Hi guys! Like suggested lve done my full Iron panel! Could you please recommend the best dietary iron sources, except for liver pâté, which I'm already aware of? Also, if I'm unable to eat enough iron daily, are there any highly absorbable iron supplements you could recommend?
I've been taking Spatone until now, but it doesn't seem to be doing much.
Thanks
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When doctors prescribe iron supplements they prescribe tablets with roughly 200mg of iron per tablet or more. A lot of people struggle to absorb iron from the tablets prescribed by doctors.
Spatone contains 5mg of iron per sachet. It might work to maintain iron in someone who already has perfect levels of iron and ferritin (iron stores) and just wants to maintain them. But for people with low levels of iron it rarely, if ever, has much impact on anyone I've read about on the forum.
On the other hand, the three arrows product which is in a different form to the iron salts that doctors prescribe seem to help quite a high percentage of the people who've tried it. It is a heme or haem iron product.
To work out dosing the three arrows product :
threearrowsnutra.com/en-uk/...
.
Information on optimal iron levels can be found here :
rt3-adrenals.org/Iron_test_...
In that link above the info on ferritin is not very informative so use this link for optimal ferritin...
thyroidpharmacist.com/artic...
There is a paragraph in that second link that says :
Normal ferritin levels for women are between 20 and 200 ng/mL. According to some experts, ferritin levels of at least 40 ng/ml are required to stop hair loss, while levels of at least 70 ng/ml are needed for hair regrowth. The optimal ferritin level for thyroid function is between 90-110 ng/ml.
...
Looking at your results :
Your Iron is 29% through the range. Optimal is 55% - 70%, higher end for men. Your result is way below optimal suggesting that you need more iron.
Your TIBC is 49.72% through the range which is effectively mid-range. This is actually a good result.
Your Saturation is 25.1% which is effectively bottom of the range. Optimal is 35 to 45%, higher end for men. To increase your saturation to optimal you would need more iron.
Your Ferritin is below range (just) and is deficient. Optimal is given above in bold. You need more iron.
All your results except TIBC suggest you need more iron. It is common for iron panel results to be inconsistent, and it is usually TIBC being inconsistent when it happens. Your iron, saturation, and ferritin make it clear that you need more iron, so ignore the TIBC for now.
Decide which supplement you want to try. The three arrows one is worth trying first. If three arrows alone doesn't raise your iron, you can try taking haem iron with iron salts if you want to try that. Iron salts can be bought in UK pharmacies without prescription. These are the ones that doctors prescribe, with info on dosing levels :
bnf.nice.org.uk/drugs/ferro...
bnf.nice.org.uk/drugs/ferro...
bnf.nice.org.uk/drugs/ferro...
Ferrous sulfate is often very poorly tolerated so only try that one if you are really desperate!
...
healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...
This above link describes yet another way of raising iron that you might want to look into.
Thank you so much for all those information very helpful!God bless
Dear humanbean 🌹
Yesterday I visited my GP regarding my low ferritin levels. She was very lovely and talkative, but didn’t seem interested in discussing ferritin with me. She simply stated that ferritin is not an indication of low iron and that my iron levels looked fine. I tried to explain that my ferritin is low, I have Hashimoto’s, hair loss I’m considering supplementing with heme iron to increase my ferritin, but she advised against it and contributed most of my symptoms to perimenopause. Im 43 so its possible but I want to fix my ferritin first.
Could you please kindly explain why GPs ignore ferritin levels?
Also, according to the NHS, my latest iron level is 22.9 µmol/L [11.0 - 25.0], and my ferritin is 29.6 µg/L [30 - 207] according to private testing.
You mentioned that I’ll need 70 ng/mL for hair regrowth, but could supplementing with heme iron, despite having a normal iron level of 22.9, lead to an iron overdose before I reach my target?
Thank you so much for your help in explaining all this to me!
kind regards - Faith
I can only guess why doctors do anything but my guess would be...
Doctors usually use haemoglobin (part of a Full Blood Count) to tell them that someone is anaemic. If it is below range they say someone is anaemic and will (hopefully) treat them, usually with iron supplements.
Anaemia can be caused by a variety of things. It isn't always low iron and/or low ferritin that causes it. See these links :
cks.nice.org.uk/topics/anae...
cks.nice.org.uk/topics/anae...
The World Health Organisation defines anaemia by haemoglobin too - but it defines it at a rather higher level of haemoglobin than the NHS does. See this link :
who.int/publications/i/item...
Click on the word "haemoglobin", then scroll to page 3. The haemoglobin levels for various degrees of anaemia are given in the table at the top of page 3.
There are other forms of anaemia that are given in a summary on this link :
irondisorders.org/wp-conten...
...
The biggest problem with how doctors define anaemia is that a patient can be iron deficient and/or ferritin deficient long before haemoglobin goes below range. And being iron/ferritin deficient makes people feel awful long before they become anaemic.
The good news is that it is possible to treat iron/ferritin deficiency by yourself. Prescription-strength iron supplements can be bought without prescription from pharmacies in the UK. The ones that doctors usually prescribe are called iron salts :
bnf.nice.org.uk/drugs/ferro...
bnf.nice.org.uk/drugs/ferro...
bnf.nice.org.uk/drugs/ferro...
A lot of people struggle to tolerate ferrous sulfate. Few people have tried ferrous gluconate so I don't know how well it is tolerated. Ferrous fumarate is tolerated by quite a few people.
The problem with iron salts is that in some people with poor absorption of iron they take a very long time to raise iron and ferritin to optimal.
A lot of people recently have been buying a different form of iron supplements online and have been raising their levels faster than they do with iron salts, and they tolerate them better than they do iron salts. See the following links :
healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...
threearrowsnutra.com/en-uk/...
healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...
.
If it turns out that your anaemia is caused by low vitamin B12 and/or folate, then the recommended supplements are methylcobalamin (a form of B12) and methylfolate (please avoid folic acid).
perniciousanemia.org/b12/fo...
perniciousanemia.org/b12/le...
perniciousanemia.org/b12/le...
web.archive.org/web/2024022...
chriskresser.com/folate-vs-...
Thank you humanbean for all the info!
Iron supplements 
TSH at 12/low iron
Low ferritin
Dissecated liver for iron
Has anyone had an iron transfusion privately? 
