Low Hemoglobin..normal Ferritin..

[sashamay23]

Well you guys have been horribly encouraging and as i said in my post, i'm going to go ahead and get the celiac panal assuming my doc orders it for me (i emailed her so i should find out tomarrow if she did..and i should then get my blood drawn mid-wk).

but all this talk about my anemia and iron levels has me very perplexed and i was wondering if any of you have any tips/advice/things to talk to my doc about...

i was diagnosed with anemia when i was about 13yrs old. I was exhasted/fatigued, my hair was falling out, i'd get cold chills all the time and had a hard time functioning in school. was told to take 900+ mg (give or take 5mg) every day for three months. I did. and things started to improve. but after the 3 months, i discovered i was still having issues if i didnt keep up on the iron.. and over the years, whenever id go more than a wk without taking a few 325mg tablets.. i would get so tired/exhasted/sleepy/sleep 17+ hrs and still be sooo lethargic etc. and thats basically been my life since then.

i brought it up with docs who have just told me "oh just keep taking ur iron then." - i can feel when it starts to get low and i have to take it, or i just cannot get out of bed and it interferes w/ work and life.

i finally bugged my new doc to do a ferritin test on me..and i thought itd be low but it came out "normal" at 70. my hemoglobin has never been over 12, and usually it stays between 11 and 12. i purposly stopped taking iron and was hardly functional for the last cbc test and i was only at 11. just "barely anemic"

it makes me wonder though with regards to this possible celiac thing.. my ferritin levels should be showin way lower for the week at the most, i can go w/out iron.. but i have been taking steady iron supplements (and of course increase in diet and such.. i natrually eat kinda high iron foods b/c iv felt this way so for long.)

it makes me wonder why i hafta keep taking iron and whats causing it..(ie celiac?) and am i maybe just ultra sensitive to lowish hemoglobin levels?

if i do have celiac, itd make since that i have to take so much iron to maintain my low levels.. but again...i dont know. im confused.

and then now i'm wondering if maybe a lot of my exhastion and fatige could be celiac..it sure explains all my intestinal issues iv had.

where b4 i was freakin out about it being celiac..and now.. i dunno, maybe im hoping it is? i wanna feel like a "normal" 22 yr old..

i thought id throw the question/thoughts/rambligns out there to see if any of you have had any similar expierences at all..and to try to make since of everything in my head if thats okay!

thanks so much!

[CarlaB]

I have the same thing ... and just about the same symptoms you describe (plus some because they became much worse at the years went on, but at 22 I had the same ones as you). Although I am gluten intolerant, my anemia issues come from babesia (a coinfection of Lyme Disease). Malaria can cause the same thing.

Of course, celiac can cause an iron deficiency, but since you're still in the "looking for what's wrong" stage, I thought I'd bring up a couple other things.

[nora-n]

Your ferritn (a transport protein made by the liver) could be thrown off for some different reasons.

nora

[sashamay23]

Your ferritn (a transport protein made by the liver) could be thrown off for some different reasons.

nora

hm.. interesting...any ideas what could throw off ferritn levels? or give false levels or whatever?

[CarlaB]

Here's something interesting I found Open Original Shared Link

Ferritin is normally found mainly inside of cells, with only a small amount in the blood. When there is damage to organs that contain ferritin (especially the liver, spleen, and bone marrow), ferritin levels can become elevated even though the total amount of iron in the body is normal. Ferritin levels may not be particularly helpful in persons with Open Original Shared Link, chronic infections, cancers, or Open Original Shared Link (which are all associated with organ damage).

and this Open Original Shared Link

Ferritin test

The ferritin test measures the level of a protein in the blood that stores iron for later use by the body.

Medications that can cause increased ferritin levels include dietary iron supplements. In addition, some diseases that do not directly affect the body's iron storage can cause artificially high ferritin levels. These disorders include infections, late-stage cancers, lymphomas, and severe inflammations. Alcoholics often have high ferritin levels.

[2kids4me]

Iron is only one part of the puzzle, a substance called erythropoetin is produced by the kidneys and has a crucial role for hemoglobin production.

You can have anemias related to low B12 - in that case -ferrtin levels would be normal but the person would have a type of anemia called macrocytic anemia.

A person in kidney failure would have normal ferritin but be anemic because the kidney is no longer producing erythropoetin.

B 12 deficiency is common in celiac disease for 2 reasons

1) the damaged intestine cannnot absorb the vitamin

2) the intrinsic factor produced by gastric parietal cells that allows B 12 to be absorbed - is not produced because of autoimmune attack on those cells.

There are a number of threads about B 12 in this forum so it is a common problem.

Fatigue is also a big symptom for B12 deficiency, as well as clumsiness, numbness or tingling....

Many here have recommended the sublingual B 12 (under the tongue) for oral use.

I use B 12 injections because I do not produce the intrinsic factor - so nothing would be absorbed no matter how much I took orally.

Sandy

[sashamay23]

huh..thankyou guys so much! that is really interesting. i'll hafta check into all that. =)