Hi,
I'm 46 and 6 years ago I finally found out that my ferritin level was 11, so no wonder that I felt all the time tired, exhausted, having hair loss, heart palpitations, carpal tunnel syndrome, anxiety and weak muscles. Unfortunately my ex-doc told me that I don't have anemia, because my ferritin is still in the norm range! (10-150), so my problems are most probably psychical :-/
I have believed her, but I felt worse and worse. From time to time I took "kräuterblut", a german natural tonic with iron, but this was obviously not strong enough to increase my ferritin level significantly. Few years ago I was diagnosed with a small prolactinoma and hypothyroidism and the endo also took my low ferritin level seriously and recommended me to take iron pills. So slowly my ferritin level increased ( I wasn't anemic enough to get iron infusions) and the last results were ferritin 55, haemoglobin 11. Not bad, but still not optimal. My old symptoms are little but better, but I still don't feel really o.k. I talked with a TCM health practitioner who told me, that low ferritin over years can cause hypothyroidism and some other hormon conditions and even when the levels are normal, the body needs a lot of time to recover and finally start to feel good.
Can you confirm that? At which ferritin levels you started to feel really good again? I still have the symptoms, they are more mild then before, but I'm quickly exhausted, nervous, after moderate sport my muscles are aching and I still have hair loss, but not so strong then before. My endo said, with a ferritin level about 70 I can expect my hair loss will stop. But this can take a lot of time, I needed 3 years to reach the level 55! I have strong period bleedings, probably because of the low progesterone, I'm in a peri menopause. I have read that the new norm range for ferritin is actually 50, so few months ago I was still anemic! Here in Germany for the very most of the doc's the norm is 10, sometimes 20.
Can you recommend me some iron pills which can raise ferritin levels faster?
You could try a form of iron called Ferrochells, which is very well adsorbed (Vitacost sell it cheaply on the net, about 12 dollars for a years supply)
An alternative would be to take standard iron pills along with 250mg of vitamin c, twice a day, this may help to push your levels up faster.
__________________
The desire to take medicines is what seperates man from the lower animals - William Ostler
I talked with a TCM health practitioner who told me, that low ferritin over years can cause hypothyroidism and some other hormon conditions and even when the levels are normal, the body needs a lot of time to recover and finally start to feel good.
Can you confirm that?
I wonder if that's true. From what I've read, hypothyroidism can keep your ferritin levels low, but I hadn't heard that low ferritin could actually cause hypo.
I think that's possible. I think I've been anemic long before having hypo symptoms. And now, it's been...- how many years? 2, 3, 4? I can't even remember now...- that I'm taking iron pills, and my ferritin levels are still in the 4-10 range, sometimes rising to 15-25 (once to mid 80s), then falling back.
One question. What measuring units do they use at your lab? My ferritin is measured in mcg/L (or ng/mL) which should be the same. But if I convert it to pmol/L, then my 13 is about 29pmol/L.
