Sorry, this is a non topic.
Person supplements without testing, feels better, hasn’t tested again, loves the new supp, and tells everyone about its possible advantages.
Never mind the new coach, defo not a variable at all.
Substitute iron for deer antler velvet or bull testicles and it’s a tale as old as time.
Anemia is an actual condition and iron is the solution, no need to pull random snake oil into this.
Swap out iron for any supp in the story.
Same point but a little more colourful.
The literary choice of those particular supps was to support the ‘tale as old as time’ theme. Got a little too creative there.
Admittedly, it was snarky. It didn’t seem like the other reasonable responses were getting through to the OP.
And to be fair, I think bull testicles or deer antler velvet would both be fairly high in iron.
Eat the right stuff and the energy will be there. You feel the effects of bad nutrition much more in your latter years.
I evolve my diet around satisfying all mineral and vitamin groups, i disregards calories (although the total does matter, but what matters most is getting all you need first. Adapt the values, if i notice I still lack magnesium even after fulfilling 100% or more of my daily intake, then I increase the daily intake I need for that value).
Not all “anemia” is caused by an iron deficiency.
And not all iron deficiency is an anemia.
Just to to be specific, the blood test for iron level is Ferritin right? And nothing else?
My doctor said this was good result, but he’s not the sort who takes the initiative to know what I actually need. I take a daily multivitamin that has 5mg Iron, 28% DV.
Not sure about others but for tracking my iron related to my hemochromatosis, we use:
Ferritin alone is useless. Ferritin is an acute phase reactant, meaning its levels are dependent on (waving hand) stress in the body.
This is correct. You’d also have and MCV as part of your CBC. You have to interpret ferritin within the context of these other markers.
That’s a good list.
There are also gene tests you can do.
My dad had 2 of the 3 genes that Northern European, white men have which makes them very susceptible to hemochromatosis. I tested negative, despite also being a very white bloke from Northern England.
I don’t recall the codes to look/test for. If you test positive, you’d want to limit iron and iron-building foods naturally and test levels annually to keep an eye on it with your doctor, that’s all.
Yeah, not related to the OP specifically if deficiency is at play, but my excess lead my doc to get the gene testing which showed me having 2 of them for HH. My brother and dad tested negative and have no issues despite being heavy read meat eaters. I have my diet generally squared away along with 2x whole blood donations per year to keep me in good levels year round.
Yeah when I was medically diagnosed with anemia by a doctor, it was low hemoglobin paired with low ferritin and iron counts. Iron supplementation helped me in the short term. My family also did not consume much in the way of red meat and I was probably just not eating enough for my body at that time anyway.
Most pseudo-anemic adult athletes can correct this with dietary changes IMO. Obviously YMMV.
Don’t forget: iron deficiency and anemia are signs of REDs, not a hallmark of “hard” training or an expected physiologic change (is as often though to be the case in women).
It’s true that ferritin can be elevated by other causes. In a healthy individual ferritin is not a bad test. Many hematologists nowadays use a ferritin along with CRP or ESR instead of the whole transferrin saturation etc.
Obviously always Hb and MCV.
This. Thank you.
Later you post this table
One one both statements must be false, no?
Let me put an emphasis on what I wrote:
As I said, ferritin is labile and subject to a number of other physiologic conditions. In all comers, it’s reasonably sensitive and quite specific for iron deficiency…but no one can agree on the threshold. In athletes, that threshold is even murkier. Timing of the blood draw in relation to exercise can affect the ferritin level. My only point was that there is more to iron status than ferritin and that labs should be interpreted by a physician, not a coach.
Thanks for clarifying.
