Do you supplement with B12 and Iron?

[kissmelittleass]

My recent B12 was 382 which I'm told is normal, last year it was 430 so gone down over the last twelve months.
I was on iron tablets for over a year from doctor as my hb was 11.7 and actually went down to 11.6 whilst on them so I stopped taking them they weren't working for me and caused me horrendous stomach pains.
For the last few months I'm taking spatone every second day haven't had my hb tested this time, but my ferritin is 92.
So should I supplement with b12 at my current level of 382 or not? And for how long for
Do all you fellow vegans supplement?

I'm very new but consulted my dr before switching to veganism due to some health issues and the only concerns from the gp were about calcium so I'm taking a supplement for that and I've decided to take floradix for iron and B12 as well as try to eat a whole foods diet with minimal processed stuff which will hopefully help with nutrients.

B12 doesn't occur naturally in plants so every vegan needs to either supplement or use fortified products. I take a multivitamin each day, and the vegan society sells one called veg1. Fortified products include marmite, nutritional yeast, and most plant milks. If you're deficient in B12 for too long you can end up with permanent nerve damage so please make sure you're getting enough.

As for iron, my multi contains it but you can also get it pretty easily from your diet. I was slightly anaemic during pregnancy and my midwife recommended dried apricots.

Yes you need B12, as severe deficiency will cause brain shrinkage and irremediable loss of cognitive function.
Many products are fortified with B12, but at the end of the day, it is the same. Either you supplement a person or supplement a product.

Since I eat whole food, I prefer to take a supplement.

Iron from plant is tricky, as many things especially coffee and teas will inhibit absorption, so either cook with a lucky fish luckyironfish.com or take a supplement.

You also need to consider
EPA-DHA, because some people do not convert ALA. Vitamin D, and if taking a calcium supplement , make sure to take K2 at the same time since it ensures calcium goes in bones and not arteries.

At some point, it is easier to just take a multivitamin like the previous poster does.
I alternate between targeted supplements based on deficiencies identified with blood test, and a multivitamin.
I also log my food on cronometer to make sure I cover all my micronutrients needs and it is quite difficult to get it them all.

I take a supplement for B12, nothing for iron, which maybe I should look at. I have blood tests in 2 weeks, will stay as I am until then and see if I am low on anything.

I also log my food on cronometer to make sure I cover all my micronutrients needs and it is quite difficult to get it them all.

Me too and I'd especially recommend this for new vegans like you OP to make sure you're on track. The nutritional learning curve can be quite steep and this is a good way to make sure you aren't leaving any big gaps. I did it quite frequently when I first went vegan but now I probably just do it once a month to double check I'm eating the right things.

@Cormoran thanks for letting me know about Cronometer I'll definitely check into that
I've actually been a vegetarian over 25 years! But only turned vegan about 18 months ago roughly, I've had conflicting advice in the past from doctors and find the B22 a bit confusing.
About ten years ago I had awful numbness and tingling in my back and legs and turned out I was b12 deficient but was given no advice nothing so I just bought b12 tablets myself and over the years it got up to over 800 but when it showed my levels to be over 800 I actually got told off by the doctor who said it was too high and I shouldn't be supplementing myself!!!
So I stopped for a few years and as I said earlier my recent b12 is 382 which I'm told is normal!
Thinking I will buy some b12 and start taking it again but not sure at what level to stop supplementing??

@kissmelittleass
I take 1000mcg a day based on the recommendation from a dietician.

There is no toxicity so your doctor's comment makes no sense. A vegan needs to supplement daily or at alternating days depending on which B12 product they are taking. My levels too are around 830 which I believe is normal when you supplement. The lab range are NOT the optimal level for health but represent the range of the population tested.

Even with optimal planning, whole food only, one can become deficient or insufficient. First the level of micronutrients of a plant will vary immensely based on soil, season, continent, storage, .... and the ability of the body to absorb that nutrient is a whole mystery. The levels in a plant were determined decades ago and since then the quality of the soil has declined a lot with over-yielding

I was eating roughly 850% of ALA based on cronometer so two tablespoons of flax seeds, plus chia seeds, hemp seeds and walnuts, and yet when I measured my omega 3 index I was dangerously low at 3.8, normal range 8-12, ideal above 12 and at 3.5 you have loss of cognitive abilities.
My body converts a big zero when it comes to Omega 3s, so I now I supplement and it is taking forever to go up. I use Omegaquant for the testing, it it cheaper than taking blood in Australia since it is a private test only.

I started thinking I was smart enough to only supplement with vitamin D, but then slowly, one by one I started adding more and more.

On cronometer, it is almost impossible to have the whole page green. What matters is that one day your magnesium is green and the next your copper and zinc will be,.
Over the course of the week, I am covered for everything.

We now know a lot more about micronutrient than when vitamins were discovered. Their importance goes beyond the single disease (beri-beri, scurvy, ...) many vitamins are co-factors for the optimal gene function , some regulating the function of up to 200 genes. Some deficiencies do not appear straight away but will cause slow damage, such as a folate deficiency cause chromosomes breaks.

I alternate now between a multivitamin and single supplements days because I know that for certain nutrients my needs are greater.
I take daily EPA_DHA in addition to that.

That paper about multivitamin being useless and only making expensive wee has been widely debunked by the scientific community <a class="break-all" href="https://sci-hub.se/doi.org/10.7326/L14-5011" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">sci-hub.se/doi.org/10.7326/L14-5011