Wow!! I would say give yourself a pat on the back and do a little happy dance as you have aced it! ⭐ It's another tick in the optimal box
I'd suggest you could now lower your dose and aim for a maintenance level, I generally take 2 a week based on I don't have much of an intake of iron rich foods
(Tag didn't create an alert so hopefully the others will pick up on this thread)
Can’t remember now tbh 🙃 I think I may have even started out doing one month taking 4 spread out in the day. Then dropped down to 2 a day after then. It’s good stuff!
Tagging in some members who know their iron panels (hope that’s okay) humanbean FallingInReverse
If you were on 2 a day for the weeks (probably, what, 6-12 weeks?) before this test. I would continue exactly the same for the next 8–10-12 weeks and test again.
You have a wee bit of room to boost your iron panel.
You are 50% on iron and 55% is the minimum (with 70% the highest you want to see) - although eating an iron rich meal the night before can impact this so being 50% is fine.
And your TSat% we aim for minimum 30% ( not 30% through range … but the actual result itself). So you are there.
For this one you could increase to 35%.
But you want to really take care to steer clear of going over range.
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.
Serum Iron - Your result is 53% through the range. Optimal is suggested to be :
• 55 to 70% of the range
• higher end for men
Your result is very close to optimal so I wouldn't suggest trying to get it much higher. There is a risk you could take your level too high. If that happens your iron could end up settling in your internal organs and the body can't get rid of the excess very easily except by giving blood or by bleeding in some other way e.g. accident or menstruation. Everyone, male and female, loses tiny amounts of blood when they defecate, but it could take a long time before levels drop if that is the only source of loss.
TIBC - Your result is 64% through the range which shows that you still have the capacity to absorb more iron.
• Low in range indicates lack of capacity for additional iron
• High in range indicates body's need for supplemental iron
Saturation 30.2 (25 - 45)
• optimal is 35 to 45%
• higher end for men
Your saturation is below optimal and suggests you have room for more iron, but it isn't much below optimal.
Ferritin
The optimal ferritin level for thyroid function is between 90-110 ng/ml.
Your ferritin is just in range but it could still go up by 20% and be in range.
Your results are very good. You have the leeway to raise several of your results by a small(ish) amount. It's up to you if you want to try that. Perhaps take iron for another month then test again. Then look for a maintenance dose of iron to keep your results where you want them to be.
Thank you so much for your detailed reply, it’s really helpful to see it all broken down. (Iron panels puzzle me so much!)
I was thinking perhaps I could drop down to one pill a day for a month or so and then retest- just to be cautious!
I will certainly be very careful regarding too much iron as I don’t have periods and not sure I’d be allowed to give blood as my blood pressure is very low at times!
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