20-something Group

by kklinksick on February 15th, 2009 at 11:53 am

I don't know if you take a vitamin but One a day women's has 100% of your daily need for iron in it. If you don't like meat, leafy greens have a lot of iron in them. The general rule is, the greener it is, the more iron it has. If you google it I'm sure you can find specific examples.

by Nikiki on February 15th, 2009 at 1:53 pm

eating more green leafy vegitables will help. Also tea has tannins that block the absorbtion of iron so dont drink iced tea with dinner.

another thing to get checked for along with anemia is hypothyroidism. I have it, the doctor was checking for anemia and discovered it. my thyroid gland doesn't produce enough to keep my body running. I take a pill every day and am fine, but before i was diagnosed I would sleep constantly. I was still in highschool and would fall asleep in classes, after school I'd do my homework and go right to sleep until I had to be at school again. I was sleeping 15+ hours a day and was still exhausted! within a week on the pills I was fine :)

by JHein on February 15th, 2009 at 5:46 pm

thanks for the comments! :) i have a really solid family history of thyroid problems, 3 aunts, my mom, 4 cousins, both maternal grandparents, so i have been consistently checked out for that during my yearly physicals. i drink decaf tea in the morning, but i also just started taking folate (b12), so is that just negating the effects of the b12???

by Nikiki on February 16th, 2009 at 4:51 am

now that I'm not sure of, I only know about the tea-iron connection b/c I was an iced tea feind and I donate to the red cross and they kept turning me down b/c of my iron levels. one of the nurses (after the 3rd time turning me away) started asking about what I ate & drank and told me to stay away from tea for a week and i was fine the next time i donated.

by tagriffin87 on February 18th, 2009 at 10:56 am

I'm generally really anemic. I take iron supplements and try and eat the dark leafy greens (however the iron in leafy greens is less then that of red meat and will actually slightly hinder absorbtion....so no steak and spinach salads) As for the tea, I drink a cup of irish breakfast tea almost every morning and have for the past 9 years, during that time I have been both anemic and normal. Tea will only effect your absorbtion of iron if you drink if with a iron rich meal or right after you eat. So one glass or cup a day will have no effect on your anemia.  But this also depends on how bad you are, woman should have a hemoglobin count of 11.5 or higher, mine was in the mid-tens....so amount of cutting back tea would fix this.
Just make sure you take an iron supplement and talk to you doctor about your diet, because if your anemia is bad, then it is something most likely more serious then a sole diet problem.

by tastty on February 19th, 2009 at 6:45 pm

I had to reply on this thread, because I am always swaying between being severly anemic and just average.
There is no question that the first thing you need to do is get your blood tested. It is so important to be informed on how serve it may really be and how your blood is composed because this not only effects your energy, but can also have a profound affect on blood pressure. Also, if you can find the cause (there are many different typs of anemia depending on the cause), you can treat it more effectively.
As for how to increase iron intake, I agree with everyone else about getting some from your diet (any bit helps), but I know that for me I have to take supplements and work harder on helping my body absorb the iron...
What my doctor's have told me and what I follow in my diet:
Caffeine and calcium inhibit the absorption of iron, so I try keep caffeine in my diet low and eat/take my calcium hours away from any time I consme a good amount of iron.
Vitmamin C helps absorb the iron, so I take a vitamin C supplement everyday with my iron suppliment.
For a moderatly low iron count, I would say a regular 18mg iron supplement is okay. Yet, for a more severly low iron count, I would take a stronger, more concentrated iron supplement like Feosol. Feosol contains 65 mg and I only take these when my doctors tells me I need too for a certain amount of time, sometimes twice a day for me.
I tried to be basic, I hope these helps :)