Ferritin really takes this long to increase?

[Dwayne337]

I took thorne's ferrasorb 3 pills spread throughout the day (108mg/day iron) for 2 weeks. Retested and only got a 3 point increase being at the low end of the range, so basically it didn't do anything.

Is this a bad supplement problem or does it really take that long for ferritin to increase? 108mg/day of iron is a lot. Switching to Blood Builder now.

 

[Anonymon]

I took thorne's ferrasorb 3 pills spread throughout the day (108mg/day iron) for 2 weeks. Retested and only got a 3 point increase being at the low end of the range, so basically it didn't do anything.

Is this a bad supplement problem or does it really take that long for ferritin to increase? 108mg/day of iron is a lot. Switching to Blood Builder now.

In my experience, if you have low ferritin to begin with, it’s often from absorption issues or general things other people wouldn’t have to worry about when considering taking an iron supplement. I’ve taken that amount or more of other brands and I got like 15-20 points in 4-6 months time. Basically useless.

Currently following the advice of another member here and trying ferritts iron at 2x a day with vitamin C and L-Lysine, my additions being a nightly dose a B vitamin and iron liquid, and in my case I’m also eating beef and beef liver daily with vitamin C and L-Lysine as well each time. I’ve also found that, in my case, MCT oil seems to increase absorption of ‘something’, which studies document in rats on iron, and have been having that with things too. Also found a study showing that higher dose iron in the short term within a week did increase ferritin a lot faster than the usual amounts people take, which stopped 4-6 days after they stopped taking more of the very same iron supplements others were taking. The control on normal iron supplement amounts saw no improvement in that span of time.

I’m still having issues after 3-4 days of this but I will say that my skin and hair are looking less hypothyroidy within that span of time in a way that is improving day over day. I’ve taken straight T3 before and NDT and just T4, which usually make me look and feel less hypothyroidy at first until I deplete myself of something, then I’m worse off and can’t recover until I stop the meds. With my current iron regime, I’m looking progressively like I do when I first start a thyroid supplement before it goes bad for me. It’s promising.

I have gut issues and have also been on BPC-157 at 250iu’s 2x a day with 2ius of HGH to help with that, which settles it down very quickly, but has never produced the results I’m seeing so far. Fingers crossed, but I have never personally had the progress I’m making from anything else but my current iron regime.

Too much iron isn’t good for you but if you’re authentically low and having issues, more in the short term, done strategically, does increase ferritin faster according to at least one study. You might also want to lower your TRT dose a little while starting this because test uses up iron faster.

I admit right now I am taking a metric crap ton of iron in through dietary sources and pills, but hey, it’s seemingly working. My skin’s less puffy each day by a little, and my hair hasn’t looked this hydrated in a while. I won’t do this forever but until I refill my stores, I’ve had nothing but positive experiences with it.

If you haven’t had success so far, I’d at least try the ferrits with C and L-Lysine 2x a day, and try C and L-Lysine alongside daily beef and/or liver. At least for a bit. I’m not the only one that’s seen success with this when other things failed.

 

[madman]

I took thorne's ferrasorb 3 pills spread throughout the day (108mg/day iron) for 2 weeks. Retested and only got a 3 point increase being at the low end of the range, so basically it didn't do anything.

Is this a bad supplement problem or does it really take that long for ferritin to increase? 108mg/day of iron is a lot. Switching to Blood Builder now.

Oral iron therapy (supplementation) can take anywhere from 2-3 months or longer in some cases.

When oral iron therapy fails intravenous infusions may be needed.




Parenteral iron

Intravenous infusion results in a rapid replenishment of iron stores with peak ferritin concentrations at 7–9 days after infusion. In our experience, the hemoglobin should rise within 2–3 weeks in the majority of patients

Getting Your Iron Through IV Injection -

Getting more iron by eating iron-rich foods and taking an oral iron supplement are effective ways to treat iron deficiency, and while this is the preferred method of iron therapy, there are certain circumstances where intravenous (IV) iron may be necessary. IV iron therapy is beneficial when...

theironmaiden.ca

GETTING YOUR IRON THROUGH IV INJECTION

Getting more iron by eating iron-rich foods and taking an oral iron supplement are effective ways to treat iron deficiency, and while this is the preferred method of iron therapy, there are certain circumstances where intravenous (IV) iron may be necessary. IV iron therapy is beneficial when iron supplements are unsatisfactory or impossible, such as dialysis-associated anemia related to chronic kidney disease. The British Columbia Ministry of Health Guidelines and Protocols state that oral iron supplementation (compared to IV iron therapy) is safer, more cost-effective, and convenient.


WHAT IS INTRAVENOUS IRON?

