Frequent Blood Donations = Iron Deficiency

[Youthful55guy]

How much iron are you taking, and how has it effected your labs?

I discovered the low ferritin levels about a year ago during routine labs for an annual checkup. I plan to have the labs rerun in a month or two for my next annual checkup, so I can't yet answer the question as to how effective it has been.

Regarding dose, I take 1 pill of a product called Blood builder that the lady at the health food store said was popular with the women. it contains 520 mg iron plus some Vit C, Folate, and B-12. I've been doing this for about a year (since my last ferritin labs). For the first 6 months or so, I took double the dose (1 tab AM and 1 tab PM). Now I only take 1 tab PM. My thinking is that the double dose probably caught me up and now it's a matter of maintenance. I may rethink this after my next labs.

Regarding constipation as Lockout mentioned, this is definitely not a problem for me. The product does claim to be non-constipating, but I have a mild case of IBF, so any help in that regard is welcome.

[Lockout888]

Regarding dose, I take 1 pill of a product called Blood builder

Yes, in my research I have found that product is very popular, gets very good reviews and works for people when regular iron supplements did not.

I initially bought some iron from Vitamin Shoppe, which contains ferrous fumarate, amino acid chelate and citrate. But the other day, I bought the Blood Builder product and have switched to that. I also plan on taking 1 pill in the AM and 1 pill in the PM until my levels are back to normal.

[Youthful55guy]

I discovered the low ferritin levels about a year ago during routine labs for an annual checkup. I plan to have the labs rerun in a month or two for my next annual checkup, so I can't yet answer the question as to how effective it has been.

Regarding dose, I take 1 pill of a product called Blood builder that the lady at the health food store said was popular with the women. it contains 520 mg iron plus some Vit C, Folate, and B-12. I've been doing this for about a year (since my last ferritin labs). For the first 6 months or so, I took double the dose (1 tab AM and 1 tab PM). Now I only take 1 tab PM. My thinking is that the double dose probably caught me up and now it's a matter of maintenance. I may rethink this after my next labs.

Regarding constipation as Lockout mentioned, this is definitely not a problem for me. The product does claim to be non-constipating, but I have a mild case of IBF, so any help in that regard is welcome.

Several months ago, Lockout888 asked me how iron supplementation affected my iron/ferritin levels but I couldn't answer because I hadn't done repeat labs since starting iron about a year ago. I just had them redone with my annual labs and it seems that they are a bit on the high side now. Not excessively high, but my doc wants me to cut back on the iron. Going to be hard to do, since I now just supplement one pill per day. Taking it every other day is too hard to keep track of. I'm going to try and cut the pills in half and see how that works. However, I can say for certain, that the iron supplements do work as claimed.

[Lockout888]

Several months ago, Lockout888 asked me how iron supplementation affected my iron/ferritin levels but I couldn't answer because I hadn't done repeat labs since starting iron about a year ago. I just had them redone with my annual labs and it seems that they are a bit on the high side now. Not excessively high, but my doc wants me to cut back on the iron. Going to be hard to do, since I now just supplement one pill per day. Taking it every other day is too hard to keep track of. I'm going to try and cut the pills in half and see how that works. However, I can say for certain, that the iron supplements do work as claimed.

How often are you donating blood?

[Youthful55guy]

How often are you donating blood?

As often as I'm allowed. I was doing double red every 16 weeks, but then they messed up a return once and I decided it wasn't worth the added risk or discomfort of the larger needed, so now I'm back to single pint donations every 8 weeks.