Blood chemistry: Iron

[KnottedYet]

Groovy, man!

Got my blood chem results. After a good year of iron supplementation (27 mg/150% daily value) per day and rampant red meat consumption, my blood ferritin levels are up to a massive 10 ng/ml! Whoooo-HOOOO!

Mind you, "normal" is 11-307 ng/ml, but I'm in the double digits now! :D

The stuff I'm taking is ferrous sulfate, which causes me no side effects at all. I'm going to double and then quadruple my daily dose.

But I'm wondering if anyone has had better absorption with some other iron formulation? Since ferrous sulfate is dirt cheap and doesn't mess up my gut, and red meat makes me feel darned fabulous, I've not considered anything else.

I'd really like to get into the "normal" range. And I have a silly goal now of getting into the 100's.

ETA: as a side note, since beginning my massive dead mammal carnivory program my cholesterol levels have become a thing of beauty. My exercise levels have dropped to absolute nil in the same time period, I've gained another 20 lbs, and I've been drinking booze every day. My cholesterol been horrible my entire life, except once before when I was eating huge amounts of dead red meat and drinking like a fish. Clearly my genetics predestine me to eat furry animals, sit on my fat butt, and slurp down the brewski.

[JennK13]

Knotted,
I've had issues with low iron counts for years. Like you, I'm happy to be in the double digits! In January of this year at my physical, my labs came back with ferrous levels at 1 -ONE!!!! Explained why I had difficulty breathing - no way to circulate my oxygen!
Taking regular iron supplements made me sick at the dosage I was supposed to take it, so my doctor recommended I take ProFerrin - http://www.proferrin.com/index.php
I dont experience any issues while taking this and I'm able to keep my iron levels above nothing. It's kind of expensive, so I usually take these once a month for the week I'm on my period, and the rest of the time I take this one my chiro gave me that's a lower dosage and mixed with Vitamin C - C is supposed to help with the absorption of the iron into the blood. It's also easy to digest and if I can find the bottle, I'll tell you what it's called. Because I also suffer from autoimmune disease and already have to take 6 pills a day as it is, I'm absolutely horrible about consistently taking my supplements. When I feel "sick", or if my doctor runs my labs with iron (I have blood draws every 6-8 weeks routinely) and they come back low, then I take it again. For now, I take it when I remember and usually on my period.
Fortunately, I LOVE red meat - if I didn't, who the heck knows what my count would be!!!

note to edit - when I was taking Ferrous Sulfate at the high dosage I was supposed to take it - I took 4 pills a day, and I think the dosage was 75 each one - I had a HORRIBLE metallic taste in my mouth, and it caused bad constipation. Just a heads up for when you increase your dosage. The ProFerrin did NOT do this to me.

[runningcyclist]

Hmm. I used to have problems with my iron level for years and it stopped me from donating blood. Not had it checked in a long time. Maybe I'll have a chat with my doc soon.

[KnottedYet]

Doing the quadruple dose of ferrous sulphate now, and so far no problem.

I'll keep the Proferrin in mind, in case I start struggling. I like the idea that it's made from stuff that would normally go to waste at the slaughterhouse. (used to eat a lot of blood pudding as a kid, so I have no problem with how Proferrin is made)

I also cook nearly every day in cast iron. Sometimes I can taste the iron from that, but I'm not sure how well it gets absorbed.

The vit C helping absorption is something I completely forgot about! Thanks for the reminder!