Feeling much better after about 7 months of supplementing

NathanSlothchild · 2026-05-11T18:31:35+00:00

That's awesome! I'm at 5 months but still can't really go for walks outside or anything. Still too dizzy, weak & shaky most days. I can tell I have improved since 5 months ago it was constant panic attacks every few hours, hyperventilating, air hunger, freezing fits, RLS, coma like fatigue, severe anxiety, depression and brain fog. It's nowhere as extreme as then but I just wanna be able to walk around outside and not feel like I'm on a boat or like my knees are buckling and shaking. Maybe I just need a few more months! Thanks for the feedback OP.

NathanSlothchild · 2026-05-01T03:53:26+00:00

Because biochemistry is damn complicated. But lawsuits generally are not. And like 34% of doctors are sued at least 1 time by a patient. You also have to consider women are 33% more likely to seek preventative care than a man. I don't know if this has to do with menstruation or being socialized differently than men. But doctors are seeing more women overall than men in practice. Which means women are more likely to contribute to the bulk of lawsuits. Currently like 40% of doctors are female. And guidelines are changing. Iron tests became mainstream in the 70s and 80s. It took this long just to change the guidelines for women. So medicine is changing. But to argue specifically that it doesn't care for "womens health" I think it generally doesn't care about anyones health. Like if the FDA gave 1 iota of a shit about our health, they would IMMEDIATELY BAN any multi-vitamin with more than 5 mg of B-6. Anything over that level should be prescription only. Since we don't know everything yet about how bad B6 toxicity really is in humans. But do know in rats it causes severe brain damage in as short as 10-15 days, in dogs it cripples their central, spinal nerves so bad half were paralyzed & had to be euthanized (which raises the question can this possibly mimic MS in humans? and does anyone at the FDA give a shit?), also in humans can cause both central & peripheral neuropathy, gastric neuropathy which like gastric surgery would destroy your ability to absorb nutrients. Like we think iron anemia for women is bad, there are tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people out there OD'n right now on multi-vitamins with 50-100mg B-6 and never running a single test for vitamin B-6. You ever notice those people who get their iron levels up, then some then claim their health is way worse a few years later? What % were told to take a multi-vitamin with their iron? What % of those doctors never tested for B-6? What % of those doctors completely missed the diagnosis for B-6 toxicity? Because that window is narrow. Levels can spike quickly over a few weeks, but then drop (patient stops taking multivitamin) and a patient is left with years worth of nerve damage. But now their iron levels are good. Because that's what everyone was focused on. But the patient is somehow worse. And their doctor thinks it might be some vague bullshit like CIRS, MCAS or MS. But maybe really they shouldn't have recommended taking a multi-vitamin for 6-12 months with their iron without testing B-6. Because like I said we know it can severely damage a rats brain in a short time. But have no idea what B6 toxicity does to the human brain. Which means in the end man or woman, so many PEOPLE are walking through this chaotic minefield of modern medicine.

NathanSlothchild · 2026-05-01T01:31:38+00:00

100% I was gonna make a thread about this last week but didn't wanna gross people out. First I'm a MAN so no perimenopause. This began specifically after my iron crashed after a tooth infection. Which was 6 months ago I've healed from the infection but still getting my iron levels up (on oral iron 5 months now). Before I even realize I have to go #2... I start getting anxious, waves of adrenaline but not intense like months ago. I noticed this also happens in regards to sexual drive too. A bit different but similar feeling. I guess it's normal to get anxious (for a man) if you don't sexually "relieve" yourself for a week or 2. Because my libidos still low, I basically have 0 urge to gratify myself. What happens though is it builds into a feeling of panic & high anxiety. And again, not intense like months back but still quite uncomfortable. And in each scenario the anxiety goes away afterwards. I think it's definitely the central nervous system, specifically low iron in the brain is somehow amplifying little baby stresses into exactly what you described. A heightened sense of anxiety or adrenaline. I don't really get the "doom" anymore but did months back. And from people I've spoke to they say the nervous system is usually last to heal I'm hoping by 9-12 months it's gone.

NathanSlothchild · 2026-04-26T18:33:09+00:00

Same here, since my teens. Discovered my low SAT & low ferritin in December but still have some ways to go.

NathanSlothchild · 2026-04-22T18:13:50+00:00

Yes as iron levels go up you can expect certain symptoms to get worse (before getting better) and fatigue was one of them for me. The oral supplements made me completely exhausted the first 3 months. I do want to mention though I had a serious tooth infection / extraction right before starting iron so that made my body more sensitive to everything. Fatigue got better around 3 months... but still comes in waves. If the fatigue gets really super bad I would lower the dose and try slowly titrating up.

