Ferritin 90ng/mL. Iron supplementation?

[Swincei]

Hi there!

The title pretty much says it all. Do you people think it/s worth trying oral iron supplementation when my ferritin levels are at 90ng/mL?

If yes, then what dose would you recommend?

Thank you!

[Hidden]

There's no harm in trying it. but unfortunately the guidelines on this say that you may not benefit from oral supplementation if your ferritin is over 75 ng/mL.

The dose is not perhaps as significant as how often you take it and how, because this affects how much you can abosrb. This will be limited because of your ferritin level.

The how - 30 mins before or 2 hours after eating = in the evening. Drink a glass of orange or take a vit C tablet at the same time

How often - Once every two days, NOT daily. Take a double dose.

[Swincei in reply to Hidden]

Thank you! I will try this. Can you recommend any supplements for me to try first?

[Hidden in reply to Swincei]

Something that's often recommended on here is "gentle" iron, ferrous nisglycinate. It's less upsetting to the digestive system.

[Mum007 in reply to Swincei]

You can get gentle iron from Holland and Barrett or spatone liquid sachets in a box from Tesco vitamins isle if you are in uk

[DicCarlson]

Ferrous Bisglycinate Chelate - also called Gentle Iron. You're close enough to the 75 threshold to consider raising it. Here's an article explaining iron tests. consider also your % saturation. bloodtestsresults.com/iron-...

[WideBody]

I would have a few more questions.

Was your test in the morning? Did you fast before hand? Did you do the full iron panel? Do you have any inflammation markers?

While I certainly believe it is safe to try iron for three months and retest, I don’t know if it will help. It is worth a try.

[Swincei in reply to WideBody]

- Was your test in the morning? No!

- Did you fast before hand? No!

- Did you do the full iron panel? I'm not sure. What is this?

- Do you have any inflammation markers? I didn't have then tested.

[WideBody in reply to Swincei]

For people experiencing RLS it is recommended to do a morning fasted full iron panel. The test is done in the morning because ferritin is lowest in the morning. It should be done fasted because eating can raise ferritin levels. Inflammation can falsely raise ferritin levels.

A full iron panel takes a more in depth look at iron status. Ferritin, Serum Iron, Transferrin Saturation Percentage and TIBC. All of them are important. It is possible to have normal ferritin and low TSP. It’s called Iron Deficiency without Anemia.

The other important parameters are your CBC and inflammation markers. As above if inflammation is high it can falsely raise ferritin levels and the anemia is missed.

Of course this is not to imply your situation, it’s just that more information is needed.

[Joolsg]

Yes. As widebody advises, a simple cold, eating xan cause inflammation and so cause a high ferritin reading while hiding the underlying anaemia.

Dr Buchfuhrer gave a talk last night on the US RLS foundation webinar series and confirmed that ferritin levels above 250 and iron saturation above 20% are optimal for RLS.

[Swincei in reply to Joolsg]

This sounds interesting. Do you know if this is publicly available?

[Joolsg in reply to Swincei]

It’s available to members if rls.org- the USA RLS foundation. It’s $35 pa for residents of USA & Canada & $45 for everyone else. We get monthly e news and about 5 magazines. Access to webinars by top Experts and lots of research papers to print off to show our GPs.

The membership fees go towards campaigning and research. They’re funding the RLS opioid study.

Excellent group with all the latest RLS news.

rls.org/

[Swincei in reply to Joolsg]

That sounds like a worthwhile investment in order to learn more about this damned ailment.

[Swincei]

Thank you, this is extremely helpful!