Iron?

jessicajhl
jessicajhl Posts: 1
in Food and Nutrition
Hi there,

I have been keeping track of a lot recently, calories, where those calories come from and my exercise, but I noticed my iron levels today. I have not gotten close to my daily value (like 13%) and I'm having a hard time keeping that up. I've kind of been on a routine for a bit, I guess. I had blood work done about a month or so ago and haven't heard anything back from my doctor so I assume everything is okay. I do feel fatigued, irritable, loss of concentration, etc. Always have, and I always figured I had low iron because of my diet choices (even before I started really monitoring them).
Basically what I'm getting at is does anyone think it is okay for me to take an iron supplement without the advise of my doctor? I'd like to see if this addresses some of my issues.

Thanks for reading!

Replies

  • leahraskie
    leahraskie Posts: 260 Member
    If you take an iron supplement, find the lowest daily value possible. It's not going to kill you going over the daily value but usually iron supplements are meant for people with anemia. They had my mom on these crazy high ones when she had anemia. And if you take too much it can turn your poo weird colors, so if that happens don't freak out lol.
  • mollyea97
    mollyea97 Posts: 8 Member
    I'm very iron deficient (don't eat red meat of any kind) so I know how you feel. Call your doctor up for results if he hadn't gotten back to you, but you should be fine taking a supplement anyway to see if it helps, but talk to your doctor first because if you need to have another blood test and start taking them it will screw up the results.

    Hint: get one with vitamin c in it, helps heaps with absorption and works much better :)
  • KitsuneClaws
    KitsuneClaws Posts: 3 Member
    Or drink orange juice when you take the iron supplement, not milk!

    Speaking of iron, though, I read we're supposed to get 14mg of iron a day, but myFitnessPal wants me to get "100" of it. Is that grams? Milligrams? It just doesn't say! Where/how can I change what my goal for that is?
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    Iron supplementation without your doctors approval is never a good idea. It is not one of the things your body can just get rid of the excess and it is possible to become toxic on it. Follow up with your doctor on this one. :flowerforyou:
  • MinMin97
    MinMin97 Posts: 2,674 Member
    Call the doctor and ask for those results, since they have them.
    If you are logging your food, you can't be sure that the data-entry of iron on all those food was correct, or even entered at all.
    Fatigue can have many causes. Like, getting to bed too late consistently, or not exercising (if you exercise, your body will begin produce more energy to meet the new demand).
    I agree to not take a supplement without knowing that you are low in iron. Maybe just have some beef and spinach (and some oranges for the vitamin C--helps absorb the iron!) or some other foods that have iron.
  • aedreana
    aedreana Posts: 979 Member
    Your symptoms could indicate iron deficiency; however, they could be rooted in something else altogether. I am a vegan and my red blood count is only 18-- supposed to be 40-- plus also have B-12 deficiency. Because I refuse to consider blood transfusions, dr. prescribed prescription-strength-mega-dose of iron supplement, plus B-12 and folic acid. She told me my red blood count will NEVER be normal without the recommended transfusions, even with the supplements (which I haven't been able to afford to buy because vegan supplements are expensive). Point is, don't ever allow iron deficiency to progress to the point of no return, if you can possibly prevent it. But, don't assume that you are iron-deficient without checking with dr. to confirm that. I've heard iron overload can be dangerous.
  • 4theking
    4theking Posts: 1,196 Member
    As others have said, much more digging to be done. Get your results from the doc and go from there. If you need any help figuring things out, I may be able to help! :)
  • MeganAnne89
    MeganAnne89 Posts: 271 Member
    No, do not take an iron supplement without having proper tests done with your doctor. Your doctor needs to test both your ferritin and iron levels (those are two different things).

    I have a disease called haemochromatosis (also called iron overload). What happens is that my body takes the iron from my blood and stores it around my organs. The symptoms are almost identical to anemia. A lot of doctors are strangely unaware of this disease (and I say strangely because it affects every 1-200/300 people in the world, yet doctors never regularly test either your iron or ferritin levels) and they often misdiagnose iron overload as anemia (this is in part due to the fact that a doctor might only test the iron in your blood. You can have iron overload yet your blood can appear anemic. The iron that would be in your bloodstream has been taken away and deposited in other areas of your body). If you take iron supplements and you have iron overload, it can be extremely dangerous to you.

    I've posted about this so many times and I rarely get a response, which is extremely disheartening. When iron overload is left untreated it can result in many things that I don't want to list in here because I don't want to needlessly freak people out. But I tell everyone I meet to get their iron and ferritin levels tested.
  • TiberiusClaudis
    TiberiusClaudis Posts: 423 Member
    About 5 years back, I had just the opposite problem...too much iron in my blood. My doctor went over my diet, focusing on how much red meat I ate...which wasn't a lot as I ate mostly fish and chicken. He then asked me an odd question: Do you eat a lot of spicy food?

    I replied that amost everything I eat is spicy. He asked for me to cut down on it and see what happened..which I did. Meanwhile I had a transformation, lost a lot of weight, started exercising, stop drinking...anywho, when I went back, iron levels were perfect.

    I've researched spicy food on the internet and never really saw a correlation with high iron. Just throwing that out there....
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    Iron supplementation without your doctors approval is never a good idea. It is not one of the things your body can just get rid of the excess and it is possible to become toxic on it. Follow up with your doctor on this one. :flowerforyou:

    This^

    I recently found out I was anemic and was prescribed iron. The typical iron supplement you find at the store is a HUGE % of daily iron.

    Find a few foods with good iron values. Cold cereals....Grapenuts, Raisin Bran, etc. have good numbers. Dark leafy veggies are good.

    A daily multivitamin MAY have iron....or not. Look at the label. A good indicator of iron is a child proof cap.....no child proof cap...no iron. I found this out the hard way.

    Give blood....one of the first tests is to find your hematocrit level. If you can't qualify to give blood...you have a problem.
  • DeadliftAddict
    DeadliftAddict Posts: 746 Member
    Eat enough red meat. Get the lean variety so it isn't too fatty. Also, if you have a cast iron skillet. Cooking with that will add iron to your day. You won't be able to track that part but it does add iron to the diet.
  • ErisDyscordia
    ErisDyscordia Posts: 50 Member
    Eat enough red meat. Get the lean variety so it isn't too fatty. Also, if you have a cast iron skillet. Cooking with that will add iron to your day. You won't be able to track that part but it does add iron to the diet.

    My doc told me to do this when my iron was slightly low. It wasn't low enough for supplements, but was like .1 (not sure what units they use) below normal. He said to start making my eggs, and stir-fries and whatever else I cooked on the stove in cast iron to help raise my levels.

    Last time I went to give blood they let me, so not sure what percentage of my increase was due to cast iron and what percentage was due to me making an effort to eat a bit more spinach and such, bit it was a nice easy way to help raise levels a small amount.
  • happysquidmuffin
    happysquidmuffin Posts: 651 Member
    MFP also says my iron intake is never even close to the recommended amount. To whoever asked about whether it's 100 grams, no, that's the percentage of the daily recommended intake. I don't know how much that is exactly, or if that changes from person to person.

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