This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

I had blood tests last week and my iron is low. No surpise since I've been an ice cruncher since the 80's. (pica) I bought iron last night, but am afraid to take it. I searched iron/ bacteria or iron/virus and found that virus and bacteria need iron to replicate. A chronic infection could cause the iron stores to be low. Adding iron could actually help virus or bacteria to make more. I know you take iron supplements and thought I'd ask for your input. I seem to be in a "virus/ bacteria as a factor" frame of mind, so can you help me here? Would taking chelated iron be different?
For any help you or anyone else can give me, I thank you.
Terry

hey there, well low iron, that would at least in part explain the tiredness, yes? hmm, i would check out the forum links below and then weigh your options.

personally, i think iron would at very least make a big change to
your level of fatigue, not to mention working with the b-vitamins to
build myelin, and with your immune system to FIGHT infection (i make these comments based on the links at the end of this post)

i believe, if you are low in iron, your body's starved metabolic processes
will be snapping it up like sponges for a long time before you
have to worry about excesses boosting bacterial or viral overgrowth!

for a supplement, i think you'd be fine with your old standby, ferrous sulfate. you could consider finding something blended with a couple of the other types, perhaps (ferrous fumarate, ferrous glucomate). i'd personally be more worried about chelating if i was taking a maintenance iron supplement, not if i'm boosting myself from deficiency to somewhere in the normal range.

i don't recall exactly but i think to kick me out of my original iron
basement (one of my recent numbers was 41; normal range 41-300)
i had to take something like 300mg per day for a while, plain
old ferrous sulfate, little red pills.

consider taking C, A, and B-complex at the same time as your iron supplement.

http://www.thisisms.com/ftopicp-19748.html#19748

http://www.thisisms.com/ftopicp-15423.html#15423

so why do you think your iron is low? any of the usual suspects apply in your case? sorry, but what's ice cruncher?

i hope i answered your question all right, if you want me to dig any further just say good luck recovering from the fatigue, it's such a drag.

(i think i have the same problem right now - my current iron supplement is a DISGUSTING liquid, so i haven't taken it in ages, and i haven't been to the shops to replace it in months!)

Jimmylegs, thank you for the info. I know you have researched all the nutrition issues and I appreciate you sharing your knowledge with me.

My iron was 28.
Binding capacity was good- midrange.
% saturation (?) was 8- report says it should be 15-50.
RDW was a little high 15.8. Report says that should be 11-15.

Thanks for remembering that I have been tired. I am feeling much better, though. One afternoon it was as though the clouds parted (brain clouds?) and by the next morning I felt great. I am getting caught up at work, and I'm hoping that it will be a long long time before I feel that bad again. As quickly as all that cleared, I'm wondering if it had been an exacerbation of some kind. It had been quite some time that I struggled to get my work done, and it has now been easy to catch up- the difference- like night and day.

I bought chelated iron (why?? I don't know) and it is only 25mg. I'll get back to the store to correct that. It makes sense to take the iron, but there is this nagging fear that I might do something to make all this worse, and I don't want to do that! Isn't there a saying about a little information being a dangerous thing? That is where I am. I know only enough to be stupid! SO, I'll keep reading and hopefully one day all this will come together and make sense to me.

Thank you again.
Terry

Oh, also, by "ice cruncher" I meant just that. I eat ice. I have been told that is a sign of low iron, but I have been doing that on and off since the 80's. Sometimes I only add a beverage to my glass of ice to make it softer to chew. My mother says I sound like a "horse chewing corn" from across the room, so I have to be careful in public. A closet ice eater, I guess.

As a member of AARDA (www.aarda.org), I recently received their quarterly publication, InFocus. It discusses several autoimune diseases, including celiac disease, also called celiac sprue. It is marked by gluten sensitivity; gluten, a protein, is thought to cause the destruction of the hair-like vili which line the small intestine and allow nutrients to be absorbed into the bloodstream.

The article states,

Since people with one autoimmune disease frequently develop a second or third, it would seem possible that we could develop even a mild case of celiac disease with MS. A diet strictly free of gluten (wheat, rye, barley, and possibly oats) may allow healing of the vili. The article states,

By the way, for those of the "hormone persuasion," the article also states

Just adding more info--it may be relevant, or not.

hey no probs terry, i appreciate your sharing too! and now i know what an ice cruncher is GREAT that the tiredness backed off on you. by the way when you get into the high dose iron, be prepared, there will be some changes um... in the poop. sorry

tanks for the added info LC. this reminds me, terry you never did say if you know why your iron is low? if you don't want to say, no biggie we still love you hehehe

I don't know why. I don't know the causes except for blood loss and now I know the hair follicle issue. I am a 47 yr old female, so loss of blood is a possibility. I do have alopecia areata ( since the 80's), so loss of hair follicles somewhere besides my head is a possibility also. What are the other "usual suspects"?

blood loss, yes that was the main thing i was thinking of to start with. either the usual girl thing, or ulcers, etc.

also there is the type and amount of iron in your diet, and the absorption once it's inside.

if you get plenty of heme (animal) iron, that's a good start. i was a strict veggie for so long that all my iron intake was non-heme, which is harder to absorb and therefore i was making the situation more difficult, and ended up deficient in spite of all my spinach and kidney beans. now i'm all about the heme iron

absorption can be affected by a number of things, first the iron type as i just said, and also things like lots of coffee, or aspirin, can interfere. a problem with the bowel can also be a possibility but before you worry about that kind of thing, i'd just try a regular hefty supplement for a while and see if that sorts you out.

i don't think i realized that alopecia and iron deficiency were linked before! i will have to relay to other people on here who have the hair loss issue. thanks!

Jimmylegs and Lyndacarol-

I searched alopecia iron deficiency and there is info like crazy! How did I not know this?

I also found this-



Okay...maybe THAT is why I didn't know.

lolol! i know i went after nutrition and alopecia once before and never came across iron until i specifically searched for iron and alopecia together, thanks to your comment. go TEAM!

I have 2 bald areas on my head right now but they have been filling in lately. Not unusual- kind of the same ebb and flow as the ms. If, though, after 20 years of this, I start taking iron supplements and they don't come back- well, that will be a no brainer to me. I'll let you know.
Thank you Jimmylegs. You have been a bright spot in my day.
Terry

http://junior.apk.net/~rnr/research.html#telltale

What about this? Iron/MS

wow, interesting. every day i learn more and i know i forget half of it and constantly have to re-learn things. one of these days i'm seriously going to have to put a proper file together with all this nutrition info.

I'm not sure at all about the credibility of that site, but the article was interesting.

it's certainly not the most pro looking site, but it does list the researchers' publications, i picked one and it checks out. strange. i read a little more of it today. i have the acute abdominal pain they talk about, have not yet figured out why it strikes. it's been on and off for say the past year maybe? half a year?