Iron deficiency? & doctors

Hi,

I used to donor blood. I started when I was eating SAD (altough I'm not American) and to be able to donor, I had to supplement iron. if not, my hemoglobin level was too low and I wasn't allowed to donor.

Nowadays, I'm raw and my hemoglobin is without supplementing on similar levels as when I was on SAD without supplementing.

I was for a while solving a dilemma if take iron and give blood or not to take iron and not to give blood. I decided not to take iron, but try to boost my hemoglobin level by consuming more greens, dried apricots etc (sources of iron are already discussed in other threads).

An now to my question: Doctor on hospital where blood is taken said that my blood is not good even for "notdonors". But my own doctor (to where people go with cold, flu etc.) said that it is ok, that a lot of people have lower levels of hemoglobin than tables say. I have no symptoms of lack of iron and I run long distance runs. And I suppose that my body is intelligent and produce as much hemoglobin as it needs. But if I took iron, the levels would very probably increase. Why is that? I know that a metabolism of iron is very complicated, but maybe somebody knows. BTW my doctor told me that supplementing can be dangerous because iron is stored in body.

Briefly for sure ;) : Why does supplemented iron affect hemoglobin levels when body itself already set optimal levels?

I can't answer your question, but I will tell you next time they do your labs, ask for a copy of it so you can see whether or not your levels are in range.

I used to have anemia all the time unless I took iron supplements and ate a bit of meat every now and then which I hated to do. But then I learned that I was allergic to dairy products and that a dairy allergy can cause anemia. I stopped the dairy. I stopped the iron supplements. Guess what? No more anemia.

They thought my mother had anemia and then cancer...she was losing her blood count. She almost died and they had to give her a transfusion. They later discovered...she has a major case of sleep apnea. :eek: She wasn't getting enough oxygen into her cells to do any good at night and there for her body couldn't produce the necessary blood to run her body. :rolleyes: It amazes me all the different reasons that there are for things not to function at the norm in our bodies. Keep searching, I'm sure you will find out what is going on with yours. ;) Best of luck!

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Originally Posted by juliebove

I can't answer your question, but I will tell you next time they do your labs, ask for a copy of it so you can see whether or not your levels are in range.

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Hi, my hemoglobin level is 130. It used to be 134-135. But I don't think that levels matters. These table values are based on major population so I'm not afraid if doctor say "Your levels are too low, you should eat more meat and lentils".

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Originally Posted by Advid

Hi, my hemoglobin level is 130. It used to be 134-135. But I don't think that levels matters. These table values are based on major population so I'm not afraid if doctor say "Your levels are too low, you should eat more meat and lentils".

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I don't know what is normal for your lab. Different labs have different levels.

But they should have the same levels, shoudn't they? And I think that it's not the labs, but the doctors who interpret results of examination. Anyway, this is not why I posted my post. :-)

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Originally Posted by Advid

But they should have the same levels, shoudn't they? And I think that it's not the labs, but the doctors who interpret results of examination. Anyway, this is not why I posted my post. :-)

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The labs will list a range of what is normal and then it should say whether or not you are high or low. You don't need a Dr. to interpret that.

Here's what my last lab says:

Hgb 12.7 Ref Range [11.6-15.5] Units gm/dl

As you can see, mine is in range as were all the other numbers on my CBC and Differential. If this was not in range, the Dr. would then have to look at the other numbers, and perhaps do additional tests to determine the cause.

In my case, the cause now seems clear. Dairy foods.