Iron Supplements— What’s best?

Lick a cast iron skillet for 10 minutes daily.

Who told you you were iron deficient OP? If it was your doctor I'm surprised he didn't give you any recommendations.

Shove a cast iron skillet up your ass daily.

Iron gluconate, iron lactate, or iron citrate. Great absorption and no constipation or cramping like with traditional iron fumarate. Be sure to take it with vitamin C to increase absorption.

You can get that combo in simple effervescent tablets; no need for expensive supplements. I use these with iron lactate, for example, and they're €1 a pop. Dirt cheap because they're made in Germany (I live in the neighbourhood) but super effective.

R2 While I love my doctor, the office staff at their office is notoriously terrible and all day I’ve been trying to get this sorted out. Excuse me while I take a moment to vent....

My doctor ran some blood tests (for other matters that turned out to be fine) and when the physician’s assistant called back with the results she told me they were very concerned about my iron levels and were calling in a prescription of an iron supplement for me, so I didn’t ask many questions and just assumed they knew what was best and had taken care of it. (I should have known better.) I did ask if it was different from the liquid iron you could get over the counter and the PA told me, “No, it’s stronger than that.” That was at 9:00 this morning.

I went to go pick up the prescription around 1:00 this afternoon and they said they had no prescription on file from the doctors office, which of course was frustrating after standing in line at the pharmacy. I called back the doctor’s office (no answer) and left a voicemail, finally heard back from them around 3:00 and they said they had called in the prescription at 9:30 this morning and it should be there, but they would call again.

I went back up to the pharmacy at 4:00 and the pharmacist was still confused. She finally told me that what had been prescribed was just an over-the-counter iron pills and grabbed them off the shelf from me. I was annoyed to say the least.

I’m seeing the doctor again next week so I will ask all my questions about iron then, but would prefer not to mess with the office staff again if possible. I wanted to try my luck on here because sometimes there are random people who have tons of knowledge about something like this!

Thanks R4

R5 there is a reason they called it in as a prescription. First, it would probably cost you less as a prescription and secondly you get to claim it. I had a doctor do that to me. Check what the prescription would cost and what it would cost over the counter. For me it was half price.

I hate taking supplements because it messes up your stomach. Slow release is the way to go to avoid constipation. I had severe anemia and my doctor told me that dietary iron (eating spinach and the like) is poorly absorbed by the body. If you're anemic, you really have to take supplements.

You could also try r1 or r3.

R8, you are correct about the slow release kind (and I think - tho not 100% sure - they are the same thing as you would get with a prescription). Slo-Release Iron 45mg ferrous sulfate, small little blood red pills.

Hey BTW anyone else have chronic iron deficient anemia, the kind that no health care professional can tell you why? I've had three blood transfusions in the last four years.... And yes a lot of spinach, beef and iron supplements in the last four years and been intimately scoped 1X and still no one knows why exactly.

Chelated iron with vitamin C and rose hips, taken at night, and without calcium.

Chelated iron prevents the stomach issues, and the rest helps with absorption.

If you are a man, look into why you are anemic. Is something else going on?

You can get slow release iron at the pharmacy, Walmart, Target, etc. It's a little harder to find but it is out there. My doctor had offered to write me a prescription because sometimes the copay is less than it would cost to buy it over the counter.

Eventually I got better and I only take supplements now when my iron levels go low (I am a woman).

Iron deficiency in men is very rare, and it's often a sign of internal bleeding—an ulcer or colon cancer.

Have you had a colonoscopy recently, OP?

I had too much iron. On a hunch, I threw out my 30 year-old pepper grinder with the steel grind-wheels, and my iron levels went down.

I second the motion of cooking using cast iron skillets. As others have said, women are frequently iron-deficient because of menstruation, but men rarely are, unless they have an ulcer. If you cook in an iron skillet, cook something acidic (eg using tomatoes), because the acid leaches off some of the iron from the pan and into the food.