Re: Taking FERROUS FUMERATE 210MG- advice please?

[Guest guest]

Hi, you can get Ferrous Fumerate from any chemist without a prescription. I

normally get one that is called Fersamal I believe and it is 210mgs x 100 tabs

and costs a mere £2.60 odd. With a low ferritin you can start at 3 a day spread

out but, I did and didn't have any bowel problems and got my ferritin up fairly

quickly. If the chemist doesn't have them, they always seem to be running out of

them, then get them to order and they should be there the next day. All the best

Val

>

> Hi,

> Have started taking this today (my ferritin count is 14.00 ng/ml ) but i'm

confused- how many do i take a day(my doc did'nt say,and i did'nt think to

ask!)also if this gets my levels up and i satrt feeling better wont the doc just

then stop prescribing it to me? and my levels will come back down again? i've

tried finding somewhere to buy it online but i've only found low doses of it....

>

> by the way i have all the symtoms BADLY!! along with the hypo.

>

> thank-you so much,

> hayley (again) X

>

[Guest guest]

Hi HayleyI'm also taking ferrous fumerate prescribed by my GP. It's on repeat prescription. Yours could be too in which case you simply reorder it each time. It should say on your prescription how many more times you can order it. I wouldn't worry about your GP " pulling " it off repeat prescription at this stage.

Mine are 305mcg capsules and come with a leaflet which says to take 1 a day to prevent iron deficiency and 1 tablet twice a day for the treatment of iron deficiency. I'm doing the latter dose at present.

Yours look like they are a lower dose of capsule. Here is the patient information:http://www.cks.nhs.uk/anaemia_iron_deficiency/drugs_in_this_topic/scenario_iron_deficiency_anaemia_management/ferrous_fumarate_210mg_tablets

Where it says you can be prescribed either 1 once a day, 1 twice a day, or 1 three times a day, depending on the severity of the iron deficiency.I'm taking each dose with 1 g of vitamin C and it's important to take them 4 hours apart from any thyroid meds.

Lynne

[Guest guest]

Hi Hayley

is this any good?

It says it needs approval by their pharmacist but doesn't seem to be

prescription only

chris

http://www.chemistdirect.co.uk/galfer-capsule_1_14569.html

Galfer Capsules contains Ferrous Fumarate, which prevents low levels of iron and

replaces iron in the blood from anaemia. Galfer is used for the treatent and

prevention of iron deficiency.

Each capsule contains 305mg Ferrous Fumarate for the prevention and treatment of

iron deficiency.

Directions: Only suitable for adults and children over 12 years old. Prevention

- one capsule daily, or as recommended by a healthcare professional. Treatment -

one capsule twice daily, or as recommended by a healthcare professional.

This item requires approval by our pharmacist, so please allow time for this.

>

> Hi,

> Have started taking this today (my ferritin count is 14.00 ng/ml ) but i'm

confused- how many do i take a day(my doc did'nt say,and i did'nt think to

ask!)also if this gets my levels up and i satrt feeling better wont the doc just

then stop prescribing it to me? and my levels will come back down again? i've

tried finding somewhere to buy it online but i've only found low doses of it....

[Guest guest]

I bought ferrous fumarate, just like Val, from the chemist, very cheaply. In

fact, if you pay for prescriptions, it is cheaper just to buy it, at £2.60 a

bottle. Unfortunately, I couldn't tolerate it - I had terrible digestive and

bowel effects! I couldn't even manage half a tablet. So then I tried Floradix

Floravital, and I couldn't tolerate that, either - not even 1ml, which is a 20th

of the suggested daily dose.

Finally I tried Spatone sachets, and tolerated 1 sachet a day with difficulty at

first; I acclimatised after a couple of weeks and now I take 2 sachets a day

with minimal stomach upset. I'm also trying to eat more meat, including liver

and black pudding, and I bought a cast iron pan to cook with. Yes really - it's

supposed to add lots of iron to your food, and there was a study by the American

Dietary Association which proved the case - although I don't quite know how good

the bio-availability is. However, a long standing tradition in Italy is to put

iron nails into an apple for a few days and then eat the apple, for iron

supplementation, and we certainly can absorb 'inorganic' iron, so it all sounds

quite plausible to me.

[Guest guest]

Hi thereMy wife had a Ferritin level of 5 (Range 15-400) in August last year.The GP prescribed 210mcg Ferrous Fumerate 2 per day.My wife took them for 11 days and the effect became nasty.It was affecting the T4 (current dose 106mcg), as if it was not working fully.In a long process we have learned that it does not pay to shock the body with these huge doses.She is now at the point where a quarter of a tablet gives her a bad effect for 24 hours afterwards.This is after 5 weeks without iron.All of her blood tests for Iron have improved markedly, but not Ferritin which remains at 16 (15-400).We will see the GP next week to check if it is ok to carry on

taking Iron, as some results are at the top end.The best thing to happen recently is taking T4 at 2200 hours instead of before breakfast.This has made a dramatic improvement in sleep, both quality and duration, until you take iron !All the bestPeteD

[Guest guest]

With a ferritin level as low as yours, you should be taking

Ferrous Fumerate 210mgs three times daily. Take this with high doses of vitamin

C (3/4000mgs daily) to help with absorption.

Have you asked your GP to check your levels of iron, transferrin

saturation%, vitamin B12, vitamin D3, magnesium, folate, copper and zinc? Post

the results when you get these here on the forum with the reference range. it

is vital that all of these levels should be well within the reference range,

and quite often, they need to be right at the top of the range especially B12.

