Iron advice for my sister

[Peppermints]

Though you guys might be the best to ask. What is the best iron supplement going?

My sister needed 2 iron infusions before surgery and could only get one due to poor veins.

She needs an iron supplement and I said I would get it for her.

I want her to have the one that will be most beneficial to her....

Any advise would be great x

[Nackapan]

Pernicious anaemia is an auto immune condition results in a b12 deficiency. Often iron ferritin ,folate nd other vitx and minerals can also be low as an absorption problem

I use ferrous fumerate 210mg

It's chelated snd is normally well tolerated.

Has thd elemental iron needed.

I also use spartone and solgar gentle iron.

Vit c taken with iron rich haeme foods.

Taken in small amounts helps some with absorption

[Peppermints in reply to Nackapan]

Thanks nackapan

[Audrey789]

I have just received my ferritin test results and as I expected it was low -14. I have done lots of research and joined the iron deficiency FB group. Iron is so hard to absorb especially non heme iron. The best heme iron I could find available on UK was OptiFer, its expensive but I desperately want to get my ferritin up. Heme iron is much easier to absorb and doesn't effect your stomach, you Don't need loads of Vit C with it and you can take it with food. I started a week ago and haven't had any side effects. I hope your sister operation goes well

[Narwhal10]

Hi Peppermints,

I take the same as Nackapan Solgar gentle and Spatone (the apple flavour is much nicer). Ferrous fumarate does not suit me at all. Hope your sister’s surgery goes well.

Wishing you both well.

[FlipperTD]

Scientist, not medic.

I realise I'm preaching to the converted, but I couldn't live with myself if I hadn't given my standard warning about iron and you had a problem.

Iron is a scarce resource so we're very efficient at absorbing and storing whatever we can get hold of. Daily 'normal' diet [whatever that is] contains around 20mg of iron, and we absorb around 10% of that, and we lose about the same amount each day, so we're in 'iron balance' under those circumstances. We only need to lose 1 millilitre of red cells and we've lost 1 mg or iron, so it's a very fine balance. If we're deficient, we tend to absorb a bit more from the diet.

Iron in itself is both vital to life, and toxic. Any excess we ingest can have devastating consequences, so it's vital that before we take any iron supplements of any sort, we know we're deficient.

It's a case of 'enough is enough, and more than enough is worse than not enough.'

I suspect you know all this already, but 'just saying'!

Good luck.

[jade_s]

I use 1 to 2 tablets of Ferrous Sulfate 65mg tablets. What Flipper says is very important. You need the full panel: serum iron, % saturation, TIBC, and ferritin. For example iron and saturation can be low, but if TIBC is also low it means you shouldn't take high doses (from what I remember). And yes you can overdose on iron and damage organs, so it's important to retest once you've started supplementing.

Taking it with a vit C pill or juice with vit C is recommended, to help absortption.