Are the side effects of ferrous sulfate cumulative?

For everything and anything else not covered in the other RLS sections.
Aiken
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Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2005 6:53 am

Re: Are the side effects of ferrous sulfate cumulative?

Post by Aiken »

ed2008 wrote:
Amy wrote:... so if something bothers your stomach for 8 hours after taking,why make that 8 hours into 16 by spreading out the dosing times?

My thinking was that there's something of a threshold to cross, and below a certain concentration it's more bearable. Slap me twice or punch me once, sort of thing.

All I really know for certain is that I will reliably get progressively sicker if I take it every day. I don't think it's necessarily true that the adverse reaction isn't cumulative. An irritated tissue is an irritated tissue, and it doesn't always recover right away, even when you withdraw the irritation.

That said... as you say, if one pill's going to make her just as sick, doing it twice a day won't help. Probably no way to know for sure until she tries.
Disclaimer: I often talk about what I do and what works for me, but these are specific to me and you should always consult a healthcare professional before trying these things yourself, lest you endanger your health or life.

Amy
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2008 6:10 pm

UPDATE

Post by Amy »

Here's the latest:

I'd been feeling pretty poorly all week. The doctor told me to switch iron pills (Fergon) and try Tums for the symptoms (which is great because they can't be taken together!). Anyway, I haven't taken any iron since Sunday and I've been feeling awful, so I went in today and he confirmed that I either had gastritis and/or a small ulcer. Told me to back off the iron for a couple weeks until the Nexium he prescribed kicks in. If that doesn't work I'm off to a gasteroenteroloigst and an IV transfusion. Both of which require IVs---which I just passed out from yesterday at another unrelated appt!


:roll:

Aiken
Posts: 880
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2005 6:53 am

Post by Aiken »

Amy--

I'm not sure it's going to be relevant in your case, but please know that Nexium will inhibit iron absorption as well. Anything that cuts or inhibits stomach acid will do so. If you somehow end up taking Nexium or any other acid-treating drug long-term, you'll need to account for it in your iron treatment program.

Short-term, though, it'll be pretty harmless, so I don't mean to alarm you.

(I take a similar drug to control my chronic acid reflux, and I'm pretty certain it has a lot to do with my own need for iron supplements.)
Disclaimer: I often talk about what I do and what works for me, but these are specific to me and you should always consult a healthcare professional before trying these things yourself, lest you endanger your health or life.

Amy
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2008 6:10 pm

Post by Amy »

Huh. I didn't know that. Thanks, Aiken (you've been a wealth of information, btw)

ViewsAskew
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Post by ViewsAskew »

Aiken is a pretty helpful guy...smart, too. :)
Ann - Take what you need, leave the rest

Managing Your RLS

Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.

Pairodocs
Posts: 36
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 7:11 pm
Location: Virginia

Dr.B's minimum iron levels

Post by Pairodocs »

I just came through major back surgery and lost about 2 pts of blood, they were able to put 1 back with a cell saver, although I lost more through the week in the hospital with the wound drainer. My surgeon told me my iron levels hit 24 which he was actually pleased with for the amount of blood loss. I told him about the need to keep iron levels up for my rls and he gave me iron pills while in the hospital.

I'm 5 days out of the hospital and had a major rls trip last night. I'm on oodles of narcotics so I know it's not that. I want to call my PC and ask him to check the last blood draw in the hospital for iron levels. He's prescribed Repliva 21/7 for me before which worked great, but stops it when my levels hit 80.
Problem is I can't remember what level it said in Dr. B's book should be the minimum for RLS patients. Since I can't bend, I can't rumage around in my boxes of book to look for it. Does anyone remember it? Seems like it was either 35 or 45?

BTW, the surgeon's brochure on RLS works great. This is the third surgery I've taken it into, I give one to the surgeon at the preop mtg and one to the anesthesiologist at prep. The first two times they just put a hand band on saying double check drugs with contraindicated list. This time they went all out and wrote out every drug on the list on a red armband, my arm was covered up to my elbow, but it did work, and they all paid attention to it. I would highly recommend taking a couple of copies of that brochure in with you for any hospital visit.

SquirmingSusan
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Location: Minnesota
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Post by SquirmingSusan »

Pairodocs, glad to hear you're on the mend from the surgery. I hope you are able to move a bit more soon. I believe that Dr. B mentions a ferritin level of at least 50 in his book. I'm just going to sleep now at 11am, so I'm too sleepy to look right now.

What is Repliva 21/7? Is it some kind of super duper iron supplement? I may need to go look that up. It sounds like it has worked well for you. Was it hard on your digestive tract?
Last edited by SquirmingSusan on Fri Sep 05, 2008 7:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
Susan

Pairodocs
Posts: 36
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 7:11 pm
Location: Virginia

Iron supplement - Repliva

Post by Pairodocs »

Repliva 21/7. It's by prescription and set up like a birth control package. Has 28 pills, 21 are iron, 7 placebo, so you are taking a pill everyday and don't screw up your daily habit by having to stop for a week. I think it took 6 months to get my iron from 25 to 80 last time. PC didn't want to go above 80 so stopped them. It worked great, very gentle and doesn't upset my stomach at all and since the Vit C and B12 are already in there in a balanced form, you don't have to worry what you take it with.

I've been diagnosed iron deficient about every 2 years, they get the level up and it just slowly drops no matter what diet or multivitamin I'm on. Once I found out about the relationship between iron levels and RLS, I can always tell when it's dropping because the rls starts kicking in stronger. Normally it's well conrolled by hydrocodone.

Here's the content breakdown for Repliva from the label
Iron -- Sumalate (elemental iron) 70 mg and Ferrous fumarate (elemental iron) 81 mg
Succinic acid 150 mg
Vit C (as ascorbic acid) 140 mg
Vit C as Ester-C -- Ascorbic acid (calcium ascorbate) 60 mg and Threonic acid (calcium threonate) .8 mg
Folic acid, USP 1 mg
Vit B12 (cyanocobalamin) 10 mcg

Then there is the usual cast of inert/inactive characters as well.

Aiken
Posts: 880
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2005 6:53 am

Post by Aiken »

Pairodocs--

The two sleep doctors I've seen while having RLS have both said that they like to see ferritin at 100 for RLS patients, sometimes more. Regular people top out at 70 or so, I think.

My own last reading was 104, which is right on target for my maintenance dose of 65mg elemental iron per week.
Disclaimer: I often talk about what I do and what works for me, but these are specific to me and you should always consult a healthcare professional before trying these things yourself, lest you endanger your health or life.

Pairodocs
Posts: 36
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 7:11 pm
Location: Virginia

iron levels

Post by Pairodocs »

Thanks Aiken,
I'll have all this with me when I call my PC tomorrow.

SquirmingSusan
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Joined: Sun Nov 12, 2006 4:08 am
Location: Minnesota
Contact:

Post by SquirmingSusan »

Thanks for the info on Repliva, Pairodocs. It's quite similar to the prescription iron that I use, which is call Niferex. The biggest problem is that my insurance doesn't cover it and it's quite expensive.

I like to wash my iron pills down with that delightful natural source of iron, dark chocolate. :wink:
Susan

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