Raising ferritin levels

[dizzy864]

Hi,

I tried taking ferrous sulphate 200mg tablets with calcium + vit D. This made me feel really sick all the time in spite of taking them with food.

I am currently taking ferrous fumarate 210mg tablets with 500mg vit C tablets. I am finding these a little better but not much.

Some people on this site have suggested taking spa tone sachets as they are gentler on the tummy.

I took a look at these. They contain only 5mg iron.

I am confused. Would I not have to take 40 sachets of spa tone to get the same iron content as one ferrous fumarate tablet or am I misunderstanding the labels? The recommended daily dose is only one sachet.

I really need to raise my ferritin level and if I am understanding the labels correctly then 5mg is no where near enough.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

I am also trying to raise my ferritin levels and am pretty new to this, I'm sure there are other members with more information than me but what I've learned so far is that it's the elemental iron content that you have to take into account and different forms of iron have different amounts of elemental iron, e.g.

1 gram ferrous guconate - 120mg elemental iron - 12% iron

1 gram ferrous sulphate - 200mg elemental iron - 20% iron

1 gram ferrous fumarate - 330mg elemental iron - 33% iron

This site compares the amount of elemental iron in different types of supplement thezlifemag.com/phpages/wp-...

This trial shows that ferrous bisglycinate 25mg is as effective as ferrous sulphate 50mg ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/241...

and this site explains the dosage a bit more albionnutritionalfacts.com/...

(they're not UK sites but you get the gist)

So you need to work out how much elemental iron in each tablet you take and how much you need in a day.

I have had a life long constipation problem which I've recently managed to sort out so I needed to try and find an iron supplement that didn't cause constipation and I settled on Solgar Gentle Iron which is iron bisglycinate. I checked with Solgar and who confirmed that they state the amount of element iron on the label which is 20mg per capsule. I've taken them for a couple of weeks, got up to 4 capsules at lunchtime taken with 1000mg Vit C, plus 1000mg Vit C at breakfast and I've had no problem with constipation.

Hope that helps a bit

[dizzy864 in reply to SeasideSusie]

Hi, Thanks a lot for that. It is much clearer now.

[HEA72]

I've taken Floravital, it's another liquid iron and is stronger than Spa Tone. I've also taken Spa Tone, both products good and no unwanted side effects re bowel movements.

[Paulajane7]

I have tried in the past to raise my ferritin levels using spatone and gentle iron. I actually became anaemic despite taking daily spatone (years of vegetarianism and heavy periods).

Ferrous fumerate worked for me but made me feel quite sick for the first couple of weeks. I've been on it for 2 months now and my level has gone up to 48 from 31 and no bowel/ stomach issues. Gentle iron for just a month only raised it by 1, despite taking 4 to 6 tablets a day.

[dizzy864]

Hi Thanks for that. I felt very sick on ferrous sulphate so switched to ferrous fulminate 4 days ago. It's giving me constant indigestion!! I'm going to stick with it for a bit longer as I really need to raise my ferritin as I think it's causing problems with my thyroid meds.