Can low ferritin and borderline B12 cause severe anxiety 1 year postpartum?

[mx22]

Any help much appreciated. I’m over a year PP first baby 23 female. I’ve not felt well now for months had endless tests and seems to be low ferritin everytime I’m now on tablets but my b12 also 288 so think it’s lower end. I’ve had the worst panic attacks to the point I can’t even go out, I have never had anything like this in my life. I’m so tired I feel weak most days breathless etc. can a deficiency make you feel this awful I’m absolutely fed up! My ferritin level is 24 which has gone up from 11.

Yes for both. Ferritin under 100 can definitely cause those symptoms, as can low B12. Many people find they go away when theyve supplemented enough to get their levels right up.

I'd recommend joining the Iron Protocol group on Facebook who have guides telling you everything you need to know about how to improve your levels as fast as possible.

facebook.com/groups/theironprotocol/

Yes, also how is your vitamin D? I felt the sickest I’ve ever been short of having cancer the year after my last baby turned 1 due to low vitamin D. I could barely walk up the stairs. I was falling asleep everywhere. I developed a reactive arthritis where all my joints swelled up and were painful (they thought it was rheumatoid arthritis at the time).

In the UK, a vitamin D level has to be below 50 to be deficient, but really anything under 100 is suboptimal. We should have levels of 100 or above. Mine was 50. I felt like I was dying. I literally thought I must have cancer, that’s how ill I was. I now, 9 years later, DO have cancer and i still don’t feel as ill as I did due to low vitamin D!

If your levels are low, you need a proper replacement dose. Not the usual daily dose you get in a tablet from Boots. You can look up the vitamin D dosing protocol which I think is part of the NICE guidelines. There are several options depending on how often you want to take it, but I think I did 10,000 or maybe 20,000 IU twice a week or something like that. It’s way higher than a standard dose, but you use just normal tablets (just take a lot of them!).