Anyone with anemia here - struggling, any suggestions.

DannyYMi54321
DannyYMi54321 Posts: 77 Member
edited November 17 in Food and Nutrition
I'm really struggling - and have been for several years, to eat the exact foods I know will help me the most. The "redder" a meat or protein source, the worse it is to me. Sight and smell of it generally makes me nauseous. Crustecean seafoods and Greek Yogurt and cottage cheese are about the only protein sources that i can consistently tolerate. Eggs are hit or miss. Many protein supplements make me nauseaous too. The most basic type, unflavored, unfortified whey protein isolate generally is about the best - still nasty but I can choke it down. I also have been doing really poorly taking iron supplements for at least six months. I've been kinda unhapoy with my oncologist-hematologist lately - seems not really to listen well now, and I have been researching others in the area. I had labs about 3 months ago, and my numbers were all going in the wrong direction.

Replies

  • cozytimes
    cozytimes Posts: 111 Member
    edited April 2017
    if the problem is anemia, then take the iron supplements with food (i get naseous when i take them alone) and if you google foods high in iron, you'll find tons. you can also make shakes or drinks using those foods for easier consumption.
    ah, and make sure to eat enough.
  • jroy1999
    jroy1999 Posts: 27 Member
    Fortified cereal, leafy dark greens, beans, nuts are all good sources of iron. Vitamin C helps absorb iron, calcium hinders it. I could never really take iron supplements either, but taking at night with some crackers helped a little.
  • DannyYMi54321
    DannyYMi54321 Posts: 77 Member
    Thanks, I wish it was that simple. I know what I need to do -finding the "strength to do it" so to speak is the challenge. Even if I ate a dramatically iron-high diet, lived on nothing but liver, oysters, clams, and the darkest, bloodiest looking cuts of meat I could find, like buffalo, etc, I probably wouldn't get enough.

    I have extreme "pill fatigue" from taking a ton of prescriptions for various medical conditions, and also have a lot of recommended/suggested supplements per various doctors. Some are at cross purposes - the orthopedic guy wants to make sure I get adequate Ca, for example, but as pointed out, Ca interferes with iron uptake in the gut.

    I have a stomach ache a lot of the time from taking various medications - and medications to ease that only help so much.

    Overall, I think I spend about 50% of my waking time nauseous - either from medications or from food or the sight, smell, and thought of eating many foods - the ones best for me in terms of iron.

    Basically, it's a mindset, and I know I have to just say "I don't have to like it, I just have to do it." I know I certainly didn't like it when my hemoglobin was in the 7-8 range I felt totally wretched - I guess I need to just concentrate on doing what I have to do to keep it to a reasonable level. Right now, hemoglobin is ok, 12-13, but my total iron stores are pretty low, ferritin is dropping below minimum decent level of 50, and my total IBC is going up again. I don't want that.
  • jessiferrrb
    jessiferrrb Posts: 1,758 Member
    i can tell when my anemia is acting up because i start to feel really sluggish and weak, tired more than i should be. i start to take supplements for about a month then ease back for a bit. you don't have to take the iron forever to level you out, even with chronic anemia. if it has a low level of interference you can take it at a different time of day than the CA. i never had issues just taking the iron before bed, you could take the CA in the morning. or however it works.
  • AngryViking1970
    AngryViking1970 Posts: 2,847 Member
    If your anemia is severe enough, you should ask your doctor about an infusion.
  • Gisel2015
    Gisel2015 Posts: 4,186 Member
    And what is causing your anemia? It seems to me that nobody is addressing the cause of your problem (at least you didn't mentioned it in your posting). Hard to resolve things that way. Is it a bone marrow problem (MDS), internal bleeding (stomach/intestinal), iron deficiency anemia, absorption problems, extreme menstrual bleeding?

    It's no fair to you to feel bad and drained all the time and be swallowing pills to solve the problem. You deserve better. In the mean time, do look for foods with fortified iron and try Centrum or a multivitamin for women. They usually have iron in the mix and that may help you some.

    Best of luck and do get new doctors.
  • nevadavis1
    nevadavis1 Posts: 331 Member
    I'm so sorry you're feeling so bad. I get really tired of taking pills too. I've heard there are some liquid iron supplements that don't upset the stomach so much--a friend used them while pregnant, but I haven't personally tried them.
  • Treece68
    Treece68 Posts: 780 Member
    If you don't like red meat Here is a website with fruits and vegetables high in iron https://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/fruits-and-vegetables-high-in-iron.php
    I have low iron due to celiac and the pills cause wake me up in the middle of the night cramps so I don't take them.

  • bizgirl26
    bizgirl26 Posts: 1,795 Member
    I eat lost of iron rich foods and I still suffer . I take Heme Iron as it has no side effects like nausea
  • crowleyed72
    crowleyed72 Posts: 247 Member
    My son used to be anemic an we started cooking every thing on cast iron it really helped
  • shaumom
    shaumom Posts: 1,003 Member
    I'd second Gisele's question - have they done any research into what is causing your anemia? Like, you do a food journal/supplement journal for a few weeks, track to see how much iron you are getting, and then check your numbers. Because if you are GETTING enough iron, then the problem is not the intake, it's something else, you know?

