I have a question about iron and anemia

[Bodhi Marshall]

My doctor said that I have anemia and should supplement iron.I reluctantly did for a while and it "improved somewhat". I really have serious doubts about supplementing iron, for one thing it's correlated with Alzheimer's disease which runs in my family. My question is could there be a legitimate reason to do it if a person has anemia? I also wonder if aspirin could have caused the so called anemia. I haven't had any symptoms at all.

Thanks

 

[Limon9]

If you're symptom-free there's no point. Supraphysiological doses of metals have probably harmed about as many people as they've helped.

 

[redsun]

My doctor said that I have anemia and should supplement iron.I reluctantly did for a while and it "improved somewhat". I really have serious doubts about supplementing iron, for one thing it's correlated with Alzheimer's disease which runs in my family. My question is could there be a legitimate reason to do it if a person has anemia? I also wonder if aspirin could have caused the so called anemia. I haven't had any symptoms at all.

Thanks

Chronic aspirin use can cause anemia.

Some with anemia are asymptomatic especially if its mild. Because anemia develops slowly over time, symptoms may be ignored or thought of as normal. Of course there is a legitimate reason to fix anemia. Your tissues depend on oxygen for metabolism and optimal function. Depending on severity, it can reduce tissue oxygenation of other less essential tissues to preserve oxygen for the heart and brain which is not good. Its also not good for your heart as it makes your heart work harder. So in the long-term it will be better for heart health. It can make you more prone to high blood pressure (which causes its own set of problems) and iron deficiency can also increase the risk of various psychiatric disorders such as anxiety and depression.

Iron overload is obviously not good, but if you are anemic due to iron deficiency you aren't even remotely near overload. Low hemoglobin also increases risk of dementia and alzheimer's disease:

Hemoglobin and anemia in relation to dementia risk and accompanying changes on brain MRI

Objective To determine the long-term association of hemoglobin levels and anemia with risk of dementia, and explore underlying substrates on brain MRI in the general population. Methods Serum hemoglobin was measured in 12,305 participants without dementia of the population-based Rotterdam Study...

n.neurology.org

"Low and high levels of hemoglobin are associated with an increased risk of dementia, including AD, which may relate to differences in white matter integrity and cerebral perfusion."

So, it would beneficial for multiple aspects of health to fix anemia.

 

[youngsinatra]

People are getting pumped full of iron, it‘s scandalous in my opinion.
I know many who get multiple 1000mg infusions of iron. They might feel better for a week or two, but then they typically return to baseline or get even more severe problems. Oftentimes their hemoglobin and ferritin increase for a short time, and then „disappear“ on blood work. It‘s all stored in the tissue.

A female friend of mine got multiple iron IV‘s for persistent anemia, which did not get fixed by it but actually caused the development of multiple autoimmune disorders afterwards and caused a constantly elevated body temperature (38 degrees C, instead of the normal 37 degrees C)

Doctors tend to always check B12, folate and iron status in cases of anemia, but nearly always miss to check serum copper and ceruloplasmin status.

 

[h.c.]

My doctor said that I have anemia and should supplement iron.I reluctantly did for a while and it "improved somewhat". I really have serious doubts about supplementing iron, for one thing it's correlated with Alzheimer's disease which runs in my family. My question is could there be a legitimate reason to do it if a person has anemia?

1) Anemia has many causes.
2) Low Hb, MCH, MCV, MCHC, Serum-Ferritin or Serum-Iron are no prove that Iron is missing.
3) The Iron-Metabolism is often dysregulated.
4) Iron as supplement or infusion cause oxidativ stress / inflamation and therefore Hb/Serum-Ferritin rises for some weeks. You could also inject cadmium or mercury - the same would happen, but no one would be so crazy to do it.

Read: Eisen Spezial: Ein niedriges "Ferritin" (Serum) ist gut & fast niemandem fehlt Eisen, sondern in der Regel Vitamin A und ggf. Kupfer - H.C.'s Blog

Or via G-Translate in English: Iron Special: A low “ferritin” (serum) is good & almost nobody lacks iron, but usually vitamin A and possibly copper

You best have to measure the "whole bunch", meaning: All Iron, Copper and Vitamin A relevant blood-work if something "with Iron" is suspected.

Best,
Hans