high iron levels??

This is why I ask for help from my fellow Catheites! Thank you all for the different perspectives on my issue, your personal experiences and the tons of information. I feel like I have more of the tools I need now when going in to speak to my doctor - that I have a better idea of what questions to ask and what I need to find out. I really appreciate that all of you took the time to respond and help me out.
 
Cooking in a cast iron skillet also helps. The food leeches some of the lead, especially if you cook something acidic, such as tomato soup, tomatosauce, etc.
 
Update

So, I finally had my physical today and had a look at my actual blood test results. My hemoglobin was within the normal range, but at the very low end. My iron was really really low. My B12 was great. My doctor has me doing a retest in a couple of months, but until then wants me to stay on the triple iron dose. I asked her why this might be happening, given that I already take an iron supplement, and she said it might be related to my period or I was just having a hard time absorbing iron. Neither were very satisfying answers, but I really like my doctor, so I'm trusting her. She gives me an hour for a physical, gives me straight answers and I don't absolutely m-f hate the pelvic exam when she does it.

We talked about H1N1 and I decided to get the vaccine (first flu vaccine ever for me). She straight out said that sometimes flu vaccines turn out to cause major illnesses later in life, and she was ambivalent about it herself, but she got one. I'm not in a priority group, so I'm really not supposed to be getting it yet, but I guess she has some discretion in the matter. What really decided me? I didn't want to miss any workouts from the flu!
 
morningstar said:
So, I finally had my physical today and had a look at my actual blood test results. My hemoglobin was within the normal range, but at the very low end. My iron was really really low. My B12 was great. My doctor has me doing a retest in a couple of months, but until then wants me to stay on the triple iron dose. I asked her why this might be happening, given that I already take an iron supplement, and she said it might be related to my period or I was just having a hard time absorbing iron. Neither were very satisfying answers, but I really like my doctor, so I'm trusting her. She gives me an hour for a physical, gives me straight answers and I don't absolutely m-f hate the pelvic exam when she does it.
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You may be inadvertently blocking absorption of iron through dietary choices. Copied from the attached link:

Inhibitors of nonheme iron absorption​

  • Phytic acid (phytate): Phytic acid is present in legumes, grains, and rice and inhibits nonheme iron absorption, probably by binding to it. Small amounts of phytic acid (5 to 10 mg) can reduce nonheme iron absorption by 50%. The absorption of iron from legumes, such as soybeans, black beans, lentils, mung beans, and split peas, has been shown to be as low as 2% (7, 17).
  • Polyphenols: Polyphenols, found in some fruits, vegetables, coffee, tea, wines, and spices, can markedly inhibit the absorption of nonheme iron. This effect is reduced by the presence of vitamin C (7, 17).
  • Soy protein: Soy protein, such as that found in tofu, has an inhibitory effect on iron absorption that is independent of its phytic acid content (17).

When I was severely deficient I really had to watch when I drank tea and coffee. Here's the link that I've saved on iron - http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/minerals/iron/index.html
 
So I've been on the higher iron supplements for a few months now, taking ferrous gluconate three times a day. The dizziness and light-headedness has subsided as have the low energy levels. I was reading in Runner's World that you can lose iron through sweat, so that might be the cause of my low iron levels, even though I was taking a supplement. I sweat a lot! I work out pretty intensely at least 5-6 days a week, sometimes more. I'm definitely feeling better.
 
Well, this is an unexpected turn of events:

I had a sleep test done on February 11th. The sleep doctor told me today that he thinks I am iron and/or ferritin and/or B12 deficient, which is causing a milder case of restless legs syndrome. I also have a lot of Alpha wave arousals - basically, I don't sleep very deeply and I wake up a lot, exacerbated by the legs thing. He sent me for blood work. I think it's weird that low iron showed up again in February, when by that time I had been on the triple iron pills for more than 4 months. I dunno - maybe I do need to start choking down some cow or something. He says I have sleep maintenance insomnia. I was not expecting that iron deficiency would show up in this way. Does anyone have any experience with that?
 
morningstar said:
This is why I ask for help from my fellow Catheites! Thank you all for the different perspectives on my issue, your personal experiences and the tons of information. I feel like I have more of the tools I need now when going in to speak to my doctor - that I have a better idea of what questions to ask and what I need to find out. I really appreciate that all of you took the time to respond and help me out.
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I agree! This has been great! I learned a lot and I am going to ask my doctor for the test next time I am there!! See, your question helped someone else! Thanks.
 
You can lose several mg of iron through sweating and if you do this several times a week you can understand why its a constant battle for some women athletes. Ferrous fumarate form of iron is absorbed nearly twice as well as ferrous gluconate (but gluconate is easier on the stomach).

Hopefully they did a Ferritin test on you to figure out what your stores are. Since hemoglobin carries oxygen in red blood cells, if you are low then oxygen delivery to every part of your body is low (including all organs of course) which can translate into a bad night of sleep. I wonder if that can be a partial cause for your sleep disturbance. When I was iron-deficient, I used to wake up a lot at night, and after a long day riding and sweating, I'd have the worst charley horse cramps several hours after I went to sleep. (I solved that by always taking mag/cal/d after a long ride.) And...red blood cells live about 120 days, so it could take over 4 months before you start to feel better.
 
DirtDiva said:
You can lose several mg of iron through sweating and if you do this several times a week you can understand why its a constant battle for some women athletes. Ferrous fumarate form of iron is absorbed nearly twice as well as ferrous gluconate (but gluconate is easier on the stomach).

Hopefully they did a Ferritin test on you to figure out what your stores are. Since hemoglobin carries oxygen in red blood cells, if you are low then oxygen delivery to every part of your body is low (including all organs of course) which can translate into a bad night of sleep. I wonder if that can be a partial cause for your sleep disturbance. When I was iron-deficient, I used to wake up a lot at night, and after a long day riding and sweating, I'd have the worst charley horse cramps several hours after I went to sleep. (I solved that by always taking mag/cal/d after a long ride.) And...red blood cells live about 120 days, so it could take over 4 months before you start to feel better.
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Thanks DD! That is really helpful to know. I'm anxiously waiting the blood test results now, so I can know how to move forward.
 
This is really frustrating. I am on triple iron pills everyday for the last six months and I just got my tests back and my iron is still low, dammit! I want to know why this is happening - what is causing this?
 
When my father's iron was low he had a colonoscopy and upper endoscopy to check for bleeding. They should also check the levels of iron in your liver and not just your blood. It's called a serum ferritin test. Good luck! This sounds very frustrating.
 
A friend of mine has the disorder where your body has too much iron (Hemochromatosis) but just this past year, his blood level tests were coming back normal and then over Christmas, he was hospitalized because his iron became dangerously low. Turned out he had a hemmorroid that was bleeding - it wasn't a lot of bleeding either - just gradually affected him over time.
 
Morningstar - I'm sure you know this, but calcium is known to inhibit iron absorption. So make sure you aren't eating anything high in calcium when you take your iron pills. Taking iron with say a glass of milk would be pretty useless. There was one study that even suggested that too much calcium in your diet could lead to anemia. Not sure what I think of that. Anyways, also make sure you are always taking a VC along with your iron because that is supposed to help it absorb. I'm anemic right now too so I'm trying to get my numbers up too.
 
So I went to the pharmacist and she gave me ferrous sulfate to try instead; she said it was twice as strong and to take it on an empty stomach. So I'll give this a go three times a day. But this is just patching the dam - I want to know why this is happening!

Ps, yep, Liann, I do take my calcium separately! Thanks for the idea, just in case I wasn't!
 
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