Differences Between Women and Men .. in the Rate of Diagnosed Diseases After a Diagnostic Intervention is Conducted ... , 2022, Rosmalen et al

I was reading a post of yours on another thread and am really hoping I can see improvement too. I have those symptoms and more.

 

Do you know your actual ferritin number? It took 9 months of daily iron supplements to get my levels up to 35 from 5.

 

Thank you for the information. Will do a bit more research tomorrow. It's slow going. I will get my husband to read this post as he is struggling to understand it too. We didn't push or anything for the GP to test his ferritin, it just seemed standard. I wonder if things have changed now and the NHS incorporates ferritin in the full panels?

 

I don't think so. The doctor would have chosen to add ferritin to any test request, although the lab may have chosen to do ferritin if some of his results from a Full Blood Count were "dodgy".

 

Such a long time. So pleased to see you were 90% recovered from symptoms though.

Yes, my Ferritin is 16.7 ug/L My husband's last June were "Serum Ferritin - (SE) 29 ug/L

He has had a normal iron panel result. I have just now ordered an iron panel from medichecks. We both cleaned up our diet from last June and specifically targeted an iron rich diet because of his result. I've been off caffiene for several weeks now also.

I've read that if supplementing iron for low ferritin when you have a normal iron panel, it can be fatal because the body can't get rid of iron and starts dumping it into the heart, brain. (Have no idea if this is true but made me cautious until I understand this a bit better).

 

Ah, I see. That makes sense.

 

@Tara Green

Which iron panel are you having done?

 

The iron blood test from Medichecks for £39. Iron, TIBC, TS, Ferritin. Is there a better one?

 

Healthy people will lose very small amounts of iron in their faeces. But anyone with IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease) or IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) might lose more. Gastritis or stomach ulcers could increase the amount of blood lost. Polyps in the colon might bleed all the time or intermittently. Cancer will increase blood lost.

The reason for saying that taking iron could be dangerous if ferritin is low is if it ends up feeding pathological invaders, or cancer, and allows them to reproduce.

You might find this link about various forms of anaemia or various iron-related problems of interest :

HowdoIknow_Anemia.ai - Handout-HowdoIknow_Anemia2020.pdf

 

I've had that one done several times. It works well. I don't know of a cheaper test.

 

I'm not aware that there is a better one. I had an Iron Metabolism panel done, TIBC and UIBC(unbound iron binding capacity) were rather low in range. A further decrease of UIBC would lead to free iron circulation, which is known to produce oxidative stress itself.

 

My POTS was much worse with ferritin deficiency. And I had many premature heart beats, if that's the correct term. Interesting, my hemoglobin was elevated when my ferritin was low.

Of course, the hemoglobin was tested first, and ticked the box for iron status. A short period later I requested my ferritin status be tested. It was very low.

It would be helpful if ferritin was checked along with hemoglobin. As I said on an earlier post in this thread, I encountered this issue 30 years ago. Since then, two doctors have told me ferritin should be tested. Unfortunately this isn't a universal practice.

About iron status and post menopause: food insecurity and just the cost of higher iron containing foods, can mean some people are iron deficient. As well as lacking in other nutrients. To assume post menopausal women have good iron status is missing the bigger picture. Some people on fixed incomes cannot afford nutritious food. And with the increased costs of basics, this is affecting more and more people.

 

@DokaGirl

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