Low iron - possible causes and timeframe to increase it?

[MarklahMarklah]

Was feeling a bit unwell a few weeks back so GP sent me for blood tests for a variety of things. All the scary-looking things came back ok but I was told that my iron levels were "borderline" and a retest was requested.
I got a phone call yesterday to tell me that they had a prescription for me to pick up for iron tablets as my levels were still 'borderline'.

FWIW, my blood iron has been around this way for years - when I was in my late teens, in my thirties and now in my 40's. I have never had anaemia.

I have started taking an iron supplement (not long before the retest) as I am obviously aware that my health is something I need to be careful with.

However, I cannot take iron tablets. They give me, what I'll call politely, 'a loose stomach'. If I take iron syrup or liquid supplements I seem to fare better. I did this after DD was born (I had an emergency CS, lost blood, had a transfusion and had to take a supplement for a while). I had a big row at the time about tablets as they wanted to put me on tablets that were something like 65mg iron per day (I understand daily recommendation for iron intake is approx 10-15g).

I spoke with the surgery and explained I'd just bought a supplement, and that I also had some Spatone (which gives approx 5mg per sachet). I said I would like to use what I had first, and explained about the issue with tablets.

I have no health conditions that showed up on the bloods. I have been vegetarian all my life, but will concede that I don't always eat as healthily as I ought to. I'm working to rectify this. Kale is often on my plate!

Does anyone know how long it might take to 'correct' my iron levels? And what reasons there could be for my iron to be low? I'm not suffering from any physical problems that would suggest anaemia, nor have I ever.

Or insufficient dietary intake of absorbable iron. Unless you're eating heaps of eggs, dried fruit, molasses, lentils etc, fortified foods it's challenging to get enough.

I suspect in the op's case it is a combination of a lack of dietary heme iron combined with menstruation that has caused the problem, but other things like internal blood loss or absorption issues with things like coeliac can affect it too. I think a gp would run further tests if dietary supplementation didn't work.

I had a massive internal bleed due to lots of ulcers. My iron went down to six which is really low. When I left hospital I wasn't given any iron tabs but later my GP put me on ferrous fumerate which has helped and hasn't upset my stomach. Don't drink caffeine and take with orange juice to make a real difference.

My iron levels up to 9 now but that's taken over a month.

Take any iron with orange. Avoid eggs, grains, caffeine for an hour either side

My anaemia was caused by Crohn's disease. At the lowest my hb level was 6.1 & I needed an immediate transfusion. It took 7 months after that to get my hb & ferritin levels back to normal as I can't tolerate iron tablets so I have to have infusions or try & get it from my food.

Best advise I got was to not drink tea or coffee within an hour of a meal & drink either apple or orange juice with food. Also any fortified cereal without extra fibre is good.

It's the tannins in tea and coffee that hinder iron absorption not caffeine; tea is worse for this than coffee.

www.livestrong.com/article/284339-foods-that-inhibit-iron-absorption/

Interesting oregano cereals dairy tea coffee lower absorption.

If I had a significant blood loss, years and years ago, would this be something that could impinge on iron levels now?

hazeyjane. No. Your red blood cells only last for about 120 days, so that's how long it takes your body normally to completely replenish your red cells. An acute massive blood loss will be made up relatively quickly even without transfusion, unless there was some illness causing ongoing losses after it. Any iron deficiency now will not be directly due to the past bleed, although it's possible it could be related to whatever caused it at the time, depending what that was.

HTH.

Thanks again everyone. I'm working on it.
3x daily 5ml spoonful iron syrup (I mentioned it earlier) + 2x spatone sachets. So far no ill-effects.
I'm adding nutritional yeast (2x teaspoons to one daily meal), adding dried apricots to my morning bran cereal and adding in one daily glass of vit-c rich juice. I'll up that to two, then three.
I've cut my tea intake down from 5 per day to 2, and I'm leaving an hour between my first cup of tea and my breakfast.
Also trying to ensure I have lentils, kidney beans, chickpeas in one of my daily meals. I tend to eat a fair bit of houmous and peanut butter (and mushrooms too), but I'll carry on with the improvements.

Must say I've not felt so tired today. I'm feeling less tired the more healthily I eat, and I've felt fuller with the bran/apricot combo in the morning which is stopping me eating rubbish.

Hopefully I'll get my levels up and by the time of the retest I'll be on a healthier eating regime. I was aiming to go vegan anyway so this could be the final push I need.