I was just reading through the different messages on iron treatments and I just really want to make this comment. In February of 2006, it was found that I had a hemoglobin level of 6.9 and my iron stores were practically nonexistent. I took supplements for the last year and a half. These brought the hemoglobin into the 7's but it got stalled there and my stores came up but not that much. This summer I tried a no wheat diet and in 6 weeks my hemoglobin went to 8.9. I continued it for the last month and it went to 9.9. I feel very fortunate to have made this discovery and just want to encourage you to try this. Iron infusion had been offered to me at one point and I turned it down hoping that the supplements would work. They helped maintain my status but I believe that it was cutting out wheat that has actually helped me make use of them. I would encourage anyone with a longstanding iron problem to look up

I was just reading through the different messages on iron treatments and I just really want to make this comment. In February of 2006, it was found that I had a hemoglobin level of 6.9 and my iron stores were practically nonexistent. I took supplements for the last year and a half. These brought the hemoglobin into the 7's but it got stalled there and my stores came up but not that much. This summer I tried a no wheat diet and in 6 weeks my hemoglobin went to 8.9. I continued it for the last month and it went to 9.9. I feel very fortunate to have made this discovery and just want to encourage you to try this. Iron infusion had been offered to me at one point and I turned it down hoping that the supplements would work. They helped maintain my status but I believe that it was cutting out wheat that has actually helped me make use of them. I would encourage anyone with a longstanding iron problem to look up

Millie,

It sounds like you are talking about having a gluten intolerance (celiac disease). Most of us who have been diagnosed as iron deficient have also had the celiac blood tests done to rule that out as a cause. I know that the celiac panel was one of the first tests I had done. I was actually kind of "hoping" that celiac was the cause because it almost would have been easier to deal with. Alas, I was not found to have this so there is really no reason to remove the gluten (wheat) from my diet. Now, one can be strictly gluten intolerant and NOT have celiac but just having an intolerance will not make you iron deficient--it just makes you feel bad.

Were you ever tested for celiac disease? It really sounds like this is what you must have since removing wheat gluten from your diet is helping.

I wouldn't dare take wheat out of my diet. I'm getting 300% iron daily from it.

I never was tested for celiac disease and I understand it is a relatively simple test. It annoys me to think that I wasn't. When I look back on different things in my life, I think I have always had this condition. It was when I was under greater stress at work that practically all of my iron stores were used up. As I said in my earlier post, iron infusion was recommended to me. Knowing how simply my situation now seems to be being fixed, I couldn't resist writing on this board in case there was anyone else out there in my position that is going through all sorts of things when simply not eating wheat may fix the problem.

I'm just curious. How do you get 300% of your iron from wheat?

Celiac disease is an auto-immune problem, my mother suffers from it, one of the problems is malabsorpbtion of vitamins and iron, which in my mothers case has now led her to become iron deficient (she has also suffered from pernicious anemia since her late teens - maybe unrelated).
She has been on a wheat (gluten) free diet for the past 6 years or so and if anything it has worsened her anaemia to a point where she now has iron infusions on top of B12 injections.

We are all different, what works for one person wont always work for the next, although it is good that we can share our experiances via these boards. Millie, if cutting out wheat has helped your levels rise thats wonderful, although i would serioulsy get checked for celiac as it can cause other problems too, so it would be beneficial to have a proper diagnoisis.

Linds,

ps as an example 2 weetabix provides 32% of the recommended daily allowance of vtiamins and minerals (derived from wheat), if your sticking to the gluten free diet, cornflakes (suitable for celiacs) also provide a good source of iron (not sure of the exact figures - i only had weetabix in my cupboard - lol)

She could be getting a lot of iron if eating a fortified wheat cereal, such as Total. One serving provides 100% of the RDA of iron.