IV iron, a parenteral therapy, is iron administered via injection into a vein. Each infusion usually takes 3 or 4 hours and, depending on the type of iron, can be given in one infusion or spread out over a few weeks until the patient’s iron level is corrected. Your doctor will explain the frequency of injections required based on your situation.

Just to give you an idea about the cost of IV iron therapy, the British Columbia Ministry of Health Guidelines and Protocols estimate the approximate medical cost for adults to be $290 – $375 per month (plus facility costs).

Before starting IV iron therapy, a small dose may be administered to observe the patient in case of an allergic reaction. If all goes well, then the dose is increased over the next few hours.


WHO NEEDS IT?

Although oral iron supplementation is the preferred method of therapy, IV iron therapy may be beneficial for patients experiencing inadequate iron absorption, continued blood loss, or who cannot tolerate oral iron tablets or liquids. Also, patients who are required to take an erythropoietin-stimulating agent (ESA) may also require IV iron. Given by injection, ESAs are utilized to increase red blood cell production (which increases iron needs); IV iron may be needed to ensure that the body has a sufficient supply of iron (ESAs actually depletes iron stores, which means that if there is not enough iron in the body to begin with, ESAs will be ineffective).

Patients with the following conditions may require IV iron:

• Acute severe gastrointestinal bleeding
• Inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis)
• Chronic kidney disease (on dialysis)
• Cancer patients (with anemia and taking an ESA)
• Severe menorrhagia (abnormally heavy or prolonged menstrual periods)
• Surgically induced malabsorption syndromes (gastric bypass)

post #23

How much reduction in hematocrit would be expected with a blood donation???

www.excelmale.com

Results/Conclusion:

- compared with participants who did not receive iron supplementation, those who received iron supplementation had shortened time to 80% hemoglobin recovery in both the low-ferritin and higher-ferritin groups

- recovery of iron stores in all participants who received supplements took a median of 76 days (IQR, 20-126); for participants not taking iron, median recovery time was longer than 168 days (IQR, 147->168 days; P < .001)

- without iron supplements, 67% of participants did not recover iron stores by 168 days
- among blood donors with normal hemoglobin levels, low-dose iron supplementation, compared with no supplementation, reduced time to 80% recovery of the post-donation decrease in hemoglobin concentration in donors with low ferritin (< 26 ng/ml) or higher ferritin (>26 ng/ml)

 

[TorontoTRT]

Also be careful taking iron with vitamin c. In the presence of iron, vitamin c becomes PRO oxidant.

 

[John O'Connor]

Yes, it takes months to get ferritin levels up. Be sure to check your vitamin D levels too. Most people in the population have low vitamin D as it's mostly absorbed via the sun, which most of us don't get much of. Vitamin D is essential for the absorption of all minerals, including iron. Note it can also take months to improve Vitamin D levels if they are very low. Don't guess at this. Get your vitamin D levels checked. One more tip when supplementing with iron. It can make you constipated. Take 500mg magnesium daily while taking an iron supplement and it should help. And if you are donating blood to control hematocrit levels, you will need to stop donations at least until you get your iron levels back to normal. If hematocrit is too high during this time then cut your TRT dosing down.

 

[Systemlord]

When I was iron deficient I was also vitamin C deficient and you need vitamin C to be able to absorb iron.

I was able to get my ferritin up to 128 in less than 3 months on only vitamin C because now I was able to absorb iron from my diet.

So make sure you have adequate amounts of vitamin C in your diet.

 

[Match]

E quem tem Ferritina alta, mas ao mesmo tempo Hematócrito quase no limite mínimo ??
Ferro Sérico 107 ug / dl (59-158)
Hamatocrito 40 (40-53)
Ferritina 519 (30-325)
???

 

[MIP1950]

When I was iron deficient I was also vitamin C deficient and you need vitamin C to be able to absorb iron.

I was able to get my ferritin up to 128 in less than 3 months on only vitamin C because now I was able to absorb iron from my diet.

So make sure you have adequate amounts of vitamin C in your diet.

You've posted extensively regarding your issues with iron & ferritin. My last ferritin check, a year ago, was 63. In the context of the iron panel, my urologist said it was fine but low energy, brain fog and poor sleep(though improving) are constants for me and my response to testosterone has been underwhelming. Now doing 16 mg, daily IM, Test E.

Not a meat eater(my wife follows a vegetarian diet and eating meat becomes a flash point). I keep pondering, long before I met her, my father and I ate meat,including liver, and chicken, as well as fish. At 75, after arthritis curtailed his jogging, he began to swim, working up to a mile a day. I jogged. I slept well and had great sexual function. That was over 30 years ago. I transitioned to being a vegetarian when I met my wife, then abandoned it about 10 years ago, eating fish, shrimp, eggs and some dairy.