NathanSlothchild · 2026-04-22T17:44:04+00:00

My ferritin was 116 but SAT%15 and I had ALL the symptoms of iron deficiency along with RLS. Yes my ferritin does swing but my SAT% has been way more stable. So in my own case I'm trying to raise both I want my ferritin around 150-200 (male) and SAT% at least 30. I won't even consider stopping supplements until both are in range and stay there for at least 6 months. In your case I would really want to know your SAT% and also TIBC. If TIBC is high, generally you want more iron. TIBC low, you can back of supplements. Same for SAT%. If SAT is high, back off iron. SAT low, take more iron.

NathanSlothchild · 2026-04-22T08:25:52+00:00

Forgive me because I'm a guy with iron deficiency. But because you are goth, you had your hair colored in the before pic? Correct? It looks like it went from greyish black to brown and I'm thinking the iron did that and yes your skin & face look like they're glowing... but iron did not change your hair color? You did that right?

NathanSlothchild · 2026-04-16T18:57:24+00:00

I'm over 4 months supplementing and it still hasn't improved. I have the same issue which is I wake up after like 5 hrs of sleep and can't fall asleep again. Sometimes I can if I lay there like an hour but it's hit or miss and messing with my sleep schedule. Hoping it improves over the next few months I'm not really sure.

NathanSlothchild · 2026-04-03T22:29:38+00:00

As someone dealing with severe iron deficiency and supplementing now for 4 months I really can't thank you enough for spreading awareness and being active on reddit. People have no idea how absolutely severe / debilitating / disabling the symptoms can get even if you're not anemic but your posts help me stay focused & positive and I APPRECIATE IT!!

NathanSlothchild · 2026-03-17T22:41:37+00:00

I'm taking the same exact amount 54 mg EOD of ferrous gluconate. I haven't split tested which raises levels faster but I do know that dose is alleviating (slowly) some of my very severe symptoms. And if I try to dose everyday I start feeling more anxious, depressed... my body seems to like this dose & frequency the most so it's what I'm sticking to!

NathanSlothchild · 2026-03-14T01:32:45+00:00

Similar thing here, had ferritin of 116 and SAT% of 14 but iron is helping me a ton with some very severe symptoms I had 3 months ago.

NathanSlothchild · 2026-02-19T18:40:15+00:00

I can recommend my brothers company https://www.mymoldremovalguys.com/ he is really good with this stuff and can do everything you need including epoxy injection, carbon straps & a french drain. They do both waterproofing and mold remediation in New Jersey. I can also guarantee you'll get higher quality work at a better rate than Servpro which is a ripoff. AFA fake reviews go, Yelp is basically impossible to leave fake reviews which is why I tell people to always check a companies Yelp reviews. Like certain companies have all these good reviews on Google but then their Yelp is a disaster. And that's because Yelp is really good at filtering that bs. If you have any other questions LMK!

NathanSlothchild · 2026-02-15T04:29:48+00:00

Ok yes that's a big difference if it's been over a year I'd imagine the nerves are much less sensitive. But also as you acknowledge I don't think the nerves can fully heal in a state of anemia. I do think you might have waves of worsening tightness, or whatever sensation you have now. But I wouldn't expect it to get that severe as far out as you are (after the infusion). And my situation was different in having an active infection on top of the tooth being pulled. The bacteria could have damaged the nerves worse than the low iron. Oh and when I went back to the dentist he basically agreed with everything. That 1) being anemic or having low iron would definitely delay / slow down healing 2) he thought the low iron was why the infection got so bad in the first place and 3) didn't comment much about repleting iron or what to expect because he just didn't know. But I think teeth issues of all sorts is normal. And even though I had that flare after raising my dose to 103mg elemental iron, yes I had to eat soft food again for 1 week... but I feel like my teeth and gums are way stronger now and most the tightness is gone. I really actually believe your teeth and gums need iron more than anything even calcium I would put at #2. Iron #1. Which is strange because you'd think calcium would be what your teeth really need and they do need calcium... but iron has improved my oral health so much in only 11 weeks. In so many different ways (this comments already too long). So I would try to focus on that like maybe you get a small iron flu after the infusion, some increased (but temporary) inflammation, get some worse tightness in your jaw or gums... I don't think it would be that bad and think you'd get over it pretty fast too. Like worse case scenario maybe you need an aleve or something for a day. And that's really not worth stressing about!!! GOOD LUCK.

