Iron supplementation.. any experience?

[Dave Hahn]

Hey Jordan,

I had my annual lab testing done recently. All good, but my iron was a bit low at 34 mcg/dL. Percent iron saturation was only 10%.

Comparing to previous tests over the past few years, this seems like an anomaly. As a matter of fact, just a few months ago I had a reading of 68 mcg/DL and 20%. I don't usually have these done so often, but due to some chart errors they drew it twice since October..

I am thinking I'd chalk this up as an anomaly but would be interested in your opinion.

Medically it seems pretty insignificant as my nephrologist isn't really concerned when it's viewed in the light of all other other metrics we have..

I don't really eat a whole lot of red meat or other foods that contain more iron. Perhaps more steak is in order, which is not a bad thing..

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

What were your hemoglobin, hematocrit, and ferritin levels? Do you have any symptoms?

[vanslix]

Nephrologist? There's much more to this story.

[Austin Baraki]

Also - are you male or female? And why do you see a nephrologist?

[Dave Hahn]

ferritin was 239 ng/mL
hematocrit was 39%
hemoglobin was 13.8 g/dL

Can't say I have symptoms that are out of the ordinary. No fatigue unless you count falling asleep in the recliner after dinner

I had wondered if a heavy training session a few hours prior to the blood draw would have an impact on these numbers. That's usually not the case when i have lab drawn, but it was this time.

Thanks Jordan.

[Paul1]

And MCV, and RDW, and Transferrin / TIBC...

Not enough info here.

Why do you have a nephrologist?

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

These guys are all correct- there is likely much more to this story. However, I was looking to tease out any of the known exercise induced changes in iron status, namely asymptomatic decreases in ferritin and iron stores. That said, most of these changes are in very high level athletes- though to be fair- only high level athletes were studied for these changes so we don't know if it happens in recreational trainees either. Still, I think this is a conversation you should be having with your nephrologist and PCP vs some guys on the internet who don't know your medical history and have no way to treat you responsibly.

[Dave Hahn]

Thanks guys.

I certainly wasn't looking for a complete work up from guys on the web.

That would be dumb.

I realize now that you have no real background information that would necessitate a better opinion. I apologize for that. Not sure what I was thinking.

I've had this conversation with my nephrologist. We came to the conclusion that this specific iron result is not terribly important. I brought up training and timing of lab draws as a cause of a potential discrepancy. She couldn't say and just suggested I could look into iron supplementation or just eat more iron rich food. She did say iron supplements are just plain awful, though. Ha.

I was simply looking for a different perspective, but I understand now that you'd need way more information to give an informed opinion and I appreciate you stating that. It only makes sense.

That being said, I'll take your advice and stick to my nephrologists recommendations. If I were to pursue a private consult in the future, I would sure need to lay out my history for you.

Thanks again for reading!

[Paul1]

You are not anemic, so you don't have iron deficiency anemia (or any other anemia).

Your ferritin is high normal. Pure iron deficiency results in low ferritin. Chronic diseases, esp inflammatory diseases, will elevate your ferritin.

There's a lot we don't know here, but my guess is you're normal and the lab just needs to be followed, or you have a chronic disease (for which you see a nephrologist) and you have the same biology as `anemia of chronic disease,` which can give you low iron and high ferritin (and ultimately anemia). The treatment for that is to treat the underlying problem - it's an iron utilization disease, not an iron deficiency disease.

[Tom Bryant]

Apparently iron deficiency is very common. If that's the case, why don't you recommend supplementing?