Iron Deficiency – Doc Telling Me I Need Heme Iron From Animals
Iron Deficiency – Doc Telling Me I Need Heme Iron From Animals
by ilyedm
6 Comments
ilyedm
Like the title says, I just had an appointment to go over some labs and my doctor is telling me that the reason for my iron deficiency is a lack of heme iron and that they haven’t found a good way to supplement that in vegans. She asked if I would consider taking a supplement derived from animal sources–which of course I said absolutely not.
But has anyone had success fixing this as a vegan?
NoochConnoisseur
I take ferrous gluconate and was able to raise my all iron related labs to normal. They were low before. I take this one, but any brand is probably the same as long as it’s ferrous gluconate. Not sure if this would solve your problem but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to supplement iron regardless if you eat meat or not, especially if you get a period. https://a.co/d/ddngBkr
blissfulhiker8
Those aren’t your results, are they?! Because according to those results you have borderline EXCESS iron and do NOT need any more (beyond normally what you would get in your diet). If those are your results and your doctor told you that, I suggest you seek a new doctor.
EpicImp
Your doctor is completely mistaken! Your saturation is very high, borderline too high! Iron binding, however, goes low when you have enough iron and high when your iron is low! High saturation means that you have very high absorption.
Your doc must clearly have confused the saturation and binding numbers. In worst case possibly due to bias against plant based diets (based on the comment on heme iron as well).
Was this a regular medical doctor? This lack of knowledge, if not a case of mixing the numbers, is really concerning.
soberunderthesun
Check out the iron protocol group on FB they have useful info about iron.
Most sources of iron are non-heme. It is harder to absorb but there is good research out there saying it should be taken every other day with vitamin-C suppliment. Also really common for women to be low in iron because of losing iron each month during periods. There are many awesome vegan brands – one that I like is blood builders – I think it also has b12 – super important to suppliment if fully plant based. It is an easy fix and barring you don’t have any other problems like poor absorption from celiac etc…
kalaxitive
I’m not a doctor or have any medical background, however, people are posting without linking any credible sources and I don’t like that, especially when it comes to medical stuff.
Now I also noticed that you said your Ferritin came back normal, based on all that information, and the following information from my countries’ health service, it might be better for you to get a second opinion from a different doctor, because (according to the table) you’re not Iron Deficient, now this doesn’t contain what a normal result would be, so I can only assume that if your blood work does not match any of these then there’s nothing wrong, but then again, I’ve no experience/knowledge in the medical field, so a second opinion is advised.
6 Comments
Like the title says, I just had an appointment to go over some labs and my doctor is telling me that the reason for my iron deficiency is a lack of heme iron and that they haven’t found a good way to supplement that in vegans. She asked if I would consider taking a supplement derived from animal sources–which of course I said absolutely not.
But has anyone had success fixing this as a vegan?
I take ferrous gluconate and was able to raise my all iron related labs to normal. They were low before. I take this one, but any brand is probably the same as long as it’s ferrous gluconate. Not sure if this would solve your problem but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to supplement iron regardless if you eat meat or not, especially if you get a period.
https://a.co/d/ddngBkr
Those aren’t your results, are they?! Because according to those results you have borderline EXCESS iron and do NOT need any more (beyond normally what you would get in your diet). If those are your results and your doctor told you that, I suggest you seek a new doctor.
Your doctor is completely mistaken! Your saturation is very high, borderline too high! Iron binding, however, goes low when you have enough iron and high when your iron is low! High saturation means that you have very high absorption.
Your doc must clearly have confused the saturation and binding numbers. In worst case possibly due to bias against plant based diets (based on the comment on heme iron as well).
Was this a regular medical doctor? This lack of knowledge, if not a case of mixing the numbers, is really concerning.
Check out the iron protocol group on FB they have useful info about iron.
Most sources of iron are non-heme. It is harder to absorb but there is good research out there saying it should be taken every other day with vitamin-C suppliment. Also really common for women to be low in iron because of losing iron each month during periods. There are many awesome vegan brands – one that I like is blood builders – I think it also has b12 – super important to suppliment if fully plant based. It is an easy fix and barring you don’t have any other problems like poor absorption from celiac etc…
I’m not a doctor or have any medical background, however, people are posting without linking any credible sources and I don’t like that, especially when it comes to medical stuff.
In the UK the NHS (which is our health service) website [refers](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/tibc-test/) to the [following website](https://labtestsonline.org.uk/tests/tibc-uibc-and-transferrin), that website has the following table *(this table can be found at the bottom of the lab page under “What does the test results mean”).*
Now I also noticed that you said your Ferritin came back normal, based on all that information, and the following information from my countries’ health service, it might be better for you to get a second opinion from a different doctor, because (according to the table) you’re not Iron Deficient, now this doesn’t contain what a normal result would be, so I can only assume that if your blood work does not match any of these then there’s nothing wrong, but then again, I’ve no experience/knowledge in the medical field, so a second opinion is advised.
|Disease|Iron|TIBC|UIBC|(%)Saturation|Ferritin|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|Iron Deficiency|Low|High|High|Low|Low|
|Haemochromatosis|High|low|low|High|High|
|Chronic Illness|Low|Low|Low/Normal|Low|Normal/High|
|Iron Poisoning|High|Normal|Low|High|Normal|