Millie-- What a great story, thanks for sharing! It's refreshing to hear when someone finally finds something that works for them. It does sound like you have Celiac Disease and if you do, then you should also be tested for B- Vitamins because they are probably not getting absorbed either. From what I understand about Celiac once you remove the Wheat, Barley and Rye the problem is resolved it's that simple. Sorry that you had to suffer so long with anemia that has to be extremely hard. I hope that your HBG continues to rise, best of luck to you. FLFLOWERGIRL:)

Cream of wheat has lots of iron. Obviously it's not my favorite thing, or else I would not be in this situation. Also, I would not have been able to eat cold or hot cereal three years ago when the allergic reactions started. My system has only gotten strong enough to handle medication and cereal in the past couple of months, which is why I was so vitamin deficent.

I'm sorry you or your mother cannot have wheat cereal. It's so nice to have just one serving and stop digging for iron rich foods.

Just a note about iron-fortified cereals which contain wheat: While the cereal may contain a fortification of 100% of the RDA or iron, you may not actually "get" all that. Wheat contains phytates which block the absorption of iron. If you're like me and and you eat Total Raisin Bran, you're also probably pouring milk on top of the cereal. So while I have 100% of iron added to my cereal, the phytate in the wheat and the addition of dairy are probably blocking most of that iron.

Christine--your exactly right that's just one reason why we can't possibly know how much iron we ARE getting. Even with the supplements. All we can do is try to eat right, take the supplements CORRECTLY and hope for the best! FLFLOWERGIRL:)

Hi Christine,

Thanks for that info. I have no idea what my iron levels are. I was supposed to get blood drawn last week but could not make an appointment. All I know is some iron is getting absorbed. I eat Total, too, but I cannot drink milk--not even organic milk. I use soy or almond milk because neither give me reactions. What is preventing the iron from being absorbed, the calcium or something else?

Early on, I had slight reactions to both the Total and Cream of Wheat. The Allegra took care of that. Now I don't think I have reactions to either. I think my system is getting less sensitive because of so much iron. Still, I have a long way to go.

Just to mention, Product 19 and Special K have high iron amounts, too. I think they are both rice cereals.

I too was going to bring up the fact that dairy can block iron absorbtion and as much as 60%. I was not aware of this until my doctor gave me some fact sheets. This is why i often question eating cereal. I usually have two slices of wholemeal toast either from wheat bread or rye bread. I do like my cereal though, but often think "what's the point". It would be good if someone could run a test on eg: two weetbix plus milk and determine exactly how much iron is actually absorbed at the end. Personally i love sultana bran, yummm :)

Sort of off topic, but still regarding wheat. Here in Australia we are currently roughly half way through a series of Idol. One of the singers last night looked so radiant and i wondered what she had done/changed to look so good. At the end of her song one of the judges asked her what had changed as she looked different, yet hadn't altered her actual appearance/style. She said that she had simply taken ALL wheat products out of her diet. She looked amazing and her skin was glowing, eyes sparkling. Before she looked good, but looked like something wasn't quite right.

It's good when you can figure out what is wrong. Makes it so much easier to work towards your goal. My sister in law was so ill from celiacs prior to this condition becoming so well known. She was about 15 and was hospitalised and everybody thought she had anorexia, but it was the bad irritable bowel caused by the celiacs condition and her body wasn't absorbing any vitamins/minerals. She made a full recovery.

I started an Elimination Re-Challenge diet this past weekend in order to rule out any food sensitivities. I've cut out gluten, refined sugar, corn, eggs, dairy, chocolate, food additives/preservatives/coloring, peanuts, peas, citrus, processed meats, and anything fermented or with vinegar in it. Still working on cutting out caffeine.

My usual breakfast of choice is whole grain nut and flax seed toast around 7am, with a big bowl of multigrain hot cereal around 11ish. Yesterday, without these items, I noticed that I didn't get the usual fatigue around noon and actually had more energy the entire day. Last night, I had some roasted pumpkin seeds (packaged) and had stomach cramping. Read the ingredients and flour was listed. Didn't see that before and certainly didn't expect it.

Dunno if its my imagination or not. It'll be interesting to see how all this progresses over the next few weeks. Will keep you posted.