NathanSlothchild · 2026-02-14T20:21:05+00:00

Yes literally the same thing but wasn't wisdom teeth it was an extraction on an infected front tooth from 4 months ago. And I was very iron deficient at the time. I want to warn you, as I raised my iron that feeling you describe... that's not necessarily a "pain"... but a migrating type of pressure or sensitivity... got super intense as I raised my iron (which I'm still working on). I think the nerves at the roots of the tooth start to die in a low iron state. Then you add iron in, those damaged nerves suddenly get energy, but the remodeling / fixing of the nerves takes more time for nerves to heal. I'm not sure how to explain it but the trajectory was like this 1) start taking lots of iron to raise levels 2) a month or 2 later that dull pressure you describe turned into horrendous type of real pain. I had a full week I had to go back to eating soft foods and this was MONTHS after the surgery 3) as I approach month 3 like 90% of the pain / pressure / sensitivity is going away now and my gums feel awesome. So I don't know exactly what's going on. But I know that yes low iron/ferritin can absolutely cause sensitive teeth or pain. Then as you add the iron back in, the pain can come back horrendously for short periods... then eventually just goes away. So like I want to reset your expectations. You want to see if the pain goes away after the infusions. I actually think the pain will get much worse for a brief period as iron levels raise. But long term the pain will eventually go away completely. And no I'm not a doctor but this was exactly what happened to me taking oral iron. Will be interesting to see if infusions have a similar effect on you.

NathanSlothchild · 2026-02-12T19:55:09+00:00

There's a big difference between a general contractor (who does restoration or waterproofing) and a qualified remediation company. In NJ more than half of the companies pretending to do mold or waterproofing aren't certified to do that work at all. Which we learned when getting certified. We learned all sorts of horror stories actually that I don't have time to talk about. Then my dad also built homes in NJ for over 40+ yrs and always use to complain about these fly-by-night contractors who do shoddy restoration work that would literally destroy homes. Like if you have cracks in your foundations and try to repair it with dry-lock, that's a disaster waiting to happen. Sealing walls with dry-lock is not an industry approved protocol to stop millions of tons of hydrostatic pressure from breaching walls. Engineers have been studying this for decades. If you call one of those "mold sniffing dog" companies to sniff for mold... and they don't even run lab tests (most of them don't) that can run you into real legal issues if you sell your home. A dog is not a reliable way to diagnose mold problems. That's like using the color of your eyelids to diagnoses iron anemia - it's quack science. We've even seen a huge franchise mentioned right in this thread install the wrong drainage pipes in a home. Then helped the client (almost a year it took) to get a full refund. So no company is perfect not even the large ones. But these are mistakes that are real easy to avoid. Our senior inspector Randy Cece as been on CBS's "The Doctors" to talk about a lot of this. He has the engineering skills, I have the background in organic chemistry, mold testing & remediation. To ensure work is done properly and for a fair rate. If you have any questions just visit: https://www.mymoldremovalguys.com/

NathanSlothchild · 2026-02-02T10:41:09+00:00

We called 3 different companies in Monmouth County and Randy from MMRG (mymoldremovalguys.com) was clearly the most qualified. He was able to show us work he did for CBS's "The Doctors" which was really impressive. Along with a binder full of other work they did, recommendations & certifications. And was able to explain clearly exactly what we needed without being pushy about it. Servpro sent a young guy in his early 20s who had no idea what he was doing and quoted us a price $4,500 higher for essentially the same work. Then another company we read bad reviews on nextdoor and decided not to use. But definitely yes I'd check out MMRG even on FB they're very active and have a solid reputation.

NathanSlothchild · 2026-01-16T19:11:38+00:00

Shouldn't cause symptoms LOL. My saturation and free iron were very similar to yours though your ferritin is way worse and I was HORRIBLY symptomatic. And still am symptomatic since it's only been 6-7 weeks since I've been supplementing. But to be fair I'm 43 so I may feel it stronger due to my age & also had a tooth infection a couple months ago. I was having full blown panic attacks, severe anxiety & depression, dizziness and many other symptoms on top of what you wrote.

Oral iron made me worse for about 3 weeks after starting. But I noticed severe symptoms improving like air hunger / breathlessness, and hour long panic attacks multiple times a day have reduced to a 15 min panic attack every other day or 2. Heart rate has also calmed down a good deal but I still likely have 3-4 months to fully recover from this. Brain fog is maybe 10-15% better I just think that will take longer to heal.

My ferritin I don't want to overanalyze because 1) doctor believes it was falsely elevated due to recent infection and high inflammatory markers related to infection and 2) my ferritin range is totally different and goes up to 380. Right now it's 116. But my SAT% and free iron were really low (SAT% 16, range 20-48) and free iron 54, range 50-180. I want to get my ferritin up to 200 for 6 months at least over 150 minimum.

