I have just got my iron panel results back from Medichecks;
CRP 1.07 [R 0-5]
SERUM IRON 18.52 umol/L [R 5.8-34.5 umol/L]
TIBC 55.62 umol/L [R 45-72 umol/L]
UIBC 37.1 umol/L [R 24.2 -70.1 umol/L]
TRANSFERRIN SATURATION 33.3% [R 20-50]
FERRITIN 28 ug/L [R 13-150 ug/L]
By way of context I have suffered from historically low ferritin for the last 20 years - at one stage the level was 10 - 2 years ago it was 13. I am not supplementing iron, but take a methylated B complex. I suffer from a lot of the symptoms of iron deficiency anaemia. I would like to get my ferritin up so that my body could make better use of the T3 I am taking. With these levels would it be safe for me to supplement? I was thinking of taking low doses of the better you iron spray.
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Redlester
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Hey buddy, I wanted to get my iron up quickly a couple of years back, just in case my nitemare was iron related and nothing to do with thyroid. I went to the iron clinic in London and paid for an iron infusion. Very expensive and made no difference, but I ticked it off the list!
Just thought I’d let you know in case it was an option for you. It was all done in about twenty minutes and was fine.
I hope she does SlowDragon - I am fairly sure iron is a big part of a lot of my problems and would really like to improve things. This is the highest ferritin level I have had in 20 years - and it's only 28.
CRP --- This is fine. Optimal is less than 1 but yours is extremely close.
Serum Iron --- Optimal is 55% - 70% of the way thru the range i.e. 21.6 - 25.9. Yours could be higher than it is but it isn't desperately bad. Women should aim for the lower end of that, i.e. closer to 21.6 than 25.9.
TIBC --- Optimal would be mid-range, but yours isn't terribly bad.
UIBC --- I never know what to say about this.
Transferrin Saturation ---Optimal is 35% - 45%. Yours is very close to optimal. Women should aim for the lower end of that i.e. closer to 35% than 45%.
Ferritin --- This is much too low. Optimal is about mid-range or a little bit higher, i.e. around 82 - 120 or 82 - 130.
The safest course of action is probably to include more iron-rich food in your diet e.g. liver or black pudding or liver pate if you eat meat. For info on iron in food see these links :
If you want to supplement iron to see if doing so actually raises your levels how you would want then you could do so - but I would suggest doing regular iron panels because you really don't want to end up with excess iron depositing itself in various organs. After a while you should have a better idea of how your body reacts to iron supplements - it could work beautifully or start raising levels you don't want raised, or lowering levels you don't want lowered.
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For info on raising iron with supplements you could read this link I wrote for someone else on the subject :
Thank you for all this information Humanbean - you may say you are not medically qualified, but the information you share with us on the forum about iron would put a lot of GP's to shame. There is a lot here for me to work through, so I hope you won't mind if I come back to you in a bit if there is anything I don't understand or need help with. Many thanks.
Excellent and interesting post humanbean - thanks for the link as I had missed it when you first posted it. I had read a couple of months ago on the RLS forum [iron is one of the treatments for restless legs] posts from people who were supplementing with iron and were finding better results in terms of absorption with alternate day dosing as opposed to dosing every day. Before I did my tests I was thinking of treating with the Better You iron spray. I was thinking of doing alternate days. The recommendation in one of the reports you link in your first post above was for re-testing after 6 weeks. Apologies if this is a bit of an idiot-type question, but if you are doing alternate day dosing would you still have to re-test after 6 weeks or could you put it off for a bit longer, say 8-9 weeks? The reason I ask is that I had to stop my most useful supps for a week before the tests - the ones which really seem to be propping me up at the moment, and I would hate to go through again in such a short space of time what I went through in the run up to my iron testing - hence wondering if I could kick the can down the road for a few more weeks.
Apologies if this is a bit of an idiot-type question, but if you are doing alternate day dosing would you still have to re-test after 6 weeks or could you put it off for a bit longer, say 8-9 weeks?
It's not an idiot-type question and wasn't something I had previously thought about.
I would still suggest testing after 6 weeks for anyone who has no idea how well they absorb iron. The potential dangers of excessive iron are bad enough that I would be worried someone could make themselves seriously ill if they took too much iron. Excessive iron can feed pathogens in the body and can increase the risk of developing heart disease and some cancers too.
If someone has good evidence from testing that they absorb iron slowly then they may be able to reduce the frequency of their testing. It took me 21 months to get my ferritin up to mid-range (but my serum iron stayed low), and once I realised how slowly I was absorbing it I didn't continue testing at the same rate.
One thing to bear in mind is that diet alterations can affect how fast people absorb iron. Giving up gluten had a big effect on my own iron absorption. My ferritin suddenly shot up to about 170 (top of range was 150). I gave up supplementing iron altogether for four months and when next tested my ferritin had dropped to about 80. I then started trying to find a good maintenance dose that wouldn't raise my levels above optimal. I always try to keep my own levels optimal or lower, not optimal or higher.
Once iron is absorbed by the digestive tract, the body stores it. Most of us accumulate much more iron than we need. Unfortunately, the body has no way to rid itself of excess iron except in the case of some form of bleeding or by donating blood. Although not as common as iron deficiency, iron overload can also be serious.
Hemochromatosis, a genetic disorder where individuals absorb more iron than normal, can lead to iron stores in the body eventually building up to such high levels that organs are damaged. Heme iron (from meat) poses the greatest risk for people with this disorder. Excess iron store does not provide any particular advantage and may even have adverse effects. For example, iron is a pro-oxidant – it promotes oxidative damage that is linked to many chronic diseases. In some studies, excess iron stores (and intakes) have been linked to increased risk of heart disease and certain forms of cancer, particularly colorectal cancer. Iron accumulation can damage any part of the body, including the brain, liver, pancreas, lungs or heart."
Glad to hear you ae getting good results nightowl! Low ferritin levels are miserable aren't they?? I really need to get somewhere with mine as otherwise how can my body make good use of my T3? Having said that, I reckon that it is only because I am taking T3 that I have been able to manage to get my ferritin levels raised at all - it is too much of a coincidence that they have remained at the 10-13 mark for nigh on 20 years [but were ticked off as normal by the doctors] and then get to 28 - my highest recorded level - over the course of the 10 months I have been on T3. What are you taking to improve your iron?
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