With such a low level of ferritin (this could be outside the

bottom of the reference range which you have not given us), your GP should

prescribe this for however long it takes to get your level where it should be,

i.e. around 90 to 130. You should be eating foods high in iron.

You can buy Ferrous Fumerate at any good health food store, or

Boots

Luv - Sheila

Have started taking this today (my ferritin count is 14.00 ng/ml ) but i'm

confused- how many do i take a day(my doc did'nt say,and i did'nt think to

ask!)also if this gets my levels up and i satrt feeling better wont the doc

just then stop prescribing it to me? and my levels will come back down again?

i've tried finding somewhere to buy it online but I've only found low doses of

it....

by the way i have all the symtoms BADLY!! along with the hypo.

No

virus found in this message.

Checked by AVG - www.avg.com

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[Guest guest]

Hi shelia and all,

Thank-you for your help.

Shelia ,I have asked two docs now for all the tests you listed and they both

said i dont need my iron checked and pointed to the test i had for ferritin

saying " that is your iron " ?? neither would they test my tranferrin saturation

%,copper or zinc as they said " we don't do those " .......

I had my magnesium done last week and it is- 0.76 mmol/l (0.70-1.00)-Do you

think this is low Shelia?

Also,the folate;I had my b12 serum folate done,is this the same?

Oh those damn doc's, Grrr!- heaven fobid they actually try to make things easy

for us.

Thank-you,

hayley x

>

> With a ferritin level as low as yours, you should be taking Ferrous Fumerate

> 210mgs three times daily. Take this with high doses of vitamin C (3/4000mgs

> daily) to help with absorption.

>

[Guest guest]

Then

obviously they are not aware of the association, or of the research/studies

that has been done to show of the connection between low iron/ferritin and low

thyroid. Copy just these few references below to show your doctor that he is

wrong, and ask him to produce scientific evidence to show that having low

levels of iron has NO association with low thyroid.

Perhaps

your GP needs to be reminded what he should have learnt in Medical School.

Iron

is needed to help form adequate numbers of normal red blood cells, which carry

oxygen throughout the body. Iron is a critical part of haemoglobin, the protein

in red blood cells that binds oxygen in the lungs and releases it as blood

travels to other parts of the body. Low iron levels can lead to anaemia, in

which the body does not have enough red blood cells. Other conditions can cause

too much iron to accumulate in your body. This can produce damage to several

organs, including the liver, heart, and pancreas.

Iron status is evaluated by several tests that are not always run together.

These include:

Serum iron - measures the level of iron in the liquid part of your blood.

Serum ferritin - reflects the amount of stored iron in your body; ferritin is

the main storage protein for iron inside of cells.

Transferrin is the protein that transports iron from the gut to the cells that

use it. Your body makes transferrin in relationship to your need for iron; when

iron stores are low, transferrin levels increase and vice versa.

So when your GP tells you that ferritin is the same as iron, he is wrong.

Is

it any wonder such doctors are incapable of giving us back our normal health

once more.

Low

iron/ferritin: Iron deficiency is shown to significantly reduce T4 to T3

conversion, increase reverse T3 levels, and block the thermogenic (metabolism

boosting) properties of thyroid hormone (1-4). Thus, iron deficiency, as

indicated by an iron saturation below 25 or a ferritin below 70, will result in

diminished intracellular T3 levels. Additionally, T4 should not be considered

adequate thyroid replacement if iron deficiency is present (1-4)).

1. Dillman E, Gale C, Green

W, et al. Hypothermia in iron deficiency due to altered triiodithyroidine

metabolism. Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology

1980;239(5):377-R381.

2. SM, PE,

Lukaski HC. In vitro hepatic thyroid hormone deiodination in iron-deficient

rats: effect of dietary fat. Life Sci 1993;53(8):603-9.

3. Zimmermann MB, Köhrle J.

The Impact of Iron and Selenium Deficiencies on Iodine and Thyroid Metabolism:

Biochemistry and Relevance to Public Health. Thyroid 2002;12(10): 867-78.

4. Beard J, tobin B, Green

W. Evidence for Thyroid Hormone Deficiency in Iron-Deficient Anemic Rats. J.

Nutr. 1989;119:772-778.

Low vitamin B12: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18655403

Low vitamin D3: http://www.eje-online.org/cgi/content/abstract/113/3/329

and http://www.goodhormonehealth.com/VitaminD.pdf

Low magnesium: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC292768/pdf/jcinvest00264-0105.pdf

Low folate: http://www.clinchem.org/cgi/content/full/47/9/1738

and http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/thy.1999.9.1163

Low  copper http://www.ithyroid.com/copper.htm

http://www.drlwilson.com/articles/copper_toxicity_syndrome.htm

http://www.ithyroid.com/copper.htm

http://www.rjpbcs.com/pdf/2011_2(2)/68.pdf

http://ajplegacy.physiology.org/content/171/3/652.extract

Low

zinc:http://www.istanbul.edu.tr/ffdbiyo/current4/07%20Iham%20AM%C4%B0R.pdf

and http://articles.webraydian.com/article1648-Role_of_Zinc_and_Copper_in_Effective_Thyroid_Function.html

Luv - Sheila

I had my magnesium done last week and it is- 0.76 mmol/l

(0.70-1.00)-Do you think this is low Shelia?

Also,the folate;I had my b12 serum folate done,is this the same?

Oh those damn doc's, Grrr!- heaven fobid they actually try to make things easy

for us.