Over my 25 year career, the most common and easiest to prevent mistake that I’ve routinely seen doctors make is not diagnosing or preventing iron deficiency anemia. This problem is especially prevalent in women and young women, and it drives me crazy. So I’m going to explain exactly what you need to do to prevent this from happening and how to treat it if it does happen.

Iron deficiency anemia causes fatigue and can lead to many other problems. And it’s particularly common in women, because women lose iron every month.

It’s also imminently preventable, but unfortunately doctors often don’t run the simple tests that could prevent it. And even when they do run tests, they usually only run tests that tell you that you are iron deficient only after you are already anemic.

So what’s the difference between being iron deficient and being anemic?

That’s an important question. Anemia is a deficiency in your red blood cells. And it’s diagnosed with a test called a CBC, or Complete Blood Count.

This is probably the most common and simplest blood test that there is. It’s very inexpensive, and it’s performed thousands of times every day by doctors across the country. It’s great for finding anemia.

EVERY TEENAGE THROUGH PREMENOPAUSAL WOMAN SHOULD BE HAVING THIS TEST RUN EVERY YEAR!!

There is no excuse for not running this test. And if you visit your doctor for a physical and they don’t offer to run a CBC, request it! This is especially true for teenage athletes who get their sports physicals, because athletes need even more iron than the average person. So be sure to ask your doctor to run a complete blood count, or CBC test.

However, that’s not enough.

Iron deficiency anemia will only show up on the CBC after your iron reserves have dropped significantly enough that there is no longer enough iron in your body to properly form your red blood cells.

Only when that happens will your RBC, or red blood cell count. be low. And your hemoglobin and hematocrit will likely also be low.

But your iron reading will likely be normal. Because the “iron” test, which is literally called “iron” on the lab work, is not a measure of your iron storage level. It’s a measure of the amount of iron in your blood.

And although it sounds important and helpful, it’s usually not very helpful.

Because your iron storage level is measured by another test, and that test is called ferritin. F-E-R-R-I-T-I-N.

And ferritin, is NOT part of a routine CBC. Therefore, this is the other test that you want to make sure that your doctor is running.

Because it is the test that will tell you if you are close to becoming anemic, and will allow you to prevent yourself from getting to the point that you have iron deficiency anemia.

Also, you can be suffering from fatigue and the symptoms or iron deficiency, BEFORE you develop what the normal lab values tell you is iron deficiency anemia, just by having low iron storage levels, otherwise known as a low ferritin level.

Doctors don’t run this test routinely, like they do the CBC. And if your ferritin number is less than 30, then your iron storage level is too low.

And if you discover that sooner rather than later, then you can start taking iron, and prevent the iron deficiency anemia from ever happening.  

Wouldn’t that be awesome!

I think so.

We’ll talk about how to treat it in a moment, but first let’s summarize what we just talked about.

Every year, test your CBC, and your Ferritin level. Two simple but really important tests.

Ideally, you’d like your ferritin to be about 75 or higher. Yes, it can get too high, like well over 200 or so might be too high, but if you’re menstruating, then that is very unlikely.

Ok. So now you’ve run the test, and you know that your iron is low, how do you treat it?

Of course, you need to take iron supplements, but that’s sometimes easier said than done.

Iron can be hard on the digestive tract, and many people experience digestive upset or constipation when they take iron.

Taking an easier to digest form of iron often helps with this.

There are a few ways to do this.

Slow Fe is a very popular product. It can help with digestive upset because it’s a slow release form of iron. Unfortunately, it also full of artificial garbage. So, I don’t like to use it.

I prefer a couple of really nice forms of iron that I’ve linked to below. One is a really high quality and clean form of iron bisglycinate that most people tolerate and that I recommend in my clinic. You want to get about 25 mg, twice a day.

The other is iron in the form of a patch. Yes! Most people don’t know that you can absorb iron through your skin, and it’s a great way for people who have a very sensitive digestion to get iron into their body.

I’ve also included a link below to a really great iron patch product that I recommend to my patients.

Now, once you’ve found an iron that you can take, the next question is, how long should you take it?

If you have iron deficiency anemia, you should know that you want to do a lot more than just correct your anemia.

You may correct your anemia within a month or two. But you also want to prevent it from coming back, or prevent yourself from constantly going in and out of anemia.

And in order to do that, you have to raise your ferritin levels.

In my experience, when my patients are taking a really well absorbed form of iron like the one I just mentioned here, they generally only increase their ferritin by 3 or 4 points per month. Sometimes as high as 7 points per month, but not much more than that.

And remember, ideally you want to get your ferritin to around 75.  That means that, depending on your current ferritin level, it might take a year or more before you get there.

And even when you do get there, you’ll still probably need to be taking some iron just to keep it there.

So you should recheck your ferritin annually, so that you know how well your iron treatment is working.

Good luck restoring your iron level.  I’d love to know more about your challenges and successes with iron deficiency in the comments below.    

I hope that you found this video helpful. If so, please give it a thumbs up, and subscribe to my channel for more practical information on how to improve your health!

Product Links:

Thorne’s Iron Bisglycinate capsules: https://amzn.to/3DOAmeh

The iron patch: https://amzn.to/4fR3m2j

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