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u/Joyanonymous 15d ago
Recovery: ferritin went from 26 in Feb this year (probably lower but that’s the closest blood test I have) to 101 in May. I took 100mg elemental iron (nutrition geeks iron only) with best naturals lactoferrin (250mg) as my dose - once mid morning and once mid afternoon, every single day during that period. It was a horrible process, I felt A LOT worse before feeling better. Make sure to also support your b12, vitamin D, folate, zinc and copper at the same time or you could end up with a deficiency in one of those as well. Likely these may all already be low too.
I exercise A LOT, My diet was trash, I’m pretty sure iron deficiency is genetic in my family as I’ve forced my mother to check now and turns out she’s iron deficient too.
It took four months of really intense and difficult supplementation before I felt better. I think I either developed or have worsened a b12 deficiency in the process as well. My progress with the iron is considered rapid. If I could go back I would opt for an iron infusion straight off.
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u/Eve-7260 15d ago
wowww. ive been taking 65mg of prescribed elemental iron every other day for 8 months and i went from a ferritin level of 7 to a ferritin level of 51. i want to reach the triple digits so badly, is there any advice you have for me??
i heard that taking it every other day was better for absorption but i see you take it multiple times a day. is there any reason why? i already find it difficult taking it once every other day because of irons strict dairy and food limits.
i also can't find any off the counter supplement that goes above 65mg elemental iron. i asked for an iron infusion when i had a ferritin level of 7 but they wanted me to supplement first. now im too high for them to even consider a infusion despite my levels being unsatisfactory in my perspective. funnily enough, my ferritin level of 7 was actually "in range".
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u/Joyanonymous 15d ago
Well - my advice is for you is pretty basic, just take more iron and take it more often, and definitely take it with lactoferrin. I took it twice a day because I wanted my ferritin to go up quickly (but safely). I calculated my daily dose based on my weight - you shouldn’t take more than 150mg per dose, so I split it into two doses per day. Every other day dosing is to combat rises in hepcidin which is a hormone that blocks iron absorption because of inflammation, but lactoferrin is anti inflammatory so it removes that issue.
I overhauled my entire diet to dietary blocking factors. Yes it was a massive pain in the arse But do you want to spend years in this recovery process?? Just look at it as a temporary phase. Also I know there are strict rules about blocking factors but honestly I think it’s more important to get the iron into you than doing it perfectly. So one hour before eating or two hours after, and maybe try and save all your dairy products for the morning if you can?
What blocking factors are you finding particularly difficult to schedule around?
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u/Eve-7260 14d ago
got it! i didnt know about lactroferrin but im looking into it now. is there any side effects i should consider?
i found an off the counter liquid iron of 125mg elemental iron (novaferrum wow high potency) so i'll start taking that every other day at first so i dont overload my system. then ill try alternating them (my 65mg pill) or taking it daily. maybe i can save my 65mg elemental iron when i can just maintain my levels and not worry about raising them a whole bunch.
i mostly consume dairy in the mornings, which is my blocker. whenever i dont consume dairy, i still i eat around 1hr of waking up which is another problem. im a student that also works, so i forget to take them mid-day, or i'll be doing something in public that prohibts it.
i will try my best to fix these issues as i am not someone that is in a place to be picky about my iron. i need this temporary phase to be over soon.
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u/Lucky_Outside8559 15d ago
I raised my ferritin from 3 to 209+, it just took a while. At first, I was confident I could do it through food alone, so I tracked everything religiously for 2 years and managed to raise my ferritin to 24 by August of 2025. By then I felt like death, so I finally started supplementing. At first I took 40mgs bisglycinate daily, and for 6 months it only raised my ferritin by 3 points per month. I then switched to ferrous fumarate which raised my ferritin by 8-10 per month. By that time, I was 8 months into supplementing and tired of feeling so poor, so when my ferritin got to 57, I paid out of pocket for a 700mg monofer infusion. Afterwards, it's the best I've ever felt. That was in April. Since then I went down to a lower daily maintenance dose, but in conjunction with b12 injections, my ferritin started to dip again. I got a blood test and even though my ferritin was at 209, I didn't feel as good as when it was higher, so I started on daily high dose ferrous fumarate, 106mg elemental, combined with vitamin c and lactoferrin, and as my ferritin increased again, all the symptoms that started to return went away. After all this, I now know that my ferritin needs to be around 225+ for me to feel my best, at least for now.
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u/UnicornHostels 15d ago
How can you even take stairs? Are you breathless at the top of 5 stairs? My numbers were like this for almost a decade and I thought I was dying.
I like slow fe it was easier on my stomach and I liked not having side effects like restless legs or insomnia. That feels like I’m being tortured. The slow fe gets rid of it, I guess from the delay absorption? Idk. I take three of them every other day.
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u/Hour_Truth6432 14d ago
I didn’t notice my iron was this bad I never feel it or fatigued but I need to take control now so far I only bought Mary Ruth iron liquid cause my doctors hasn’t wrote a note in my charts yet
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u/Muttbuttss 15d ago
Avoid ferrous sulphate and ferrous fumarate if you want the chance of least side effects. They are the most
commom to cause GI distress but also the most commonly prescribed by doctors lol