas that others have given here, and I'll just type it out with a little more detail.

- I would certainly avoid standard iron supplements. They are notorious for causing stomach problems, and this is the type of iron that is commonly added to fortified grains and bread. I personally suspect that a lot of the benefits people report from gluten free diets come from striping out the supplemental iron in bread.

- Adding liver, oysters, and red meat is certainly a good idea. Heme iron is highly absorbed, and is the safest iron to injest. You may also want to consider adding dessicated liver, or an iron containing ferritin supplement (they have some on amazon). There is also a gentler form of iron called iron bisglycinate, but I would personally stick to one of the first two. All the meats and dessicated liver also contain the B vitamins useful for building hemoglobin.

- Reduce or modify use of the things that impair iron absorbtion- aspirin, coffee, tannins, phyenolic compounds, calcium, lactoferrin, tea, red wine, eggs and milk. Eggs and milk have several compounds that can inhibit iron. It may be a simple matter of eating these away from meat or liver pills.

- Sugar, Vitamin C and alcohol are all supposed to enhance iron absorbtion. So, maybe swallow dessicated liver with orange juice? Use brown sugar as a way to season a steak? Or maybe molasses?

- Iron is also lost through sweat. This could be another reason it's low. So, maybe take a look at exercise and sauna use.

- I personally found that a B complex and/or Life Extension's Two Per Day Multi (it's iron free) were excellent at building hemoglobin, even while I was lowering iron through blood donation. Use of the 5 MTHF version of folate seemed especially effective. You may want to get your Hemoglobin, B12, B6, and Folate levels tested if possible. Like I said, my ferritin is really low right now, but didn't really notice any typical anemia symptoms.

You may find some other good strategies at the irondisorders.org website.

 

[skycop00]

Low ferritin is not necessarily a bad thing. Search ferritin in the forum as we have already discussed this.

 

[tankasnowgod]

Low ferritin is not necessarily a bad thing. Search ferritin in the forum as we have already discussed this.

Nor is it necessarily a GOOD thing. There have been lots of studies showing improvements from getting ferritin into that near deficiency range of 30-70. Some, like the FeAST trial, showed dramatic reductions of serious diseases like cancer and heart disease with iron lowering, and the researchers didn't even get into this range, although their goal was to get ferritin down to about 25 (average ferritin was about 85, I believe). I personally know I'm currently in uncharted waters, as far as ferritin is concerned. I know I haven't NOTICED any negatives, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't feel better if ferritin was up near, say, 40-50 or so. Below 25 or 30? Studies never really examine this range, and this is where problems with anemia can really start to show (although, it should be noted, there are several types of anemia that can happen with high iron levels).

 

[skycop00]

Aspirin lowers serum ferritin levels

 

[tomisonbottom]

Here's my iron tests:

5/4/2016 (5-6 weeks later)

IRON 113 ug/dL 50 - 160 ug/dL
TIBC 407 ug/dL 246 - 436 ug/dL
% SATURATION 28 % 13 - 50 %
FERRITIN 13 ng/mL 22 - 322 ng/mL

Should I supplement iron? My ferritin is too low, but all the other values seem to reflect better iron status (as I've eaten a few high iron meals with meat in the mean time.)

I feel so exhausted all the time, and I have no appetite. My rib cage hurts, and I'm depressed because of it. Any help would be very much appreciated.

Hey Dave, curious if you raised your ferritin?

I got a similar lab value recently but didn't check the the other iron tests, so don't know if it means anything but curious what low ferritin indicates...

 

[DaveFoster]

Hey Dave, curious if you raised your ferritin?

I got a similar lab value recently but didn't check the the other iron tests, so don't know if it means anything but curious what low ferritin indicates...

Yeah, it raised to around 100. I dropped it that low after many months of a milk and OJ diet with no meat.

 

[tomisonbottom]

Yeah, it raised to around 100. I dropped it that low after many months of a milk and OJ diet with no meat.

Cool. How did you raise it?

 

[dbh25]

Yeah, it raised to around 100. I dropped it that low after many months of a milk and OJ diet with no meat.

How long did it take until you felt better?

 

[DaveFoster]

Cool. How did you raise it?

A few months of normal eating with meat.

How long did it take until you felt better?

I didn't really make a connection, and it's probably because good thyroid function can regulate serum ferritin.

 

[whit]

Yeah, it raised to around 100. I dropped it that low after many months of a milk and OJ diet with no meat.

Just curious because I've done this for short periods but.
How many months?
What were the average quantities of each?

 

[DaveFoster]

Just curious because I've done this for short periods but.
How many months?
What were the average quantities of each?

Maybe eating meat once every couple days or so, and maybe some iron-contaminated foods. Eating two or three servings of meat daily for a month should raise ferritin levels in the context of a balanced diet.

 

[Lokzo]

Wow, well at least your Transferrin saturation % is higher than mine !!