Iron supplements for hypothyroid patients?

I have been struggling with low iron and ferritin levels for years. I eat read meat at least a couple of times a week, but it seems to do nothing for me...

My doctor prescribed a drug called Losferron last year (in Belgium), but it did nothing for my iron or ferritin levels. I admit to being at a loss here...can anyone recommend a good OTC product likely to raise my iron, ferritin, and TIBC levels?

Thanks,

Anna

[Clutter]

Anna, a lot of members recommend Ferrous Fumarate. Take each tablet with 500mg-1,000mg vitamin C to aid absorption and mitigate constipation.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

I have recently mentioned both heme (haem) and ferritin products. Both are available from iHerb and, probably, Amazon and elsewhere.

Some days or weeks ago I fell across a paper which identified that ferritin is absorbed by a different mechanism to other iron sources (heme and mineral). That means it might work when the others don't, and it might well be sensible to take both ferritin and other sources at the same time. The other sources won't conflict with the ferritin absorption or vice versa.

Rod

[Ruthi in reply to helvella]

Iron supplements interfere with thyroid hormone absorption, to so take your iron at the opposite end of the day to your thyroid meds

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to Ruthi]

Iron compounds can bind to levothyroxine forming a stable purple complex.

But that doesn't stop ferritin and haem/heme and "mineral" iron sources being used together.

Rod

[cc120 in reply to helvella]

Hi Rod, when I tried to increase iron levels, via 210mg ferrous fumarate a day. After 4 months, my iron went down from 15 to 12 (6-26) and my ferritin increased from 36 to 251 (13-150). CRP reading of 4mg (0-5mg). Any suggestions?

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to cc120]

cc120,

It appears that when we have an inflammation in our bodies, we move iron into the storage form called ferritin. C-reactive protein is a crude (but useful) measure of inflammation.

The fact that your ferritin has risen very substantially, and your CRP is towards the top end of the range, suggests something is going on. Do you think you might have some sort of inflammation?

Iron is a complicated issue and I am far from understanding more than a little about it. It is all the more difficult because it is so obvious that both too little and too much iron in our systems are severe problems.

Rod

[cc120 in reply to helvella]

Hi Rod, thank you. Endo (Dr G C at UCH) didn't seem to concerned on the issue, but did say he would advise GP to refer me to the Royal London Hospital of Integrated Medicine for further investigation!

[Hidden]

This may seem obvious, but can you enjoy liver? As lightly cooked as you find pleasant to eat. Apart from meat the highest concentration seems to be in spinach. Spinach and liver on the same plate? Not sure about that!

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Sorry, no! Spinach on the other hand is fine. I have read that it is even better to mix it in a blender with for instance ginger, grapefruit, bananas, or berries, and drink it as a smoothie. It seems the body is able to absorb the vitamins and minerals better that way.