Other ways or bringing up Iron

I've had good luck with blackstrap molasses, 1 TBSP 20% of our daily requirement. I added it to almost everything for a couple of months along with wheatgrass powder and lots of spinach. I have never needed infusions for iron deficiency, although I was pretty close to needing it after my oldest son was born and again after flare up in 2015. I'm sure others will have some advice as well.

Thank you!

If your ferritin is very low it's next to impossible to get it back to normal through oral iron. The body absorbs maybe 5% of what you get orally and if you try to force more than that it stops absorbing completely for up to 48 hours. My hemotologist told me this. When my hemoglobin is dropping and I have low ferritin the only thing that works is iron IV. My bowels are so trashed I don't absorb iron very well anymore. If I take an iron supplement I flare 100% of the time and I think it has to do with bad gut bacteria being fed iron.

To put this in perspective, two years ago I had a ferritin of 3 and my hemoglobin was below normal. This was before I knew about iron IVs. I ate oysters and clams every single day, which are said to have 150% your daily iron in one can. I also ate dark greens, black strap molasses, nettle leaf tea. After two months of doing this, my ferritin went up to 5 and my hemoglobin was still below normal. And this was sitting around doing nothing. Once I started going to the gym again I got severely anemic and needed not only iron IV but blood transfusion.

You need to consume your daily iron plus extra for storage and that's really hard especially with IBD where we don't absorb iron properly.

If your hemoglobin is normal still, you can afford to wait a bit to get an IV. Low iron feels crappy no matter what but at least if hemoglobin is normal you aren't an emergency case.

Tough choices, do keep your gasteroenterologist informed and discuss with him/her and come up with a plan. I'm no expert in anemia. And Corvid19 does complicate things for sure.

Been dealing with low iron for a long time. I was offered infusions in December and I decided to start taking feramax 150 daily. Usually I get my levels up with pills, and then as soon as I’m within “normal” range, I take supplements less. I decided back in December to have a lofty goal of 100 for ferritin levels. It usually takes three months to get levels up to low normal if I take iron pills every day. I’m trying to be aggressive until I hit a ferritin level of 100 (I started at 6). Lately I’ve also been eating eggs and meat, I used to have a plant based diet. I eat liver and onions, orange juice with iron pills, and lentils, green veggies etc. It’s the iron pills that do the job, food can’t compete with three times the RDA !

I also have a theory: sufficient iron might help my gut heal, I know for sure that it makes my hair grow and nails stronger and grow faster, perhaps it also effects other parts of my body. Thank you for posting this, it was a good reminder for me as I can easily forget and get lazy. It’s so insidious.