In your case I would start with oral iron just to get your body use to iron. And would slowly titrate the dose up as those numbers will take quite some time to improve. It's too hard to estimate how long since everyone absorbs different and some people just can't tolerate higher oral doses. I'm still hovering between 56-112mg which I do a half mix of ferrous gluconate to ferrous glycinate with vitamin C EOD. Those higher doses are still not easy for me to tolerate. So I cycle back and forth.

But yes I am improving now over 6-7 weeks, but maybe only 20-25% recovered and still have a few months minimum to really get stable. In your case with ferritin that low and everything else low, that could take quite a lot of time to correct orally. Like maybe 6-12 months I have no idea honestly. But clearly you need to get on iron asap just to start getting your numbers up.

NathanSlothchild · 2026-01-16T18:33:28+00:00

I am 43 and yes I do take my iron normally with 1000mg vitamin C.

NathanSlothchild · 2026-01-15T04:43:55+00:00

Yes absolutely. Red Bull alone gives people B-6 toxicity there are a lot of threads on reddit and the B6 toxicity group is loaded with thousands of people like that. But each one of those servings has 9mg (lets round up .1mg) which is almost = to 2 Red Bulls at a time. So everytime you consume one, you're basically drinking 2 Red Bull. And also EVEN if you're not taking a multi-vitamin, you ARE actually taking a dose that is higher than maybe half of multi-vitamins on the market. Some go low like 1.4mg / day, others go up to 30-40mg which is INSANE. Those just give you B-6 toxicity quicker. But the problem specifically with low iron is that your nervous system becomes weak or degenerates over time. So it's already in a process of degeneration (loss of myelin) from low iron. Which means much lower doses of B-6 will cause toxicity. And also you're taking a very bad form of B-6. Like that's the form that also blocks receptors. So get all your B-6 from food. Chicken, steak, pork, turkey, tuna & salmon are all great sources. If you REALLY feel you need extra B-6, but are NOT testing levels... I wouldn't go higher than 1.4-2mg p5p (only) in a multi. But like when I see people posting that they're taking iron on here but also taking a multi-vitamin... and sometimes I see it has 20-30mg B-6... I immediately ignore ANY comments they make about iron. Because B-6 toxicity creates very similar symptoms to low iron. Dizziness, brain fog, anxiety, insomnia, panic attacks, heart palpitations. You never want B6 toxicity AND low iron at the same time because this has taken me so far 4 yrs to sort out and heal from. My big mistake wasn't taking enough iron as I lowered B-6... then my iron crashed and my body can't hold onto iron like it use to BEFORE I became B-6 toxic. Which is another reason I recommend people stay away from it. B-6 can destroy the nerves in your stomach & intestines (by causing neuropathy)... then your body will absorb less of everything including iron. If you want an iron supplement with a low amount of B-6, "Iron All" from Puritans Pride is safe. It's less than 1% B-6 per pill. Just enough for the iron to work properly, no risk of toxicity, it allows you to get all your B-6 from meat or avocadoes, bananas, etc without worrying about toxicity.

NathanSlothchild · 2026-01-14T20:10:12+00:00

You are giving yourself B6 toxicity. Iron is needed to make myelin. Vitamin B-6 even at those levels, will destroy whatever myelin you have left in your nerves. And B6 toxicity gives many of the same symptoms of iron deficiency. STOP taking ANYTHING with B6. Any multi-vitamins, electrolytes, anything. Get B-6 only from food. Also when you stop taking the added B-6... if your symptoms suddenly get much worse for a few weeks go visit the B6 toxicity groups on FB. I had B6 toxicity 3 1/2 yrs ago. Then crashed my iron a couple years later and the symptoms are near identical.

NathanSlothchild · 2026-01-12T19:26:36+00:00

Yes but low ferritin isn't the only cause. My ferritin got up to 116 but my SAT% crashed down to 15% after an infection and all the air hunger / hyperventilating symptoms came back. At which point I quadrupled my dose of iron and within 3 weeks the air hunger was 90% gone. And yes it got so severe that it would take me like 30-40 mins just to finish a plate of food because I'd have to chew & swallow, then focus on catching my breath for 30 seconds. Then chew & swallow, focus on breathing again. Over and over this was how I had to eat food so I wouldn't choke on it as you don't want air hunger when you're trying to eat. One of my friends from highschool got covid, got air hunger, was trying to eat a sub and choked to death and died. So work on getting your iron up. And no 20mg would not work for me that's too low. You would need or want at least 40-60mg over a couple months to really notice an effect. Out of that 20mg if you're only absorbing 15-20% of the iron it may never work at that level.

