Has anyone with low ferritin had vitamin shots? I know you would be given them on nhs if you were low enough. My ferritin is low, ( not low enough for nhs) and have started supplementing with iron again, but I know this can take a long time to build up in your system and make a difference. I’ve found somewhere that offers vitamin shots and these would be faster acting. I know we need to be patient in this thyroid game but if having this will speed things up for me, I’m keen! Really struggling still with fatigue...hoping iron boost might just help things along. Any experiences?
On a side note, my endo gave out my vitamin reaults yesterday and when I questioned where they were in the range- that they were low and that they need to be optimal for thyroid health he replied that he didn’t know anything about vitamins but mine were in range and so are fine.
Ummm hello??? I know this happens all too often but I just can’t believe it. Especially when you think you’ve found a goodish one!
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Doctors aren't taught nutrition, this is why "in range" is what they are satisfied with. I've never understood how they can't see that 1 point from bottom of range is vastly different from 1 point from top of range, or one isn't going to feel the same when result is low in range compared to high in range. One wonders if they've had a common sense bypass whilst in med school.
It would be good to start researching yourself on vitamin levels, the more you know anout optimum ranges, you might he able to inform/ maybe get more help through him if he is open to helping you. I have had low ferritin/ iron through heavy periods and whether it be through the vD/K2 and or b12 and omega 3 supplementing (not sure if which or corecting all deficiencies) have not had a heavy period for full 5-7 days so something is happening (in a good way) and encourage you to look into this area to see if there may be something else causing the issue with your ferritin.
Not sure if you get these are questions alot but something to consider: are you eating meat, more specifically beef, liver etc and or digesting them? That is interesting.. have you considered looking into whether something you are taking (vitamin supplement or medication) is causing adverse affects?
Or are you having stomach issues? Could this be an auto immune issue?
I’ve started taking digestive enzymes, ones recommended by izabella Wentz. Something and pepsin?? I am eating lots of red meat etc. I just thought periods being absent was a hypo thing. It has to be for me. I’m fertile and had my daughter no problem so it’s a strange one for me! I’m only taking thyroid meds, adrenal support and supplements so not sure what else would be causing it.
Yeah it doesnt seem like anything you are taking could he causing the iron issues, and have heard good things about the pepsin and is it hcl? Doesnt it create more stomach acid? I am curious becase you are at child bearing age and dont have a period and have Ferritin issues. I know i jst repeated what you wrote but it doesnt seem normal to me, I wouldnt write it off as hypo issues entirely. i have hashi (hypo) and graves (antibodies) and have had a period all through being hypo, didnt have one while being forst diagnosed with Graves (hyper) i know that everyone is different, but I think its worth looking into for sure. I do wonder if tyere is something going on in your body with storing the ferritin or absorption. Could be wrong but just thought i’d chuch it out there for suggestion to look into.
I don’t see what else it could be other than wing hypo tbh.. I’ve had all hormones tested which are fine and making periods is listed as a hypo symptom. Perhaps when I’m
Sorry, not trying to worry you by any means, (I could be wrong and have been known to be wrong, and worrying doesnt help at all either) just thinking about it and it doesnt make sense. I know stress has been known to stop periods too.
Infusions and injections aren't the same thing. I remember my mother telling me that she was given injections of iron in her bum when she was pregnant. She said it felt like she'd been kicked by a horse afterwords and it took some time for the pain to go away. And she had these injections once a week for some time.
I've never given it any thought before I wrote this post, but I can't imagine injecting iron compounds into muscle tissue actually did any good. But we are talking about 50 - 60 years ago, so perhaps they didn't do infusions then.
Another thing to point out - iron isn't a vitamin it is a mineral. So I'd be dubious about something described as a "vitamin shot" for supplementing iron. It would make me wonder if the person advertising it actually knew what they were doing.
I'd rather reply publicly than by private message. It isn't a private or personal subject and it could be useful to other people. And if I make mistakes then other people can point them out.
For people with thyroid problems the ferritin should be mid-range or a little bit over.
But you have a problem. That links says the following :
Saturation
• optimal is 35 to 45%
• higher end for men
and
Serum iron
• 55 to 70% of the range
• higher end for men
Your blood is already more saturated (47%) with iron than optimal. And your serum iron is already 85% of the way through the range, which is high.
So the last thing you need (at the moment) is more iron!
