Anaemia and iron deficiencies

[Honeychild54]

Hello everyone.

Well, after a couple of years of feeling awful and depressed I have been diagnosed with anaemia.

The terrible thing about it is just how it has affected everything about my life. I mean everything. I often want to just not wake up in the morning rather than face the whole day.

Anyone else in the same boat?

[humanbean]

Severely low iron impacted just about every facet of my life too. You have my sympathies!

One issue you might have in the future is that doctors don't prescribe sufficient iron. They may prescribe for a couple of months and then stop because levels have risen to be just within the reference range.

Self treatment with iron is not a good idea unless levels are regularly tested, because iron in overdose is poisonous. However, testing privately without seeing a doctor is possible, and getting prescription-strength iron without a prescription is possible, should the need arise.

It is a good idea to take each iron pill with 1000mg of vitamin C to improve absorption and to reduce the risk of becoming constipated.

Also, if you take thyroid medications, keep a four hour gap between taking iron and taking thyroid meds, because iron will reduce absorption of the thyroid meds.

Good luck with your iron treatment and I hope you feel better soon.

[humanbean in reply to humanbean]

I should add that when I started treating my own iron levels, I continued to take the amount my doctor had prescribed for me, even though I was buying my own supplements. (Ferrous Fumarate 210mg, bought in boxes of 84. I was taking 1 tablet, three times a day.)

It took me nearly two years to get my ferritin and other iron measures optimised, and in order to achieve it I had to go gluten-free as well as supplement, even though testing showed I didn't have coeliac disease.