    Every person in my family, and some of my in-laws, have had iron issues. Not once has a doctor addressed how much their iron intake was before just automatically having them take supplements which...seems ridiculous, when you think about it.

    But, for some ideas for getting more iron and for some things that might be worth looking at.
    1. Lucky iron fish - this is aimed originally at getting iron into folks in areas where there is rampant poverty AND iron anemia. It's made to just put into a pot that boils for 15 minutes, whether that is soup, ginger tea, whatever. And it helps up your iron intake for the day. There's a link here - you get one, and it buys one for a family in poverty, too. (http://www.luckyironfish.com ) I have a couple allergies that involve the fillers in common supplements, so I have trouble taking ANY iron supplements, and this has been useful for me.

    2. Have you been checked for celiac disease? It's a gut disease that damages your gut so you can't absorb nutrients correctly. Which nutrients are not absorbed depends on where in the gut the damage is. MANY doctors are ignorant about this disease and unfortunately go by outdated symptoms and/or testing methods. For example over 1/3 of folks with this exhibit no weight loss and no gut symptoms but instead have things like fatigue, dairy intolerance, and/or nutrient deficiencies as the main symptom. But lots of doctors will not try to test for it if you don't have gut issues or weight loss. Or they think it's so rare they don't test for it even IF you have weight loss and gut symptoms.

    If you are eating the wheat equivalent of 2 slices of bread a day, regularly, you can get tested (you need to be eating gluten products during the times of the testing, because the test looks for biomarkers of damage, and in this disease, wheat causes damage due to gluten).

  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Wondering about why it's not being looked at as well. I have low iron anemia. My doctor asked me to take supplements (I use herbal supplements of 18mg a day, can't tell you if it works yet though, I need to get more blood work done in a couple months), and asked me to get on the pill too because my period are too heavy (which so far seems to be doing the opposite frankly, and might not be an issue for you as I have no idea if you're a man or a woman, lol), and she said that if it doesn't work, I'll need a colonoscopy to check for bleeding...

    Last week was really rough on me though and I was exhausted all the time, but yeah, I can't imagine I'd ever be able to get enough iron from diet alone either. I was getting maybe 30-50% of the recommended dose before taking the pill.
  • zdyb23456
    zdyb23456 Posts: 1,706 Member
    crowleyed72 wrote: »
    My son used to be anemic an we started cooking every thing on cast iron it really helped

    My mom swore by this too. I'm not sure she even owns a skillet that isn't cast iron. I've slowly been replacing all my non-stick stuff with cast iron.
  • Momjogger
    Momjogger Posts: 750 Member
    I take a Centrum multi-vitamin with iron in it right after dinner. It has about 33 percent iron in it and I take it with a calcium and D pill and a flax oil Omega 3 pill. After taking it consistently for a while, I found that the last time I was tested, there was no sign of anemia. I think the consistency is key. I also could not tolerate straight iron pills. I eat spinach and steak (a couple times a month on the red meat), but I think it is the multi-vitamin. I feel better in general when I am taking it because it has D, B12, Iodine, iron, calcium. I have been taking Centrum Silver Plus 50 for women for years even though I am not near 50 because of all the great things it has in it.
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,724 Member
    Ferrous gluconate: https://www.amazon.com/Natures-Blend-Ferrous-Gluconate-Tablets/dp/B004KWLXM8/ref=sr_1_2_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1493165012&sr=8-2&keywords=Ferrous+gluconate

    Lost the post I was writing, grr. Read about ferrous gluconate on here and it doesn't hurt my stomach. After two months my hemoglobin climbed from 10 to 13.7. I take this at night and calcium during the day to separate them a bit and prevent absorption issues. I did cut all the ferrous gluconate pills in half because it's 36mg per pill. I believe vitamin C is also good for iron absorption, which I do supplement as well as part of a skin health vitamin.

    If you hate taking pills a lot, you might be able to do the 36mg tablet every other day...
  • Vune
    Vune Posts: 674 Member
    If you have an oncologist and you're being stuffed with pills and you're nauseous all the time, I think the problem isn't diet. I had a kidney transplant 16 years ago, and the immunosuppressants cause chronic anemia. I'm allergic to infusions, so I get Procrit injections every two weeks to stimulate blood production. My ferritin levels are through the roof, but my hemoglobin is still just under "normal" levels, even after 2 and a half years of injections.

    Your doctors probably haven't suggested injections or infusions because your hemoglobin is in the normal range. My insurance tried to cut me off when I reached a hemoglobin level of 10, so my doctor has to jump through some extra hoops in order for me to have at least a little energy. It can't hurt to bring it up at your next appointment.
  • SapphireMoon23
    SapphireMoon23 Posts: 139 Member
    Not sure if some one mentioned this... Floradix liquid iron. Nonconstipating. I've been anemic for at least 25 years. Nothing seems to cure it, but this stuff helps alot. When my BP is normal I can even give blood. Still hopeful.
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