Re: Supplemental Iron
Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2017 8:15 pm
peanut1 wrote:Fascinating that we dump iron more than most and I'm curious why. Would love to see a study on that one. I was anemic most of my life and only had mild RLS. I always wonder what kicked it into severe when I was only getting 1.5 hours a night.
What is more weird is that many of us with low ferritin have normal hemoglobin. They used to LOVE to see me when I would donate blood - for a woman, my hemoglobin was always toward the high end. Then I had my ferritin tested and it was 8. Go figure. Most doctors cannot even grasp this idea that we dump ferritin yet we are not bleeding anywhere. I am not aware of any hypotheses about how our bodies can do this - if someone else knows of any, would love to hear.
It really is quite perplexing to have all of these disparate components - no wonder they are still unraveling this. There are only a handful of researchers and so many parts to study. And, while upwards of ten percent of people might have this, only a small subgroup of that ten percent have it severely. We are doing a LOT better in terms of awareness; the Quality Care Centers, I hope, will be a big part of helping doctors be aware and getting more into the research side. I have always been a bit bummed that the sleep associations focus so little on it.