Yesterday morning i had another blood test to see where my levels are up to now after getting the iron injections. I wasn't able to see my regular gp so saw the next best one there so he could organise the blood test.

I was explaining to him what i had done so far and basically familiarising him with my situation. He then said that he had a number of female patients who were going through the same thing and that if there was no medical reason for ferretin to go down and the person had difficulty raising it, then it was usually due to bad digestion of food and that the patient then needs to do a 6week stomach detox, but under strict medical supervision, not buying one of those over the counter detox kits.

He didn't elaborate further, just said that a lot of people want to fix the problem, but lack the dedication to see it through and then saw me out the door as he was busy.

Has anybody else heard of anything like this?

I can tell you that very few "regular" MD's in the U.S. would ever say such a thing. This sounds like naturopathic medicine and, at least on the East Coast of the U.S., is sort of laughed at.

Audrey--I think that there is always a medical reason for Ferritin to go down. And it is HARD to raise a Ferritin through diet especially, and with low dose supplements as you already know. It's just a time consumer because we don't absorb well or very little is absorbed at one time. As soon as my GI doc saw my numbers, he said, your going to be on iron a long, long time and gave me a yrs. RX of iron. Now I know SO well what he was talking about, it's the Ferritin! This IS a normal process. And yes injections and IV make it a lot quicker if available and desired or necessary.

I wouldn't fall for detox, especially in the stomach. Just as the Ferritin works, the stomach has it's own make-up and special environment as well. I don't think these things should be messed with it such a way. Although a lot of people believe in these methods, they are not well received by the Medical community. Be careful. FLFLOWERGIRL:)

Audrey--

I just wanted to add that I hope you don't think that my post was belittling your suggestion. It was not me, personally, I was referring to but the attitude of the medical community.

I do think that Western Medicine doctors *do* need to get a little more open-minded. Some alternative ideas I do think are beneficial, while others I think are not and will have to agree with mainstream doctors on.

I do a little research on my own here and there and one of the areas that I personally disagree with is colon detox. I do believe in taking specific nutrients and/or probiotics and that these are beneficial, but as far as "cleansing", nope, I don't believe it.

There is a mainstream doctor here in the States that often appears on Oprah's show. He also has some books out. Dr. Mehmet Oz. I think he does a very good job of mixing conventional medicine with alternative therapies. He's also very good at debunking stuff.

One of the shows he was on talked about colon cleansing and GI cleansing and he said that it was found to be a waste of time and, in fact, can sometimes be harmful (not that regular medications aren't harmful too in their own right :D ). I can't remember the reasons he gave but it did make sense to me.

Thanks for the replies ladies and by no means would i take your reply Christine as being belittling, so don't worry about that, your replies are always very informative and helpful :)

I only raised this detox issue as it's the first time i've heard anybody suggest such a thing, especially from a gp and i have never heard anyone mention it on the boards. He wasn't my regular gp and i only go to a gp to complete one of those pathology blood test requests, which my actual specialist provides a list of things to get tested for. I then go back to my specialist for the results and have nothing to do with the gp.

The little bit of research i did on the net actually tells people with certain conditions, such as anemia/low iron, to be extremely wary of doing a detox.

This gp also got them to add a selenium blood test and some other form of zinc test rather than just a red cell zinc test, cant recall what it's called, but will see when my tests return. The problem is that there are so many variations of tests for the one thing, eg: i thought for thyroid there was only the regular TSH, Free T3 & T4, but this time my specialist has added a 'Reverse T3' and a urinary iodine test.

I suppose it's good to know all the variations available of the basic tests incase my specialist wins the lottery and retires and i dont have him to fall back onto for his knowledge :)

Audrey,

I will tell you that all of these different tests you are having done--well, I"m pretty confident that no U.S. general practitioner would even dream of running such things. If I even asked for them, they'd probably kick me out of their office.:D I looked some of them up at the lab that I use and, for our labs here, they don't even run them and come back as "unknown." I wonder what they are?

Come to think of it, I have heard of an urinary iodine test. My thyroid specialists runs these on thyroid cancer patients right before having a Radioactive Iodine treatment. Here, we call it an 24 hour iodine test. The patient has to collect urine over a 24 hour period, it is then tested for the level of iodine. If there is more than a certain amount of iodine in the urine, the doctor will not treat with the Radioactive Iodine as the treatment may not work. I'm not sure how it would be used in a patient who has a thyroid. I know that too much iodine can cause a goiter, but you don't have that do you?

Perhaps it's just a case of different medical terminology which can vary from country to country. Even some of our tests here have varying ranges compared to the US, such as B12 - our range is 150-180pm/ L, so perhaps some medical terminology can vary just like the 'range' can vary.

I think here in Australia we have quite a few gp's who would refuse to do certain tests, but as my specialist had formulated the list the gp i saw had no choice. I know certain patients who see the same specialist as i do have told him that their gp has refused to do the basic iron injections. He has now asked my regular gp whether it's ok for these people to come and see him.

Just throwing in my 2 cents here. Personally, I dont' think it'd be a good idea for someone with nutritional deficiencies of any kind to do a major detox program. I've done some research into it and those things are hard on your body. If it makes healthy people sick during the detox process, can't imagine what we'd go through.

re: Iodine - Just so you know, I'm currently on an iodine protocol for my thyroid as well as other issues. There are two schools of thought on iodine. The most common being that its bad for folks with thyroid issues. The other is since iodine has been used for over 150 years for treating thyroid issues it should be continued. There's even a group of women taking iodine to treat their breast cancer. With success, I might add. There's a lot of modern research done by Drs Abraham, Brownstein, and Flechas on the iodine subject if you're interested, most of which can be found on line. The protocol is not without risk and I don't recommend it for everyone. For example, some folks with Hashi's can't tolerate the iodine while others with Hashi's have had good results with it.