Raising Ferritin & Advice on Iron

[Vikkiod]

How do we raise ferritin but not the other Iron labs? A few of my iron markers are over range apart from my Ferritin! I know this needs to be & stay at lease over 70/80 for good conversion & hair growth. It was up at 100 at the beg of Feb & other Iron labs were in range.

Has anybody else had results like these? I feel like I should stop supplementing Iron but don't want my ferritin to drop.

I was taking 2 Florisene tablets but have cut down to 1 as I am now taking Pregnacare New Mum as my multivitamin (they have iron & lots of other useful vits & mins for hair)

!Serum Iron 34 (5-33)

Serum Transferrin 2.76 (2.15-3.8)

Serum TIBC 63 (36-77)

!Sat Iron Bind Cap 54 (15-50)

Serum Vit B12 648 (180-910)

!Serum Folate >24 (5.4 - 24)

Serum Ferritin 75 (10-291)

TSH 0.2 (0.2 -6)

FT4 13.7 (10-20)

FT3 3.9 (3.5 -7)

Is the QUALITY of the Iron Important? I really don't know much about iron but know its really important not to overdose!

Any help, advice & experience about Iron will be gratefully received. x

Ps I did post this a few days ago and humanbean kindly replied regarding methylation but i'm hoping that others might have some personal experience in this area or maybe had similar results? x

[gophers]

Good question...I have had similar results...other iron numbers good but ferritin still low. Am interested in what replies you might get.

[Vikkiod in reply to gophers]

Let's keep our fingers crossed. I have stopped all supplemention until I know what's going on but I don't want my ferritin to drop again. x

[Heloise]

Hi Vikkiod, have you looked at these recommendations by STTM? stopthethyroidmadness.com/l...

You may have to look at the different countries mentioned for different lab ranges. The only place you are over is the serum and isn't that because you are supplementing? The others are low to midrange and the TIBC is actually better to be lower.

[Vikkiod in reply to Heloise]

Thanks Heloise, did get my STTM book out again last night & have a glance. I suppose if I just stop all iron supplements for a while and retest again in 6 weeks then I will know if there's a problem or not and where I am up to. I do feel so fatigued and lethargic though. Fuzzy, swimmy head too. x

[Heloise in reply to Vikkiod]

I think your ferritin is even lower than it looks because their range is 15-200 and your lab says 290. And, also, your thyroid numbers are all inadequate. Are you pregnant Vikki? I don't think you should stop your iron supplementing even though your conversion doesn't look bad for the low FT4 you are showing. It should be more like 17 in that range and in fact could go over range.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Vikkiod gophers Eat liver. I've read that liver makes ferritin.

My ferritin was low, other iron results in range. I couldn't tolerate iron supplements and as a demi-veggie at the time I rather balked at the thought of eating liver. However, needs must so I spoke to the local butcher (in Wales so Welsh lamb's liver), and he cut me some very nice pieces of liver. I fry gently in butter (onions too) for a few minutes, it needs to be still tender not cooked so long that it goes like leather, and eating about 120-140g a week raised my ferritin level. I still eat it regularly to maintain my level and enjoy it.

It can also be minced and added to casseroles, cottage pie, curry, Bolognese, etc. Then there's pate.

[Vikkiod in reply to SeasideSusie]

I was just literally heaving at the though of eating liver & onions and then you suddenly mentioned pate! Love a bit of pate. That's a great idea. Will hunt down some nice organic pate. Great advice. Can't believe i've never thought of that!

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to Vikkiod]

Vikkiod Pate alone won't raise your level, it's a very small part of the foods that help raise ferritin, a very small part! Google for iron rich foods.

According to Google:

100g Liver contains approx 18g of iron.

100g Chicken Liver Pate contains approx 9g iron.

A lot of people go "eewwww" when liver is mentioned, but I often wonder how many people have ever tried it.

[Vikkiod in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thank you. I don't think I've ever been able to get past the grainy texture. I remember my mum eating it when I was younger. It always smelt lovely when she was cooking it & vile when she gave me a taste. Maybe I could give in another try with my 'let food be my medicine' hat on😬

[Heloise]

I forgot to add if you didn't know that you should stop supplementing iron for at least four days before blood is drawn for testing.