I know that ascorbic acid improves iron absorption from food and I recall that lysine helps, too. I'm 72 and wary of taking supplemental iron. I take vitamin C, daily; once in the morning. Maybe twice or 3X daily with meals might improve ferritin and response to testosterone?

 

[Anonymon]

You've posted extensively regarding your issues with iron & ferritin. My last ferritin check, a year ago, was 63. In the context of the iron panel, my urologist said it was fine but low energy, brain fog and poor sleep(though improving) are constants for me and my response to testosterone has been underwhelming. Now doing 16 mg, daily IM, Test E.

Not a meat eater(my wife follows a vegetarian diet and eating meat becomes a flash point). I keep pondering, long before I met her, my father and I ate meat,including liver, and chicken, as well as fish. At 75, after arthritis curtailed his jogging, he began to swim, working up to a mile a day. I jogged. I slept well and had great sexual function. That was over 30 years ago. I transitioned to being a vegetarian when I met my wife, then abandoned it about 10 years ago, eating fish, shrimp, eggs and some dairy.

I know that ascorbic acid improves iron absorption from food and I recall that lysine helps, too. I'm 72 and wary of taking supplemental iron. I take vitamin C, daily; once in the morning. Maybe twice or 3X daily with meals might improve ferritin and response to testosterone?

Taking Vitamin C with L-Lysine and some iron foods like liver and nightly supplement got my Ferritin from super low (9-23 I think, been a while) to decent (75+) and I actually overshot my iron levels in my blood by a bit.

 

[MIP1950]

Taking Vitamin C with L-Lysine and some iron foods like liver and nightly supplement got my Ferritin from super low (9-23 I think, been a while) to decent (75+) and I actually overshot my iron levels in my blood by a bit.

I was thinking, after I replied to @Systemlord, that it makes more sense to improve iron uptake and ferritin status via vitamin C & lysine instead of taking an iron supplement. I think about my late friend. He ate meat everyday, took vitamin C & iron supplements. He had a back round in science and his family history was that his grandfather and father died of heart attacks in their 50's. My friend died from the same thing at 59. He was, IMO, saturated with iron, even if his labs looked 'okay'. Thus, my reluctance to dose myself with iron.

 

[Anonymon]

I was thinking, after I replied to @Systemlord, that it makes more sense to improve iron uptake and ferritin status via vitamin C & lysine instead of taking an iron supplement. I think about my late friend. He ate meat everyday, took vitamin C & iron supplements. He had a back round in science and his family history was that his grandfather and father died of heart attacks in their 50's. My friend died from the same thing at 59. He was, IMO, saturated with iron, even if his labs looked 'okay'. Thus, my reluctance to dose myself with iron.

You can still do decently well without the iron supplement part, just using food. I used liver and beef. The iron supplement I liked the most was a really low dose liquid iron one.

 

[MIP1950]

You can still do decently well without the iron supplement part, just using food. I used liver and beef. The iron supplement I liked the most was a really low dose liquid iron one.

Going back over 30 years ago, my father and I ate meat at least twice a week, liver every couple of weeks, chicken and fish. We both took 2 or 3 grams of vitamin C, daily. He was in his 70's and no energy problems nor weight gain as he got older. 135 until he died. I began gaining weight when I was 61 and I was eating vegetarian. Maybe low iron or low ferritin status impacting thyroid function. I stopped responding to liothyronine in 2007. You know that even if you're at the bottom of a lab range, most doctors will say you're okay.

 

[ajax31]

Going back over 30 years ago, my father and I ate meat at least twice a week, liver every couple of weeks, chicken and fish. We both took 2 or 3 grams of vitamin C, daily. He was in his 70's and no energy problems nor weight gain as he got older. 135 until he died. I began gaining weight when I was 61 and I was eating vegetarian. Maybe low iron or low ferritin status impacting thyroid function. I stopped responding to liothyronine in 2007. You know that even if you're at the bottom of a lab range, most doctors will say you're okay.

My father was in and out of the hospital (and ER) several times earlier this year, and none of the treating physicians thought his hemoglobin of 10 was a problem. And, of corse, they never did an iron panel on him.

I eventually began giving him desiccated beef organ supplements (spleen, liver, heart, etc) to boost his iron levels. After 48 hours he started to regain his appetite, energy returned and he stopped talking about dying.

That and weaning him off of opioid pain medication completely turned things around. Now he’s entirely independent again, and his walker is sitting in the corner gathering dust.

 

[Weasel]

If you're trying to increase Ferritin you CANNOT be taking any Vitamin C. It's a very common misconception and commonly advertised that you need Vit C to increase Iron absorption. This is false. Vitamin C with Iron increased HGB. Not ferritin. I raised my Ferritin by 100 points in 7 days using a protocol found on this website.

