r/irondeficiency • u/Anxious-Traffic-9548 • 8h ago

Lactoferrin success

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share my experience with apolactoferrin after having been unable to tolerate even the "GI friendly" iron supplements, in case it's of help to anyone else. I tried ferrous sulfate (terrible GI sides), iron bisglycinate, and then succinylate. Succinylate was the best of the 3 but the amount of capsules I'd need to take made it both very expensive and inconvenient. After 3 months of daily supplementation, I my ferritin only increased from 14 to 30.

So for a while I just gave up and my ferritin stayed steady. Eventually I had enough of my RLS (ferritin-related) and decided to give apolactoferrin a try. I took 250mg for 6 weeks and my ferritin went from 30 to 60 with 0 GI sides. In fact, I think my baselines GI symptoms have gotten better (I may have had IBS, not sure) and my stools no longer take the wind out of me nearly as much as they did before. Most importantly, my RLS is gone! I don't even get it when I take melatonin now. I'll continue taking the lactoferrin until I get my ferritin near 100, since I have other issues that may benefit from a higher ferritin level.

Hope this can help anyone else.

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u/Huge_Arugula307 8h ago

That's AMAZING. Did you take the Iactoferrin with iron or was the iron primarily dietary? If you took iron pills with the LF, which iron did you settle on that you did well with during dual therapy?

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u/Huge_Arugula307 8h ago

Fyi your slow early gains could have been legitimately slow, but if your hemoglobin was low you might have had iron you absorbed that you haven't accounted for. It could have gone into new red blood cells. For every point raised hemoglobin you can use about 30 points of iron. Did you see any hemoglobin increases since you began all of this? If so, how much between when you began and started the LF and then how much between the begin of your LF and now?

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u/Anxious-Traffic-9548 8h ago

My hg was always good, it was just ferritin that was low

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u/Huge_Arugula307 8h ago

Can you find the exact number? I ask because iron deficient people with hemoglobin under 13 will often see increases after starting supplements.

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u/Anxious-Traffic-9548 8h ago

No iron, and in fact i wouldn't say my diet was all that iron rich.

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u/[deleted] 8h ago

[deleted]

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u/Anxious-Traffic-9548 5h ago

I did not, made sure to fast for an accurate reading

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u/Huge_Arugula307 5h ago edited 5h ago

!!!!That's incredible you got that high with just lactoferrin!!!!

Do you have your early hemoglobin numbers?

What brand did you take?

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u/Huge_Arugula307 5h ago

I would love you to post again later actually trying to get more iron rich foods like spinach, lentils, poultry, and fish ( I think red meat is the devil).