Can't get ferritin up

Hi everyone, dose anyone have any suggestion on raising ferritin levels? I have been on ferrous sulfate twice daily for years and my levels won't budge, I also tried adding in beef liver pills and Thorne ferrasorb but they only slightly helped. My cycle is heavy due to uterine fibroids so I am looking into options for that. I have heard that sometimes low iron can be caused by infections like h. Pylori, ringworm or low stomach acid. Thank you for your help!

Girlie said...
“Babesia interferes with red blood cell function, giving rise to common symptoms of: night sweats, air hunger, shortness of breath, severe headaches and often anemia of chronic disease. Serologically, low hemoglobin, hematocit and/or red blood cell count, as well as low ferritin and transferrin, may accompany this disease.”
Babesia - Dr. Susan L. Marra, MS, ND, PLLC

agreed it could certainly be a co-infection - since lyme is presumably present and babesia certainly is a possible cause of low iron / ferritin - but in this case, the original poster gives an apparent cause.
i think this could be a good place to start based on trying to resolve the easier things first that support overall health - while continuing to look into other aspects of the path to full recovery

to the OP
many women in the western world run borderline iron/ferritin levels all of the time - around 10% of American women acc to this study https://www.aafp.org/afp/2007/0301/p671.html#:~:text=The%20prevalence%20of%20iron%20deficiency,a%20gastrointestinal%20cancer%20when%20evaluated.


if you don't eat much red meat, low iron is even more common as plant sources are known to be much harder to absorb than the Heam Iron from the animal sources.

the fact liver pills helped is a good indication
do you eat meat ?
and if so
have you considered eating more iron rich foods - such as liver a few times per week
base don your previous trials this should certainly help as you will be able to get more iron than from the tablets and it is likely a more easily digested form than freeze-dried and compacted liver

i think if it were me i would look into possible diagnosis and treatments for the root cause of the heavy bleeding, with someone knowledgeable in this area including hormone imbalances.

Thank you all so much for the replys! I was looking back at past test results and my ferritin has stayed low for over five years even on ferrous sulfate 325mg twice a day. There are times though when my iron goes high, up to 218 but my ferritin stayed at 8. On this past blood test my iron was 46 and my ferratin was 12. I do think that my fibroids contribue to blood loss but it seems like my ferratin would go up more than it has. Dose anyone know if switching the fourm of iron might help? I was looking into Solgar gentle iron which is 20mg of bisglycinate, should I replace the twice a day ferrous sulfate with two of those? Thanks again.

Post Edited (CalmLittleBuddha) : 9/16/2020 9:59:05 AM (GMT-6)

I was going to mention using cast iron cookware also. The Lucky Iron Fish can also be added to cookware if you don't like cooking with cast iron pots and pans. I'm not sure if this would help, since supplementation isn't helping you, but it's a fairly easy thing to try if you cook.

Make sure that you ingest vitamin C along with iron-rich foods or supplements, and that you do not ingest any calcium alongside iron-rich foods or supplements. You've probably found those tips in your research, but i wanted to mention them anyway, since iron absorption can be so tricky. Personally I prefer to supplement chelated minerals, so that the body is more likely to recognize them as food.

I also wonder if perhaps your ferritin is just going to be low if you have certain infections, e.g. Babesia. If your issues stemmed from blood loss, then wouldn't your hemoglobin and other measures of iron be low as well?

I also have Babesia and menstruate heavily, but my iron and other blood work is always normal or even borderline high, except for consistently low ferritin. My doctors consistently notice this and then file it away in the "deal with this when the bigger issues have been dealt with" category. And of course this is just the functional medicine folks, since the mainstream medicine folks don't care about ferritin.

Thank you again everyone. Girlie, I have not tested for celiacs disease but I am going to cut out gluten and see what happens, saraeli, I was wondering the same thing, why would my iron go above normal range and my ferritin stay so low, my biggest issue is depersonalization and I was hoping getting my ferratin up would help with that. Garzie, I do not eat read meat because I am a advid animal lover amd just recently I did a hair analysis test which showed I was sensative to beef. Thanks again for the help!

Thank you girlie, that makes sense. Do you know if it is safe for my iron to go above normal level, like when it got to 218 and my ferratin stayed at 8?

Thanks Garzie, you are right about doing what us best for your health, I will eat lots of the vega terrain foods you recommended and see if that helps, if not I will rethink my no red meat lifestyle. Thank you for the website suggestion, I will look at it now.

Girlie, here is my test results from the past four years https://ibb.co/dPbWQc6
The units were all the same but my ferratin stayed below 12 even when my iron was above normal level.
1000dasies that is interesting about vitamin E, I will look into that!

This is an interesting subject.

I've had high iron and high iron saturation with low ferritin (23) for quite a while. I have seen posts over the years that mention same scenario over the last couple years, but most also mention a high hemoglobin. My hemoglobin has been low normal or, usually, just a little low.

There are so many different ways all this can impact someone. Is it Babesia? Bart? Lyme? Or something else?We really have knowing, which, once again, makes treatment a crap shoot.

Calm LB - I found it interesting you mentioned low ferritin can be caused by low stomach acid, a symptom a lot with Lyme, including myself, have. As far as depersonalization, I've had that on and off so many times it would be hard to attribute to one thing. More and more I'm believing an autoimmune issue will be found to be the cause of symptoms I experience. Again, despite how many tests we may all take or treatments we use, finding an answer can be tough.

Maybe I missed it, but did you mention what your iron saturation count is?

stomach acid is needed to make Iron absorbable - ( especially iron from plant sources)

low thyroid - lowers stomach acid and is present in many with Lyme
H. Pylori - reduces stomach acid
Bart - also present in many with lyme - causes gastritis and reduces stomach acid also

bart and intracellular infections, in general, are also known to be triggers of autoimmune function

ref high iron and low ferritin - as per the mechanism posted by one of the other members - ferritin is the iron stores and can be used to represent the long term iron status.

if you think about this - by extension, short term supplementation or dietary changes could therefore push blood test iron levels high for a while - but that may not show in ferritin until much much later - or never depending on how long the supplementation was done for vs how low the ferritin stores had become.

CalmLB - I have been taking Betaine HCL to try and improve stomach acid. Oddly, my stomach feels worse since taking it. Also looking into D. Limonene as it was mentioned by astroman, I believe. Please correct me if I'm wrong if you see this, astroman. I just want to make sure it won't impact my kidneys.