Iron

"Give me liberty, or give me death!" -- Patrick Henry

I'm not sure who looks more smarmy in this photo;
me, or the Power Ranger.

A week ago, I had our laundry completely under control. One stomach virus later, and I'm fishing uniforms out of the dirty laundry to send my kids to school in. Something tells me it's going to take more than a week to get things back in order. [sigh]

I went and had a physical done last week, so that we could get an insurance discount. Everything looked great, except that I'm "significantly anemic". Well, la dee da. I'm also significantly sarcastic and significantly stubborn.

(Something about that use of significantly is annoying to me. Could just be the long day talking...)

My first thought was that the anemia, which has never been present before, was the result of my (mostly) vegan diet. It turns out, however, that vegans and vegetarians are no more likely to develop anemia than meat-eaters.

The doctor advised that I take 325 mg of ferrous sulfate, twice daily, for one month and then have my iron levels checked again. I looked for the iron supplements when I went to Whole Foods and the only one that said it contained ferrous sulfate came in 5 mg doses.

All the other forms of iron were in the 5 mg-ish range as well, so something about this didn't seem right. I get the brilliant idea that the doctor must have meant 325 micrograms and I sent her a message, asking if that was the case.

Nope, 325 milligrams is what she meant. That seemed hinky to me, so I did a quick internet search. There I found information that really made me nervous (iron toxicity, etc.), so I turned to our family naturopath.

Now, I would have turned to her first, except that I haven't seen her as a patient myself yet. Lila has seen her a few times and Eli will be seeing her in a couple of weeks. Since we have developed some relationship, I asked if she'd give me her advice.

She said, "The dosage the doctor told you was the typical recommended dosage from medical doctors for short term replenishing of iron. However, that type of iron can be constipating and yes, it is a high dosage and can lead to serious problems if you take more than is needed.

I would recommend taking a product called Floradix. It contains ferrous gluconate in a natural complex that's highly absorbable. It's lower in concentration, far safer and just takes a little longer to bring up the levels. Since you're not at a critically low level, I think it would work for you and you would still recheck in one month to make sure that your iron levels are rising. You could even take a double dosage of the Floradix and still be safe but raise the levels a little faster."

Since I prefer not to be constipated, or dead, I think I'll go with this advice. Plus, I just trust this doctor more than any medical doctor. And I will try very hard not to get a perverse pleasure out of telling the first doctor that I will not be doing what she wants me to do.

Now, is there a supplement that can help me with that significant sarcasm and significant stubbornness...?