[Vikkiod in reply to Heloise]

Brilliant advice again. I certainly didn't do that. Wonder if that could have made all the difference?

[Heloise in reply to Vikkiod]

And also, Vikki, serum blood tests are not the most helpful as they are the counts in the bloodstream and must reach the cellular level to really make a difference.

[Vikkiod in reply to Heloise]

It did make me snigger at the prospect of being pregnant as I am 48 & hubby has been 'sorted'. I think we can rule that out. I am peri-menopausal though! I am going to continue with the supplements tomorrow and ask doc for a retest & stop the iron 4 days beforehand. My bilirubin was high again too so I think they might go for it. I have just started adding T3 to my levo (I am taking 100mg 5 days a week). Was on 12.5mcg when these labs were taken. Have just added another 6.25 to see if we can get that T3 up. Might just have to bite the bullet and go back on Nature Throid as I know I was fab on 1.5g on that. x

[jacrjacr in reply to Heloise]

I am glad you said that bec I need a iron test but didn't know how long to be off iron

[Heloise in reply to jacrjacr]

If you can do without it, that's good. I don't know if you saw The Thyroid Secret where Mary Shomon I think is the one who said she couldn't get her levels up until she added manganese. Have you been having any problems that way? Maybe Mary Shomon has mentioned it on her site.

[jacrjacr in reply to Heloise]

no haven't read that so that is good to know.

..I am going to a dr for bio identical hormones and thyroid and taking nature throid...

.my test came back low normal ft4 ft3 and tsh and she wont raise meds so I feel hyper and she increased my progesterone to 80mg twice a day and 3% bi estrogen and immediately

I started being so fatigued I could hardly function ,.

..then 4 weeks later started having lightheadness and dizziness and sore breast

so I backed off estrogen and progesterone...I used to be on 40mg prog twice a day and just a little estradiol..

..I have never had this reaction to bioidenticals but am post menopausal about 10 years and never taken this amt of hormones and just figured it was my age

but when I pull down my eye lids they are not too pink so feel I may be low in iron too so doing a b12 and iron panel b4 I go back to dr.....feel like I need to find a new dr....this is my 4th in 10 yr....the older I get the less I trust these doctors......sometimes you feel more like a experiment

the breast tenderness went away in a week when I stopped all that estrogen but not sure how much progesterone to continue with and I am still having lightheadness enough that I don't feel myself...boy that is spooky and I know it is related to undermedicated thyroid or these hormones.....

[Heloise in reply to jacrjacr]

I go back and forth with progesterone and pregenolone and hope my adrenals figure it all out. I read so much against using estrogen and progesterone helps make estrogen which is in a lot of nuts and seeds plus the estrogen based pesticides found on everything. You might look up Ray Peat and progesterone and Dr. Lee. google.com/search?q=ray+pea...

It's a good idea to test first but since estrogen is a cancer causer and progesterone protects against cancer according to John Bergman I'd be careful. His video on menopause is a good one.

[jacrjacr in reply to Heloise]

I agree we think alike...I went to her for hair loss originally and she thought it was low estrogen but whats the use of having hair if you cant get off the sofa...lol....or walk without getting breathless or feel dizzy and lightheaded which is scary....thanksfor all your opinions...greatly appreciated

[jacrjacr in reply to jacrjacr]

do you know how long to wait when you do a b12 test from last supplement of b complex...

[Heloise in reply to jacrjacr]

I wouldn't go off B12. It's probably better to KNOW how your supplementation is working than to see how low you may be without it. Hopefully your folate will be high in range as well.

[jacrjacr in reply to Heloise]

thank you ..yes doing folate too or folic acid...pulling my own test and they only list folic acid not folate...

[Heloise]

Ha Ha, but your Pregnacare threw me off. I hope those are just vitamins then. Things can go wrong with hormones at your age. Have you watched any of the videos I have posted by John Bergman. He knows everything about everything and emphasizes how little your regular GPs understand about human body function.

youtube.com/results?search_...

youtube.com/watch?v=SDphVgA...(Not working as expected?)

[Vikkiod in reply to Heloise]

Ooooh! He sounds very interesting then! Will get dug in asap. Thank you👍