Your body should move iron freely from serum iron into and out of ferritin. Your body is keeping too much in "free-floating" iron and isn't moving it into ferritin when it should. So if you supplement with iron it will probably end up increasing your saturation and your serum iron and having little impact on your ferritin. And with lots of iron in your blood stream that isn't in ferritin then it could end up being deposited in your brain or other organs. And then you have the problem of trying to get it out again.
So the iron infusions you were asking about? Don't do it!
There are various reasons for having a high serum iron level or blood which is highly saturated with free iron. Iron stored in ferritin is safe, but free iron in excess can be dangerous.
To see more info on high iron, search for iron info on this page - note that the info is very annoying in a couple of ways - no units or reference ranges are given - but you should still be able to get the gist of it :
The info on that link suggests you have an MTHFR mutation. Don't panic - this is very common, and about 50% of people have less than optimal MTHFR genes, and there are ways and means of overcoming the problems it causes.
Okay, your B12 is very high. It makes me wonder if your body is making much use of it.
Your folate level is 27% of the way through the range, so roughly quarter of the way through the range. Getting your level up to middle of the range or the upper half of the range might help.
I would suggest that you supplement with methylfolate 400mcg per day. If necessary you can double this dose after a couple of weeks. Whatever you do, don't supplement folic acid.
The reason for supplementing methylfolate is two-fold :
1) It will increase your folate level.
2) The methyl part of the methylfolate will act as a methyl donor. My (very poor) understanding of the MTHFR problem is that it is too few methyl donors that the body has problems with, so taking methylfolate may supply all you need.
Some people with MTHFR problems feel a bit unwell when they start taking supplements with methyl donors in because they suddenly have all sorts of things happening in the body at once that were not happening because of the lack of methyl donors. But it should wear off quite quickly.
You might want to look into buying TMG - trimethylglycine. It can be bought as a powder which you put in water and drink. It is made from beetroot. I've never used it and don't know anything about dosing.
(There are probably other providers of TMG powder - I'm not making a recommendation about any particular supplier.)
I said in my earlier post "Treating an MTHFR problem can be very cheap and simple. Or it can get very complex and expensive."
Methylfolate is an "activated" form of folate. For some people this may be all they need. But some people feel better if they take other B vitamins (folate is a B vitamin) in their activated form. So, they take methylcobalamin (activated B12) and adenosylcobalamin (another active form of B12). They take "methylated B vitamins" usually in the form of a good quality B Complex. The one I take is :
If your B12 had been quite low I would have suggested you take a methylated B Complex. But your B12 is already high, so I've suggested the methylfolate as a starter. If the methylfolate doesn't improve matters then try a methylated B Complex instead of the methylfolate.
If your blood test results don't improve then I'll refer you to Dr Myhill's page on the subject (where it starts getting complicated and expensive).
She gives her protocol to fix methylation issues part way down that page, but read it all.
.
For someone with methylation problems it shouldn't be necessary to supplement methylfolate all the time. Once the methylation Cycle is restarted successfully you should be able to drop down to a maintenance dose of the things you've been supplementing, or you could take the TMG I referred to above.
.
I should make it clear that I'm not a doctor and I may have got completely the wrong end of the stick about methylation. You follow my suggestions at your own risk.
Hi again! I had an updated iron panel on Tuesday, results as follows:
Serum iron 13.8 (7-26)
Transferrin 2.67 (2-3.2)
Ferritin 68 (5-204)
Saturation 21% (20-60)
Sorry to bombard you. I feel that I do need iron supplementation now as per the sttm advice. What do you think? My saturation is really low.
Also I do have the MTHFR gene mutation from one parent. I had a 23 and me test done a few years ago. My iron panel looks different now to what it did in the previous post. Thank you humanbean x
Your results aren't catastrophic at the moment, but you would probably feel better if your results were higher. If you supplement you would need to keep a close eye on your results to make sure you reduce to a maintenance dose or stop supplementing altogether if your results should suddenly shoot up.
This test does everything necessary for monitoring iron :
Checking every 6 - 8 weeks would be a good idea. It really depends on the speed with which your results go up.
An alternative to taking iron supplements is to boost your intake of iron from food. Sources of iron are liver pate, liver, and black pudding. If you don't eat meat then you would have to get iron from supplements. For info on supplements :
The standard prescribed iron supplements are ferrous sulfate, ferrous fumarate and ferrous gluconate. They are all available without prescription from pharmacists in the UK, although it is up to the pharmacist whether they agree to sell it. If they refuse just go to a different chain.
Info from the NHS on prescribed iron supplements can be found here :
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