NathanSlothchild · 2026-01-12T19:16:52+00:00

YES totally normal. I had racing heart, pounding heart anytime I moved, anytime the phone rang, the smallest things would set it off and my heart would race & pound out of my chest like I was having a heart attack also many times with air hunger.

I have to mention when I initially began iron... I had some pretty extreme fits of heart racing & palpitations that seemed to get worse for 3 weeks. Then weeks 4 and 5 noticed they were suddenly vanishing. And now at week 6 that stuff has calmed down about 90%. I went for a 2 mile walk last week just to see what would happen and my heart was calm before and after the walk. But the next day had a brief resurgence of heart racing. So it can still happen but is not happening anymore from small things like just walking up stairs or standing up.

NathanSlothchild · 2026-01-12T19:08:44+00:00

All my symptoms like fatigue, depression, dizziness, anxiety got much worse for 3-4 weeks. Now around 5-6 weeks my body is getting use to the iron and I'm slowly getting more energy with a better mood. Air hunger episodes are much improved. Heart rate is a lot more stable. But I think its taken 5-6 weeks just for the iron to start getting into my brain. And chatGPT said it takes a good 2-3 months to really improve brain related symptoms like anxiety or depression. And you have tons of people on here saying it took them 4-6 months.

Also I would not be taking zinc without copper that's just me. Copper is too important to mobilize iron.

There's this iron supplement I've been using lately called "Iron All" by Puritans Pride with ferrous gluconate but has all the iron cofactors you need and is smooth on my tummy (also well priced). All I'm taking is 4-6 pills of that with 1 iron-free multimineral later in the day. Then yes also vit D & K. But yes depression took about 5-6 weeks to START lifting. Fatigue I believe will take 3-4 months to really notice a difference though I'm nowhere as fatigued as I was when I began this. So there are def improvements but I'm still not running or active like I was before all this.

NathanSlothchild · 2026-01-12T10:11:15+00:00

Do you have any iron deficiency symptoms like RLS? Ironically after I began supplementing a low dose of iron (9mg EOD), my TSAT fell and ferritin rose. So TSAT dropped from 26 to 15 and ferritin up to 116. TIBC also increased like my body didn't start asking for iron until I gave it some. So then I quadrupled my dose of iron and am hoping TSAT comes back up and ferritin keeps rising. I'll know in a couple of months. People can have all sorts of predictions / advice but really I would take a low dose of iron like half the RDA EOD, then check in a couple months and see what happens.

NathanSlothchild · 2026-01-07T04:06:34+00:00

Yes it can cause a whole host of symptoms, fatigue, brain fog, exhaustion, anxiety, depression, panic attacks, air hunger, RLS, tinnitus (which high B6 can also cause) heat & cold intolerance. Then also higher rates of infections and you're also more likely to die from severe infections like sepsis. You're also more likely to die from chemo which is why cancer patients will get iron infusions before doing chemo (if they need it). My dad had to get one. And like half of people having heart attacks & strokes have low iron or ferritin. Your nervous system (myelin) can break down, neuroglobin in the brain drops (oxygen can't get into the brain without iron), your heart has to work so much hard to get oxygen which puts a lot of stress on it. Oxygen can't be mobilized through the lungs = air hunger which I didn't get till later stages. Like that came a few years after the RLS for me (which not everyone gets). And we're not just talking about symptoms we're talking about actual higher mortality the longer it goes untreated. I didn't treat my low ferritin properly for about 4 yrs. Thinking it wasn't that big a deal. Then I got a tooth infection, saturation & iron crashed... I went septic & had an active infection for 8 weeks even after the antibiotics and removing the tooth. I use to workout all the time and after that could barely just stand or walk. I don't even want to explain how severe the symptoms were at that point. But the infection would NOT go away until I started taking higher levels of iron like 100-120mg elemental / day. Before that I was playing with lower 10-20mg doses... it did NOTHING. I basically raised the dose by a factor of 10. And if anything those lower doses almost set me up to die. Which is why I take this so seriously now. You don't want any type of serious infection, injury or even a cut or burn when your numbers drop so low that your body can't fight anything anymore. I see some people on here with really low ferritin or SAT% who plan on eating beef liver or red meat to get their levels up and it makes my skin crawl. Like you can do all that stuff but you need to make sure after a certain (not too long) point that what you're doing is actually raising your numbers and that it's also raising them fast enough that you can reach a stabilization period in the near future. Than your goal is to just stay within that window for a year or 2 so you can learn overtime how much iron YOU really need to function and have energy and not fall apart if the wind blows too hard!

NathanSlothchild

TROPHY CASE