Could having Iron defficient Anemia cause this?

[meanbee]

I was wondering if anybody here has heard of any connection to being anemic (iron only) and having M.S. like symptoms? After reading numerous posts, I now understand how important nutrition is. There is so much helpful info here!
I am trying to get more testing but my G.P. office isn't being so cooperative and forget the neurologist. He won't help me at all. I can't get in to see the a new neurologist until later in June. In the meantime, I am trying to see another doctor to see if he will help me investigate into Gluten sensitivity, insulin and double check my b12 situation. (My level is at 530 and I started taking sublingual pills but have not felt any difference yet)
My symptoms seem to be getting worse. I have had this parathesia over my whole body for almost two weeks straight now. I get pin/needles, burning, shooting pains, stinging, tingling and buzzing/vibration types of sensations in random places literally all over my body face to toes. My eyes hurt when I look up and a few other eye issues. I have been getting back pains and now muscle aches for several days now too. I have Brain fog off and on since this started and have been very very tired. Yesterday I had to limp most places. Today my legs felt very heavy and I could hardly walk.
The M.R.I. that I had in Dec. was for unrelated symptoms but it did come back abnormal. The neuro couldn't tell me what caused the abnormalities in the white matter and to take gabentetin and get follow up MRI later on. After seeing him with these symptoms he said that he can't tell me it's M.S. or not. For now, he chalked it up to Migraines (which I have never had a migraine problem before and that does not explain this ongoing neurolgical problems.)
My question is, has anybody ever heard of a connection between iron and these symptoms. I have been anemic off and on since I was a child and have never experienced symptoms like these before when diagnosed as anemic.
My blood was tested on May 9th initially and then again on May 16th. I started iron as soon as I found out but my iron still dropped almost a gram in about a week. They say that all other blood tests OK.
I might be grasping at straws here. I was just hoping to find a lot of supporting evidence of a direct connection.
Thanks in Advance for any input,
Jennifer

[jimmylegs]

ms patients have a variety of essential nutrient issues. the oldest best known one is b12, but your level looks fine.

taking iron pills drives down zinc levels. zinc is an absolutely key nutrient of concern for ms patients. serum levels should be high normal to match healthy controls. zinc is directly and indirectly involved in hundreds and thousands of body processes.

couldn't hurt to assess serum magnesium as well. it is low in most people but particularly bad in ms patients. among its hundreds of functions, magnesium directly influences your body's ability to make and/or use vitamin d3. serum level needs to be high normal.

low zinc can lead to gluten sensitivity. i used to be sensitive to gluten but that issue has resolved since identifying and correcting zinc deficiency. limiting gluten can help you retain some of the nutrients obtained from other foods, but it doesn't automatically make a nutrient poor diet a nutrient dense healthy one.

also, low magnesium is linked to poor insulin sensitivity.

essential macro and micro nutrients are the fundamental ingredients of every process in the human body. it can only do you good to make sure your levels are optimized

if you want to improve iron status without interfering with zinc levels, dietary iron and zinc together would be your best bet. how do you feel about shellfish? oysters and clams would be high potency options. oysters have lots of zinc and some iron, clams have lots of iron.

also: http://www.thisisms.com/forum/undiagnos ... ml#p225302

the upper limit for long term daily zinc intake is 40mg. recommendations for ms patients are on the order of 25-50mg per day. you can do up to 100mg per day (in divided doses to prevent nausea) to address deficiency.
getting zinc from food is safer in the long term than using supplements (which must be balanced with copper to prevent copper depletion).
pretty much the best source of dietary zinc is oysters. other healthy sources, with mgs per serving:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tnam ... #foodchart

with magnesium, for maintenance you want about 400mg per day. to build up poor stores, go for more like 600mg per day. most people don't get anywhere near enough daily magnesium, and ms patients are even worse off.
healthy dietary mag sources including mgs per serving are listed here:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tnam ... #foodchart

tracking your current intake against those daily targets should give you a pretty good idea of whether you could expect to be deficient or not. other factors besides pure intake that might interfere with status are high consumption of things like wheat gluten, phytates, caffeine, sugar, alcohol, as well as high levels of physical activity and sweating.

more info on ms nutrition in general here:
http://www.thisisms.com/forum/regimens- ... c2489.html

[lyndacarol]

