Heme vs Non-Heme Iron Supplements

[ReallyWondering]

Since being diagnosed with low ferritin three months ago, I've been on ferrous sulfate tablets (1 - 65mg along with 500 mg vitamin C twice a day with meals). It's been working fine (went from 11 to 45 in a month) without any side effects. However, early on, I purchased a bottle of Three Arrows Heme after reading posts on this blog. My doctor knows NOTHING about heme iron, never even heard of it. I'm wondering if I can start taking it after my ferrous sulfate runs out? If so, what woud be the equivalent? Or should I stick to the non-heme supplement?

[humanbean]

This link gives advice on how to dose Three Arrows Heme Iron :

threearrowsnutra.com/en-uk/...

[ReallyWondering in reply to humanbean]

looks like I’m 3-6 a day. That’s a big difference. Is there an equivalent to 2 x 65mg ferrous sulfate?

[humanbean in reply to ReallyWondering]

Sorry, I don't know.

[TiggerMe]

Three Arrows is very effective so I'd suggest you just take one a day and see how you go 🤗

130mg of ferrous sulphate only contains 26mg of elemental iron

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

If you wait until you have run out, you don't then have the choice of reverting if you wish.

Nor of taking both at the same time.

Or alternating.

helvella - Iron Document

This is a summary of what I have read up and found out about iron supplements over the past few years. I am not in any way medically trained. You are strongly encouraged to check every detail before making any decisions for yourself.

Last updated 27/03/2024

helvella.blogspot.com/p/hel...

[FallingInReverse]

Did you get a full iron panel done before you started supplementing and after one month?

Did you get CRP-hs tested along with that ferritin result?

You shouldn’t be supplementing without knowing your iron number, as well as the other indicators of iron in your body.

Iron is toxic in excess over time and causes permanent, irreversible organ damage.

If your ferritin went up that much in 4 weeks, It would be essential to know iron, and also really helpful to know what role inflammation played in your latest ferritin number.

Also, I would say you need to know that extra info before you start on any heme iron supplements, as they absorb at 3x the rate of non-heme (which means if inflammation isn’t an issue then you are clearly absorbing non heme pretty well as it is.)

Don’t mess around with excess iron.

[ReallyWondering in reply to FallingInReverse]

Yes, full panel. Everything was in the normal range except the Ferritin which was 8.2 then 40.6 (I just re-checked). I don't see any CRP-hs test. Iron was 96 then 105, TRANSFERRIN SATURATION was 20 then 22, TRANSFERRIN was 349 then 346. I'll get tested again in the next week and decide then. Thanks.

[FallingInReverse in reply to ReallyWondering]

Ranges are needed. As with thyroid, with iron, “in range” is useless, we need to know exactly where within that range you are.

I’ll guess iron is 50- 170 … so interesting you are only about 49% through range. This is just below the target minimum of 55%. So on this alone you are not near iron toxicity (which we would worry about when you hit about 70% in range.)

Transferrin saturation not budging around 20 also indicates sustained low iron… in fact too low for your body’s T3 to work effectively.

Everything here is consistent with a low iron situation …

EXCEPT the improvement in your ferritin. It doesn’t make sense that it would jump while all other measures still show low. Ferritin is your body’s iron storage, and increases when your body is getting all its essential iron needs met. But your results don’t show you to have enough.

Which makes me wonder about inflammation (that’s measured by the CRP-hs test). Inflammation increases Ferritin. It’s a bit of a red herring as it’s not increased as a result of improving iron overall in your body, rather by some kind of sickness or other inflammation-causing reason.

Make sure you get the CRP-hs added to your panel and make sure you do it all at the same time as the complete iron panel.

[ReallyWondering in reply to FallingInReverse]

Iron Normal range: 28 - 170 ug/dL, Transferrin Normal range: 192 - 382 mg/dL, Transferrin Saturation Normal range: 20 - 50 %. I have AAG and PA and Hashimotos. What does the CRP-hs tell you?

[FallingInReverse in reply to ReallyWondering]

Everything I wrote above reflects those ranges. And answers your questions.

Iron needs to be a minimum of 55% through range. You are too low.

Transferrin saturation actually needs to be a minimum of 25% but optimal is 35-45%.

All of these things are indicative of low iron. Which is what makes your ferritin increase puzzling. Especially knowing that inflammation increases ferritin, so before you can get a complete picture of your iron situation you should just understand that part.

To answer your other question, CRP-hs measures inflammation. Inflammation directly increases ferritin - but it’s a false sense of security as it’s increased due to the inflammation not due to sufficient iron.

[ReallyWondering]

Iron is 96. I think 78 would be the 55% number? Also, these latest tests were 4 weeks after starting supplements. I would expect them to be higher now. I'll ask for the CRP-hs too.