I Think I Have A Severe Iron Deficiency… Supplements?
hello, I am 17 years old, a girl, and I live in Canada if that matters at all.
I have been wondering for a while if I may have an iron deficiency, and if so what I should do about it. I have pale skin, I get rings under my eyes all the time and I am always fatigued. I am also always cold… the thermostat in my house is set at 78 degrees and I am still wearing a winter jacket, wool socks and long fleese pants just to stay at a normalish temperature. Whenever I touch peoples hands, they always remark at how cold I am. I also have noticed that I am almost “shedding” my hair… not like in chunks or anything, but it does seem that I am loosing more than most people. I dont get a lot of iron in my diet or fruits and veggies because they are out of season. I dont get heavy periods like a lot of things I’ve ready about iron anemia say would cause it, infact I have extremely light periods. Do you think that I should take iron supplements? how about vitamin c? I read that vitamin c helps with the absorbtion of iron.. is that true? I am 150 pounds and 5′ 10”, how much shopuld I take? How fast will I notice a difference? how can I tell if I am taking too much or too little? I would rather not see a doctor about it because I think that the doctor doesn’t take me seriously because I am in there so often asking about things.
I know you’re not going to like this answer but you really do need to get bloods checked.
I’m currently under treatment for iron deficiency anaemia and in my case there’s an obvious cause - but even though they’ve prescribed the most tolerated oral iron supplement (ferrous fumarate) I’m still getting unpleasant gastric side effects. I really wouldn’t advise taking the level of iron that would be needed to correct a deficiency as severe as yours may be, when there are various other things that can cause the same outward symptoms.
Basically, if it is anaemia at all, it’s pretty severe, going by your symptoms. Mine was only picked up during other tests, rather than effecting me noticeably, and yet it’s supposedly quite severe, to the point that my doctor said that ordinary multivitamins with iron would make no difference (my new tablets contain 300mg iron (fumarate) whereas the combined multivitamins & iron I’d already purchased have 4mg!)
I have an iron deficiency too. You might want to go to a doctor to get blood work tested before you start taking any supplements. You don’t want to overload your body on something if you don’t really need it. My doctor just told me to take multivitamins and an iron tablet at least once a week. I’m eighteen by the way, hope this helped
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