Chronic Low Iron in Women

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brongfogboy

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I'd like to discuss low Iron levels in females. I know someone who has low energy unless she supplements with Iron every day. Blood tests show her Iron is low unless she supplements with it. It's my opinion that the classic "menstrual cycles cause low iron in women" doesn't make sense. There are millions of women who have menstrual cycles and feel fine without Iron. There is some type of pathological or genetic problem that causes this and I believe it can be resolved by treating some underlying problem or supplementing a deficiency.

Any ideas?
 
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Shelly

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I agree that menstrual cycles aren't a good enough reason for low iron. I was on a site where this was gone into with lot's of studies. Copper dysregulation can cause low iron in women and also Chronic disease can cause it too. There is an anemia with chronic disease that sends iron into the tissues and so not bioavailable also in this anemia giving iron makes the situation worse. In the case of copper dysregulation either there is low copper or there is unbioavailable copper so that you can be both copper toxic and deficient at the same time.
 
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brongfogboy

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Shelly said:
I agree that menstrual cycles aren't a good enough reason for low iron. I was on a site where this was gone into with lot's of studies. Copper dysregulation can cause low iron in women and also Chronic disease can cause it too. There is an anemia with chronic disease that sends iron into the tissues and so not bioavailable also in this anemia giving iron makes the situation worse. In the case of copper dysregulation either there is low copper or there is unbioavailable copper so that you can be both copper toxic and deficient at the same time.
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Thanks for the response. I think if either of these are true in her case it would be the second one. She definitely feels better while on Iron, no question about it. I wonder if there is a reliable way to test copper dysregulation. She was on copper for some time at my suggestion and it didn't seem to help but I am going to try and other things like histidine which I believe helps copper utilization. I have also considered lactoferrin and others but haven't come across anything that I am super confident in. If you have any other opinions/suggestions I'm listening
 
Helen

Helen

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@brongfogboy

Low ferritin will be in hypothyrodism. Since iron is what converts progesterone into cortisol. and if you are hypothyroid you dont need this iron . And it does kill all other hormones, including estrogen since LH is downregulated.

usually if iron is low like this means free copper is high. bind free copper and iron will go up since thyroid will go up.

Usually it is a problem with methylation. like lack of protein or even methionine. or lack of lysine and vitamin C and histidine.

Some women get their iron levels up very fast by binding free copper with lysine and C. This raises ACTH and increases ferritin.

I would try that first, and then may be add some histidine and methionine

Here is the example of this working Holy moly!!!!! Ferritin skyrocketed!!!

Also there is a possibility of vitamin A and vitamin b2 deficiencies.

So lysine C , vitamin b2 , vitamin A, methionine, histidine. You will find your answer here.
 
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Shelly

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@gbolduev Thanks for clarifying, I knew vit C was important for copper but had forgotten all the cofactors. Will go with the lysine and Vit C as I have them available. My ferritin is 30 and I have female pattern hair loss.
 
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brongfogboy

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Thanks for the information. I'm going to start her on 500mg lysine, 3grams vitc daily and will have her do blood tests every month or so. Her hair is thinning a bit so I will use her bloodwork and hair shed as variables to see if she improves and will let you know what I find. If this doesn't work I'm going to play around with the other supplements and see if I can get it working.
 
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Vida

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brongfogboy said:
I've resolved her issue. I had her discontinue vitamin D3 supplementation (lowers ceruloplasmin) and her issues have resolved, she no longer needs iron supplementation except during her mensturation.
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Thats great to hear! Was that it, only quitting the D3? I am chronic low in iron but dont wanna supplement it.
 
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brongfogboy

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Vida said:
Thats great to hear! Was that it, only quitting the D3? I am chronic low in iron but dont wanna supplement it.
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That's all it was for her. I am staying in touch because maybe the issue comes back and reveals it was not the D3, but stopping D3 has resolved her issue. She said it has never been this good.
 
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Vida

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brongfogboy said:
That's all it was for her. I am staying in touch because maybe the issue comes back and reveals it was not the D3, but stopping D3 has resolved her issue. She said it has never been this good.
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Btw @brongfogboy did you have her start the vitamin c + lysine as stated above? If so, did it have any effect at all?
 
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brongfogboy

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Vida said:
Btw @brongfogboy did you have her start the vitamin c + lysine as stated above? If so, did it have any effect at all?
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I'm sorry for such a delayed response.

Yes I did have her do the vitamin c + lysine for around 20 days so it definitely could have been that. after 20 days I instead put her on whey protein and an enzyme to help digest/break it down so she can get all amino acids.

I spoke with her just this week to ask her how she is doing, she said her foot has fallen asleep only once since we started this (her foot falling asleep always indicated low Iron for her since she didn't want to keep doing blood tests). She said she ran three miles two days ago and no foot falling asleep (has always fallen asleep around 1.5 miles).

If you are struggling with Iron issues I would start off removing d3 if you take it as well as take vitamin c and lysine (and consider everything Helen said in her post up above) and if that doesn't work maybe add a whey protein and enzyme to break it down. If still not working then please let us know if you ever figure yours out.

I will keep this updated to see if her hair grows back where it is a bit thin.
 
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