iron DROPPED on iron supplementation

[Beau55]

Hi everyone,

back in September I did a full iron panel as I suspected my iron was causing issues with raising my armour doses. After receiving my results I posted them here and had some great advice from human bean and started supplementing with ferrousgluconate 3 x daily with vit c. I also increased my red meat consumption.

After a complete fail of a test from thriva (bizarre results) and a few fails with Royal Mail strikes in December, with medichecks, I finally have my new iron results. I am quite shocked as over the last three months my ferritin level has only increased by a few points and my actual Serum iron has dropped? My transferrin saturation has increased slightly though. I very much am still trying to increase my armour dose and having hypo symptoms, could this explain why my iron hasn’t budged?

I know it’s notoriously slow to increase iron levels but at a loss with what to try and get it up. Should I increase my iron dose? How long should I wait to retest?

Many thanks for all your continued help x

[Beau55]

sorry forgot to add these

New results

[Beau55 in reply to Beau55]

old results

September results

[Beau55 in reply to Beau55]

humanbean sorry to tag but I think the post has gone cold and I don’t want to post again with the same info 😫 x

[humanbean in reply to Beau55]

Old then new results...

CRP HS 0.84 1.8

Iron 14.5 14

TIBC 59.9 53.2

UIBC 45.4 39.2

Transferrin Saturation 24.2 26.4

Ferritin 49.1 51.2

.

How long a period of time was there between the old and new results?

[Beau55 in reply to humanbean]

thanks for your response Humbean! Okay so the first test was 16th September, most recent bloods were on the 29th December so a little over 3 months 😔

[humanbean in reply to Beau55]

Okay, so you are barely absorbing the iron, which suggests you might want to change what you are taking and the frequency you are taking it with.

Have you ever read this link?

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

You might want to try sticking to your current iron supplements and taking them every other day.

Another thing to consider is how good are your B12 and folate levels? Some people (not all) find that optimising their levels of B12 and folate with the appropriate supplements will help to raise their iron levels.

There are a lot of options for iron supplements given on this reply to another member:

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

With the ferrous gluconate 300mg times three per day you have been taking in 105mg pure (elemental) iron i.e. 35mg pure iron per tablet.

There are several options open to you, and I have no way of knowing which will work best for you :

1) Keeping your current type and dose of iron supplements but taking them every other day.

2) Changing the iron supplements you take but continue taking them every day. Perhaps iron or ferrous bisglycinate (despite the different name they are the same thing).

3) You could raise or decrease the the dose of iron you take to see if it improves your absorption. Higher isn't always better. Try taking two tablets a day of what you currently take.

[Regenallotment Ambassador]

It can take aaaages to get a raise, after 3 months my Ferritin had only gone up about 10 eating Liver once a week, and my B12 had gone down. I think we have to just keep going being optimal as possible. The advice then was to take extra folate and B12 when stopping the B Complex pre test.

Have you checked you aren’t negating your efforts by combining vits that don’t go together? I’m no expert but I remember reading here that E.g don’t take B with C or Mag with Zinc or something, I bet there is an iron equivalent. SlowDragon will know and put us right 🦋

[Beau55 in reply to Regenallotment]

thanks so much for your response,

Ah it’s not just me then! I know it’s a super slow process but was expecting them to have at least risen marginally. Very helpful about checking the combinations I hadn’t thought of that. The only other vits I take is a liquid b complex so will be extra careful to separate them just in case. Have you found better levels = better absorption? X

[Dmgrn1]

hi-I’ve had this issue for a decade-low ferritin etc. I saw you take with vitamin c. Good. However calcium inhibits the absorption of iron. So do not take them within hours of one another. Also studies show without enough vitamin a you don’t absorb iron well either. So space out your meds-synthroid hours from food/vitamins then iron/vitamin c hours away from those. It does take a long time. If your symptoms are horrid your md can send you to a hemotologist for iron transfusions. I’ve had to do this multiple times also. Good luck and hope you feel better quick!

[TiggerMe Ambassador]

I've have been making some progress by taking heme iron which is easier to absorb and doesn't cause stomach or constipation issues, just over doubled my ferritin in 8 weeks stopped using it as my UIBC dropped a little under range suggesting too much and my transferrin was a little high 55%

I was also having chicken liver pate twice a week the whole time

retest 2 weeks later and ferritin had dropped back to 30, so I now take 1 every other day

Daughter has been using these to and is about to retest next week so I can let you know how it worked for her if you like, she had low B12 and Iron...

(She is over 18 so not illegal to use her as a guinea pig? 😏)

threearrowsnutra.com/en-uk/...

Made from bovine blood so no conversion needed

OptiFer do one but it has a lot of excipients

[helvella in reply to TiggerMe]

They do go on a bit! But I very much agree that haem iron is likely a far better approach than the usual substances like ferrous sulfate.

[TiggerMe Ambassador in reply to helvella]

Yes apologies to all... it is all American Girl Power!

You have to look through that to the product which I couldn't find here, hence Heme rather than Haem ya'all

A little goes a long way!

[Beau55 in reply to TiggerMe]

thanks so much Eeyore!

This sounded like exactly what I needed so I’ve ordered a bottle to try as I have nothing to lose but I was a bit hesitant with the overly American website! 😅

I will happily be a second Guinea pig and let you know if my bloods improve- thanks again for the help! X

[TiggerMe Ambassador]

Hi, scores on the doors, my daughter has increased her ferritin 11-30 over the last 12 weeks (stopped 5 days before test) taking the Heme iron every other day, also showing a general improvement in her FBC, she has also doubled her B12 using the oral spray which doesn't seem as effective as the sublingual that I used which tripled mine over the same period from a similar start point though 27 year age gap!

The shame is she is showing raised TSH 🙄 thank goodness we have found out now and can make some dietary changes 🤞to see if we can save her from the hypo madness