I was wondering if anybody here has heard of any connection to being anemic (iron only) and having M.S. like symptoms? After reading numerous posts, I now understand how important nutrition is. There is so much helpful info here!
I am trying to get more testing but my G.P. office isn't being so cooperative and forget the neurologist. He won't help me at all. I can't get in to see the a new neurologist until later in June. In the meantime, I am trying to see another doctor to see if he will help me investigate into Gluten sensitivity, insulin and double check my b12 situation. (My level is at 530 and I started taking sublingual pills but have not felt any difference yet)
My symptoms seem to be getting worse. I have had this parathesia over my whole body for almost two weeks straight now. I get pin/needles, burning, shooting pains, stinging, tingling and buzzing/vibration types of sensations in random places literally all over my body face to toes. My eyes hurt when I look up and a few other eye issues. I have been getting back pains and now muscle aches for several days now too. I have Brain fog off and on since this started and have been very very tired. Yesterday I had to limp most places. Today my legs felt very heavy and I could hardly walk.
The M.R.I. that I had in Dec. was for unrelated symptoms but it did come back abnormal. The neuro couldn't tell me what caused the abnormalities in the white matter and to take gabentetin and get follow up MRI later on. After seeing him with these symptoms he said that he can't tell me it's M.S. or not. For now, he chalked it up to Migraines (which I have never had a migraine problem before and that does not explain this ongoing neurolgical problems.)
My question is, has anybody ever heard of a connection between iron and these symptoms. I have been anemic off and on since I was a child and have never experienced symptoms like these before when diagnosed as anemic.
My blood was tested on May 9th initially and then again on May 16th. I started iron as soon as I found out but my iron still dropped almost a gram in about a week. They say that all other blood tests OK.
I might be grasping at straws here. I was just hoping to find a lot of supporting evidence of a direct connection.

Extreme B12 deficiency leads to pernicious (dangerous) anemia.
Since you have begun to take sublingual B12 supplements, your blood tests for B12 will appear to be quite normal (the B12 supplements will mask a deficiency in the blood). Your deficiency may be in the tissues – in the cells themselves.

If you have had a complete blood count (CBC), is the measurement of MCV close to 100 (or even over 100)? This number indicates the cell size; large cells can be a sign of anemia and possible B12 involvement.

[meanbee]

jimmylegs and lyndacarol, thank you so much for your input.

My B12 was checked before I started taking the b12 supplement. I just started them the other day but have not felt any difference yet. I know that my level was in the normal range but I thought that I would take it just to see what happens. I so wanted my symptoms to be due to an easy fix Also, I just started taking the iron last week after I found out that I was anemic. I don't know what my zinc levels were before I started taking it as they didn't check for it (do they even test for it?) Also, I do already take a Magnesium supplement (Magnesium Citrate in pill form-it does not affect my adversely like regular Magnesium would) The tests never showed that I was low on Mag but an internist once told me that the test didn't matter and that most are low and to try it for some other symptoms I was having at the time.

The MCV was low at 72. I was told that since they are small that I couldn't be low on b12 when I tried to get additional b12 testing. I was really convinced that might have been a factor that's why I was taking b12 on my own despite the normal levels.

My latest blood tests from the other day I assume are consistent with iron def. anemia I have Low Hgb, Hct Mcv, Mch and Mchc. My Rdw is H. The other thing that I noticed was that my Imm Gran was high (.6%) I was trying to check into that and kept coming up with some scary stuff. One thing mentioned with higher than normal levels is Bone Morrow. Also, I noticed on my MRI that it states "Perhaps some marrow heterogeneity of questionable clinical significance" What does that mean? I had an aunt die from Bone Marrow cancer and another one from Blood cancer. Since I am anemic do I have anything to worry about?

As for the shellfish, I really don't eat any. Other than the fact that I personally don't like any seafood (not even shrimp!) My husband does have some allergies to some types. Are there any other foods that would work?

I am still feeling horrible and seem to be getting worse each day. I am having to cancel our big family vacation because of this. I am going to break my kiddos hearts

Thanks again to both of you taking the time out to respond to me.
Jennifer

[jimmylegs]

hi again

technically, in some cases you can be deficient in b12 with normal MCV, but with your level above 500 i don't think it's the most likely smoking gun here.

they probably wouldn't have bothered to check your zinc status. if you go for a supplement, i've found zinc citrate effective. i use 50mg zinc balanced with 2mg copper. you have to have the copper in there because zinc drives copper down just the way iron supplements drive zinc down. you do need sufficient zinc status in order to absorb iron too. my iron status is much better since optimizing zinc.

the internist is right about the magnesium test result - the serum level needs to be at least 0.95 mmol/L (2.3mg/dL). at some labs i've seen, the range goes down to as low as 0.65 mmol/L, which is awful. so for intake, do you think you are getting at least 400mg of magnesium daily from food plus the mag citrate supplement? also, consider switching to magnesium glycinate for better absorption in future.

low hgb is consistent with low iron, yes.

the post i shared above includes links to a list of zinc rich foods(click through to get to unbroken links - have to look into why they are broken above) . the list does not include venison, which is twice as rich in both zinc and iron per serving, than beef. you can also top up with supplements, but just do something like zinc in the morning and iron at lunch or dinner. to optimize iron absorption from diet, be sure to combine with vitamin c. i often eat spinach and red pepper together with eggs at breakfast.

re seafood - would you consider a fish oil supplement? you might have problematic omega 3 status if you don't eat any fish.

here are a couple options for kids. whenever i hear about one of my nephews being sick, it turns out they either ran out, or switched to a lower zinc product.
http://www.nordicnaturals.com/en/Produc ... rodID=1411
http://www.nordicnaturals.com/en/Produc ... rodID=1438

[jimmylegs]

ps zinc deficiency impacts on bone marrow:

Zinc Deficiency in Mice Alters Myelopoiesis and Hematopoiesis
http://jn.nutrition.org/content/132/11/3301.full