Ferrous Fumarate

[sidneymark70]

I have just had blood tests done. I was found to be low in iron so the GP gave me ferrous fumarate to take for a month.

I am on Levothyroxine (one day 75, next 100) I have just started taking escitalopram 10mg for the most awful anxiety and depression. But my anxiety is still really bad I’ve read ferrousfumarate can do this. Might this be the case?

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

Are you separating the ferrous fumarate from the levothyroxine by at least four hours?

If not, it could be affecting absorption of your levothyroxine.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Previous post

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

You were going to get FULL thyroid and vitamin testing, did you get that done

Please add thyroid and vitamin D, folate, B12 and ferritin results

How low was ferritin

[Sneedle]

Speaking only to the anti-depressant side of things. I'm on citalopram (not escitalopram but think similar action) and it can take a while to kick in, weeks rather than days. Not sure how long you've been on it. A quick google says you're on the lowest dose and usual is 10mg, going to up to 20mg a day. Anti-depressants can make you feel more wound up and edgy/anxious before they kick in. This always happens to me if I have to raise my dose. Perhaps take this into account in your whole picture right now.

[humanbean]

Anxiety and depression can both be caused by low nutrients.

In my own case I suffered from severe depression and some anxiety for decades. For various reasons I won't go into, I am convinced that I had low iron all my life. Also, my extended family have lots of problems with low iron and anaemia so I think there may be a genetic involvement somewhere.

About 10 years ago I found out I could buy prescription-strength iron supplements from UK pharmacies with the pharmacist's permission without a prescription. I could also get a finger-prick iron panel test done from Medichecks. (My first prescription for iron supplements was from a doctor who didn't believe I really needed it - I knew I would never get another prescription from her. I just kept taking the same dose the doctor had prescribed.) I was prescribed ferrous fumarate 210mg, 1 tablet 3 times a day.

So I started buying my own iron tablets and testing/treating myself. Best decision I ever made.

Many people find iron particularly difficult to absorb, and I'm one of them. It took me nearly 2 years to get my ferritin up to mid-range. My serum iron was still way below optimal. I then reduced my iron to a maintenance dose and just kept taking it (testing every few months) - for another five years. Then my ferritin suddenly shot up to top of range and I stopped supplementing it, and haven't restarted, although I do still test fairly regularly.

My anxiety and depression slowly disappeared as my iron got better.

What worked for me won't necessarily work for you. You have the choice of which iron supplement you want to take. There are quite a few available. You might want to try some other types or lower doses if you want. You might want to experiment with taking iron every other day. Some links you should read :

First link describes some of the problems that can occur with iron supplementation :

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Second link describes some of your other options for supplementing iron :

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Third link describes the research that showed some people do better on alternate day supplementing - it was published in 2017, years after I started treating and testing myself :

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

If I had my time over again I would probably experiment a lot more with the iron pills I was taking to try and find what I absorbed best and at what dose.

...

Just because it was iron that was most important for me, it might not be for you. You might have problems with B12 or folate or vitamin D or magnesium or zinc or copper or selenium or ...

I would say iron/ferritin, B12, folate and vitamin D are the most important to optimise first because they have a very important connection to thyroid health and the production of thyroid hormones (if you still have a thyroid).

Note... Ferritin is a measure of your iron stores. Serum iron (tested in an iron panel, and almost never by GPs) is a measure of the iron you have moving around freely in your blood stream.

Ferritin and iron aren't always in agreement. They can both be low, both high, ferritin could be high and serum iron could be low or vice versa. Different patterns of your results can tell you different things about your health.