Yeah for me 20 points in 8 weeks. Still pretty good.
Same issues. 5 months in Ferritin and iron tanked. Supplemented with Ferrous Sulfate first and that didn’t work, Went to chelated iron (ferrous bisgylcinate) and that helped. Supplemented three times per day to get backto normal for 12 weeks. 500 mg vitamin C and l-lysine as well.
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I have the opposite issue, my ferritin was way too high even on TRT. When I caught it was a little over 600, top of the range is 300. I have to donate blood (which I don’t do very well with) to keep it down but I’ve also found a supplement called IP6 (inositol) that if taken daily on an empty stomach will slowly chelate iron from my body. So for those of you with lower iron, make sure your not taking IP6 or anything with inositol in it as it could be lowering your iron.
How much inositol were you taking daily? My multi has 120 mg and I see IP6 has 500 mg?
Guys 2 questions. Can iron supplements have an acute impact on hemoglobin blood tests the next day? My hemoglobin reading on a full blood test was 18 about 3 days ago. Today I went to donate blood and the finger prick test gave a reading of 20. Fully hydrated both days, but I did ingest 50 mg iron bisglycinate last night. I doubt my hemoglobin went from 18 to 20 in 3 days. How accurate are the finger prick hemoglobin testers? I’m more inclined to believe the actual blood test results from 3 days ago.
The graph below showes the difference in measured Hb between 3 different point of care hemoglobin meters (the one they use for blood donation) and the gold standard method.
95% of measured Hb values are within +/- 2 g/dl of the standard method.
In short, no iron supplementation doesnt raise Hb in 3 days, its analytical variability.
So then which is more accurate. My full CBC blood work that showed my hemoglobin to be 18 , three days ago
Or the little finger prick test that’s done in 3 seconds that showed my hemoglobin to be 20. done today?
I’m willing to believe the result in my full blood work is more accurate wouldn’t you say?
Accuracy is the same (if you measure 100 times you get the same average)
Precision is bad in the finger prick test
So yes the Hb in the full blood panel is more precise
How about your serum iron levels and TIBC? Same question for : @dextermorgan and @pyater
I take between 500-1000mg per day
Do you guys think blood donations actually make your body pump out red blood cells even faster after?
Are you asking what those levels are?
Watch out taking iron to raise ferritin if you’re donating blood due to high or elevated hct. You’ll just get into a vicious cycle. The iron will just add to the rising hct. If you are really having issues I would suggest visiting a hematologist. I absolutely crushed my ferritin down to 2 from donating. Now I see the hematologist every 4 mos and sometimes he takes a full donation and sometimes a half and sometimes none at all.
2 months of taking iron kept my HCT exactly the same at 52 but raised my feritin from 20 to 40. Iron is only used to make RBCs only if you are low. Otherwise it gets stored in ferittin.
Yes, the body releases higher amounts of epo to compensate for the loss of blood.
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@dextermorgan Yes. What is your iron serum level? I wanted to see what it is compared to ferritin.
Here are my levels
Note/Date 7/5/19 7/31/19 8/1/19 9/6/19 10/16/19
Iron
Iron Bind Capacity (TIBC) (250-450) 406 394 332
UIBC (111-343) 369 H 263
Iron (38-169) 37 L 36 L 69
Iron Saturation (15-55) 9 L 9 L 21
Ferritin Serum (30-400) 16 L 54 71
RDW % (11.3 - 15.3 %) 13.9% 16.4 % H 15.0%
That’s definitely low.
My Hematocrit and Hemoglobin levels were normal during this time.