Has anyone ever had a bad flare that they think was caused by oral Iron Supplements?

If anything from that caused the flare, it would have been the aspirin and Advil! I will take ibuprofen occasionally but not "copious" amounts of it and never for longer than 2 days running if I can help it. Very bad stuff for the gut, even for healthy people, and can cause stomach ulcers and gastrointestinal bleeding.

Oral iron is notoriously difficult to tolerate and I've certainly had it cause severe temporary flare-ups. However, they've always gone a day or two after stopping the iron.

I went into a flare with a partcial bowel obstruction when I started oral iron.

Try Tylenol next time, because Advil is a no-no for Crohn's. Advice from the Mayo Clinic:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/crohns-disease/ds00104/dsection=treatments-and-drugs

"Pain relievers. For mild pain, your doctor may recommend acetaminophen (Tylenol, others). Avoid nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, others) or naproxen (Aleve). These are likely to make your symptoms worse."

Thanks, everyone, for the input and advice. It sounds like both the Advil AND the high dose oral iron could have caused my current problem... certainly both together made it even worse. No more Advil for me, that's for sure! Unfortunately, Tylenol is useless against a migraine. I have a prescription for Frova (triptan migraine med) but never take it because I am afraid of it.

On a side note to RiderFan: I see you are taking Proferrin. How is it working for you?

That's what I'm trying to figure out... it's a very confusing issue.

I know some people get iron infusions (IV) or shots, but these are expensive and carry the risk of severe allergic reaction. We could increase our dietary iron by eating more red meats, but this can also be a problem for some people:

http://gut.bmj.com/content/53/10/1399.extract

Part of the problem is we don't know if we are iron deficient because of blood loss from our Crohn's, or because of decreased absorption of iron because of our Crohn's, or a combination of both. If we're not absorbing iron because of cellular damage in our bowel, taking oral iron won't even help.

I found a study that showed that taking Vitamin E with oral iron can help reduce the damage caused by the iron (in a rat model, no human studies yet that I know of):

http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/reprint/132/10/3146.pdf

I don't think there is an easy answer. I am going to talk to my doctor about Proferrin (an iron supplement that contains only heme-iron, like the type in red meat, which is more easily absorbed) or the iron infusions.

http://www.proferrin.com/index.php

Also, I've read that men should never take an iron supplement unless their iron levels and ferritin levels have been checked and they are proven to have iron deficiciency anemia. Your blood count (hematocrit? hemoglobin?) might be low for another reason, such as Vitamin B12 or folic acid deficiency. Too much iron in the body is dangerous, too.

I just feel like every time I have a health issue, the doctor is quick to have me take something (a drug, a supplement) that just creates a whole new problem for me. If I hadn't taken the oral iron supplements that my doctor told me to take, I'd probably be fine right now. Very frustrating.

BTW mtgman - Ugh, a kidney stone. I hope you're feeling better. Hang in there.