I had my iron checked 3 months ago. At the time I took small dose Thorne’s iron supplements for a couple weeks but discontinued because of constipation. Not sure if it helped or not but I’m curious about the lab results I had. I’m a 28 year old male.
Ferritin 91 (24-444)
Serum Iron 13.2 (10.6-33.8) 11%
Transferrin 2.59 (2.00-3.30) 45%
Iron Saturation 0.20 (0.13 - 0.50) 19%
Thanks. As I’ll be doing thyroid function labs in 6 weeks anyways I’m considering supplementing and checking the levels again.
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Andyb1205
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Serum iron - yours is 11% of the way through the range and needs to be 55% - 70% of the way through the range, which translates to an optimal level of 23.36 - 26.84 with the reference range you've provided.
Iron Saturation (which is already a percentage) - yours is 20%, optimal is 35% - 45%.
Ferritin - yours is 16% of the way through the range and needs to be mid-range or a little bit higher, so roughly 240 - 270.
With your current iron levels you must feel awful. I wouldn't be surprised if you suffer from breathlessness on minimal exertion, extreme tiredness, cognitive dysfunction, frequent cramp, restless legs. You might even suffer from tachycardia (fast heart rate) and/or chest pain although your levels are probably not bad enough yet.
Treating low iron with iron supplements is something people often have to experiment with. Lots of people tolerate iron poorly and get severe gut problems, also constipation is a very common problem associated with taking iron.
It is considered ideal to take iron on an empty stomach to maximise absorption. But many people find this intolerable. Personally, I decided I had to get iron into me somehow so I took it with food, knowing it would slow down my absorption of the iron, but I had no other choice.
To overcome the problem of constipation you should take Vitamin C. With each dose of iron you supplement take 1000mg (1g) vitamin C.
Vitamin C causes diarrhoea in excess, so you need to balance the iron with the right amount of vitamin C to keep your gut moving and to keep you comfortable. Some people take as much as 5mg - 10 mg or even more in total per day. If you get diarrhoea, reduce your dose of vitamin C, if you get constipated then increase it.
The vitamin C also helps your body to absorb the iron you take.
For info on iron supplementation, see this document written by one of the admins, helvella :
I bought mine from pharmacies in the UK, but buying online is possible too.
Whichever form of iron you decide to take remember to take it at least four hours away from any thyroid hormones.
Assuming you have no idea how fast you will absorb iron you will need to get tested (the same profile you had done above) every 4 - 6 weeks until you know how quickly you absorb it. Once you know this you can then reduce the frequency of testing if you absorb iron very slowly.
You may find that, say, serum iron gets optimised long before ferritin, or ferritin gets optimised long before serum iron. It is safer to keep everything optimal or below because iron is poisonous in overdose.
If you have iron or ferritin which is still much too low when the other measure is optimal there may be ways and means of helping yourself. You'd have to write a new post and ask for help if this situation arises. Just as an example of what can happen, my ferritin can be optimal while my serum iron is still quite low in range. But I live with this rather than push my ferritin higher.
Good luck, and hope you start feeling some benefit soon.
Once you've optimised your iron and ferritin as best you can, then you need to find out the dose you need to take to maintain your levels. There is no point in taking iron to improve your iron levels if you then allow it to drop into your boots as soon as you've got there.
Just as an example, I was taking 21 tablets of ferrous fumarate 210mg a week at one time. I now take 1 tablet, 4 times a week. I tweak that dose as and when necessary after I do testing.
The Thorne product doesn't have very much iron in it. Just as a comparison, the Ferrous Fumarate 210mg I took when I was low in iron contains 69mg of iron in each pill, and I was taking three pills per day - so a total of 207mg of iron per day. (Personally I would consider that the maximum that anyone should ever take.)
People absorb different amounts of iron from different sources. So if someone absorbs 50% of the iron from Iron Bisglycinate and 10% of the iron from ferrous fumarate, and another person absorbs 20% of the iron from the Bisglycinate and 10% of the iron from the Fumarate then obviously it isn't a straightforward calculation as to which product is best and people will have to rely on their own test results to find out what works for them. (I just made up those numbers, by the way. I have no idea how much iron, on average, people absorb from different sources, but I know people can differ in how well they absorb iron. It took me nearly two years to get my ferritin up to optimal, and my serum iron was still quite low in range. Other people I've read about can fix a low level in 6 months.)
Helvella's iron document that I linked above gives you lots of different choices of how to improve iron. You might want to try some of the stronger options. And do include food sources of iron too. They are absorbed differently from the way that supplements are absorbed and can help to speed up the increase in your iron levels.
You should re-think your plan of taking the iron at bedtime. It will affect your absorption of your Cytomel. I'd suggest leaving your thyroid meds timetable as it is and move the iron dosing to another time, four hours away from thyroid meds.
Thanks for the great advise! I will check out the links you provided. I’m puzzled as to how my Ferritin seems fine at least in relation to what I’ve read on this forum, that it needs to be above 70 for thyroid meds to work properly.
But my iron panel does not reflect that, it is surprisingly on the low side!
I will double up on the Thorne’s iron, it’ll be 50mg but the supplement is easy on my stomach and absorbs well. Will see how I feel and what my levels are in 6 weeks time.
I’m going to be changing up my routine tomorrow by taking Synthroid/Cytomel in the morning, go back to sleep and wake up an hour and half later to take my Adderall with Zoloft 25mg. Hopefully it can absorb well in that 1.5hrs. I’ve been taking the thyroid meds 30 mins before the other meds but it hasn’t been working well. New routine should be better.
Even with my early evening Cytomel dose, I’d still be able to leave a 4 hour gap before taking the iron with 500mg Vitamin C for now.
My Ferritin used to be much higher, in the triple digits and was around 200 just a year and half ago. Will be sure to monitor if I need to have a maintenance dose in the future, but for now need to bring up the numbers!
Something I really need to know so I can best absorb my meds. How long does it take for Synthroid to be absorbed in an empty stomach, when the body is at rest (sleeping and/or laying in bed). 1 hour? 1.5 hours? 2 hours?
If I’m going to start taking the thyroid meds in the early morning, disrupting my sleep, before I actually get up from bed, I might as well do it right!
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