The Lady B seems chronically tired. Her doctor checked and she’s very anemic and the Dr. suggested two slow-release iron tablets each morning. It didn’t seem to be working well so the Dr. suggested yet another multi-vitamin (with iron) tablet before bed.
We haven’t gone back to the Dr. yet but the wife still seems no better after many weeks of three tablets a day.
Is there medical or environmental conditions that can interfere with the body’s ability to absorb iron?
Yeah, there’s a bunch of things that can interfere with iron absorption. A quick whirl through Google turns up coffee, tea, bran, calcium supplements, antacids, eggs, whole grain breads, and dairy products. Iron and calcium supplements together are evidently a big no-no.
Typical hit.
So what you do is space things out–take the iron either an hour or two before or after you eat.
Also, it’s worth knowing that there are other causes of “anemia”–so-called “pernicious” anemia is caused by the body’s inability to absorb and utilize Vitamin B-12.
I’m assuming your doctor has checked for this?
So far, we haven’t been trying to treat the anemia as a separate condition. My wife is recoving still from the birth of our third kid (three months ago) and the anemia is being treated as a side item.
A standard blood test shows her slightly hypo-thyroid but otherwise OK, says the doc.
Post-partum anemia is almost always due to blood loss from the birth process. It takes time to recover, and for the body to absorb the iron and use it to produce new red blood cells. Iron shots can be given; they are absorbed more reliably and are not affected by other dietary intake, but they also tend to be painful.
But it is a slow process.
QtM, MD
Vitamin C aids in the absorption of iron.
There’s also hereditary hemochromatosis, a genetic condition that we test for at my job. But that usually affects men for some reason.
Hereditary hemochromatosis is too much iron in the blood, anemia is too little. Completely different conditions.
But, since you mentioned it - HH affects men more often because normal adult women shed blood every month, thereby lowering their stores of iron. Once a woman reaches menopause, or if she has a hysterectomy, the iron builds and she suffers the same troubles as her brothers.
Treatment is simple - you draw off some blood on a regular basis.
This “defect” would obviously be an advantage to women in areas with iron-poor diets (helpful to men, too, if the diet is extremely poor in iron). Since the men tend not to drop dead from it until their 40’s, they are still able to reproduce. The result is that this mutation is maintained in the population at a certain level.
Hmm. Maybe I should have actually read the OP all the way through. Sorry. Carry on.