 

[Razor22]

You've posted extensively regarding your issues with iron & ferritin. My last ferritin check, a year ago, was 63. In the context of the iron panel, my urologist said it was fine but low energy, brain fog and poor sleep(though improving) are constants for me and my response to testosterone has been underwhelming. Now doing 16 mg, daily IM, Test E.

Not a meat eater(my wife follows a vegetarian diet and eating meat becomes a flash point). I keep pondering, long before I met her, my father and I ate meat,including liver, and chicken, as well as fish. At 75, after arthritis curtailed his jogging, he began to swim, working up to a mile a day. I jogged. I slept well and had great sexual function. That was over 30 years ago. I transitioned to being a vegetarian when I met my wife, then abandoned it about 10 years ago, eating fish, shrimp, eggs and some dairy.

I know that ascorbic acid improves iron absorption from food and I recall that lysine helps, too. I'm 72 and wary of taking supplemental iron. I take vitamin C, daily; once in the morning. Maybe twice or 3X daily with meals might improve ferritin and response to testosterone?

Would desiccated liver tablets be a workable attempt to a solution for your lack of beef intake? I was limited on food intake due to stomach issues after SIBO, and couldn't digest liver itself, (it would violently exit topside in the exact way it went down the hatch), but I could tolerate the dried liver tablets at up to 3 or 4 times the normal rate.

 

[JYD21]

If you're trying to increase Ferritin you CANNOT be taking any Vitamin C. It's a very common misconception and commonly advertised that you need Vit C to increase Iron absorption. This is false. Vitamin C with Iron increased HGB. Not ferritin. I raised my Ferritin by 100 points in 7 days using a protocol found on this website.

Can you share the protocol? Thanks.

 

[Anonymon]

Going back over 30 years ago, my father and I ate meat at least twice a week, liver every couple of weeks, chicken and fish. We both took 2 or 3 grams of vitamin C, daily. He was in his 70's and no energy problems nor weight gain as he got older. 135 until he died. I began gaining weight when I was 61 and I was eating vegetarian. Maybe low iron or low ferritin status impacting thyroid function. I stopped responding to liothyronine in 2007. You know that even if you're at the bottom of a lab range, most doctors will say you're okay.

One of my first docs when my health issues began saw my ferritin was super low, like 9, and didn’t think anything of it. I’ve had other people have 0’s on some tests like estrogen and the doc didn’t even bring it up despite it testing at 0 for 4 years. In that case I think the test said <5, but that’s still basically 0 estrogen and this was in a girl in her 30’s.

TRT makes you convert more ferritin to iron, so your ferritin will typically be a little lower. General wisdom is that the optimal range for men that are active is more like 75-115 if it doesn’t bring with it other issues like your iron being too high.

When you do go in for a ferritin test, you’d typically stop all supplementation of iron for 5-7 days beforehand to avoid the ferritin reading being artificially high because you’re trying to see what your body is holding onto.

 

[Razor22]

If you're trying to increase Ferritin you CANNOT be taking any Vitamin C. It's a very common misconception and commonly advertised that you need Vit C to increase Iron absorption. This is false. Vitamin C with Iron increased HGB. Not ferritin. I raised my Ferritin by 100 points in 7 days using a protocol found on this website.

Hello Mr. Weasel,
Could you point me in the direction of the protocol you mentioned. Thanks in advance for your time and help.

 

[MIP1950]

My father was in and out of the hospital (and ER) several times earlier this year, and none of the treating physicians thought his hemoglobin of 10 was a problem. And, of corse, they never did an iron panel on him.

I eventually began giving him desiccated beef organ supplements (spleen, liver, heart, etc) to boost his iron levels. After 48 hours he started to regain his appetite, energy returned and he stopped talking about dying.

That and weaning him off of opioid pain medication completely turned things around. Now he’s entirely independent again, and his walker is sitting in the corner gathering dust.

Fantastic! Reading such a testimonial reminds me that there's always hope. My wife, who has what appears to be early stage dementia, has a primary who's an effing dolt. Even when the labs are bad he tells her that they're okay. And she's committed to being a vegetarian, though it might be contributing to her decline. Her hemoglobin is borderline low, even with an iron supplement and her appetite is fading. She consumes maybe 600 to 700 calories, daily. Always tired and weak,including her voice. She's aging as I watch her. So damn sad. Organ supplements provide a wide range of vitamins and minerals. But she would never consider them.

 

[MIP1950]

Would desiccated liver tablets be a workable attempt to a solution for your lack of beef intake? I was limited on food intake due to stomach issues after SIBO, and couldn't digest liver itself, (it would violently exit topside in the exact way it went down the hatch), but I could tolerate the dried liver tablets at up to 3 or 4 times the normal rate.

Maybe. I do enjoy liver. A particular brand?