Welcome to the forum! If you don't have Tex's book a link for it is at the top right corner.
Anyways.....I suffered from low iron.
I was off of Entocort when I discovered the low iron.
I tried about three metal based supplements from the heath food store. All with the names of gentle iron etc on them. They worked like laxatives. I discarded them.
I adopted the following "natural methods":
1. Cook with cast iron as much as possible.
2. Dont drink any coffee, tea or iced tea when eating foods that contain iron. Coffee, tea and iced tea prevent the absorption of iron. I think the rule is something like you can have coffee or tea an hour before a meal or 2 hours after a meal. Best to google for confirmation.
3. Try to eat liver 2x3 x per week. (I never did this.) The boyfriend said his Mom used to grind up liver, mold it into liver balls, freeze the balls, and then when she made meatloaf she would thaw and mix 1 liverball in with a pound of groundmeat or pork or lamb etc. He says you can't taste the liver this way. I think there are some good GF DF liver pate recipes on the web but I've never had time to make them.
4. Google list of foods with high iron and get familiar with iron contents.
5. Anything shellfish is high iron if you can tolerate. Canned clams are cheap. A 6.5 ounce can is about 40% of your daily value. (It says 25% on the can but serving size of can is 1 1/2 servings per can so if you eat the whole can you get 40% daily value of iron. Use a small cast iron pan, drain the clams, either "REFINED" coconut oil---must be refined so it will have neutral flavor or olive oil, warm your clams in the oil, add salt and pepper, dump on top of white rice GF pasta and toss. I add other stuff garlic/onion etc but I would not recommend that for where you are at.
6. Black strap molasses http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstrap_molasses. Here is a good listing of iron sources. https://huhs.harvard.edu/assets/File/Ou ... n_Iron.pdf. Since you are on the high dose of Entocort you can probably tolerate blackstrap molasses. I would test with small qty as it can also act as a laxative. I would test a teaspoon first and taper up to a tablespoon twice a day. I found I could tolerate blackstrap at the end of a meal. I could not tolerate it say mid afternoon. I needed food in my belly. Some people add it to herbal tea or hot water and drink it. I found I preferred just licking it off a spoon....kind of like it was dessert. If you can tolerate it I would taper up to 2 tablespoons a day. I also use it as a sweetener in any almond flour recipes. I do an equal sub of the recommended sweetener. In the morning glory/paleo muffin in Dees kitchen I use blackstrap as the sweetener. MAKE SURE TO BRUSH YOUR TEETH RIGHT AFTER EATING FROM SPOON OR HAVING HERBAL TEA.
7. When eating any protein make sure to have white potato, sweet potato or carrot as a side dish. The vitamin C in the potato/carrot will help your body absorb the iron from your protein.
Supplements:
As I mentioned I could not tolerate the metal based supplements.
Heme iron (from an animal) is better absorbed by the body than non heme iron (from a plant or rock).
Non heme supplement: I took two-three of these a day (after a meal). http://www.drugstore.com/products/prod. ... pid=455135
They are made from 100% curry leaves. I had no problem tolerating them at all. I tried to take them with a food that contained vitamin C. Important note:
since these are non heme I'm not sure how much my body absorbed. I did not buy form drug store. com....there may be better pricing out there.
Heme supplement: http://www.proferrin.com/ This was pricey in the US. Non prescription. I had to ask at my drug store and they would get it in the next day. It cost around $70.00 US for 90 pills. I was off of Entocort when I used these. I could tolerate them but just barely. I could take one at lunch in the middle of the meal. If I took it at dinner or at breakfast I could not tolerate. It is tough to find a heme soy free over the counter supplement. These are heme and soy free. The problem is they have a red dye and a blue dye and some other chemicals. I believe there are some prescription heme soy free supplements that you can get from your Doc. It is worth while checking into. Someone on high dose of Entocort might tolerate the proferrin better better than I did at least short term. Again....for us.....eating liver is probably the best way to go LOL.
It took me about 4 months after diagnosis to get my levels up to feeling better and that was using my natural techniques listed above, 2-3 curry leave pills a day (don't know if they worked) and one proferrin a day.
I'd get bloodwork again in 6 months and definitely keep an eye on your scores. I did not get transfusion but would have welcomed the rust bag!
CA said:
Do not get discouraged, it takes awhile for things to heal. I've been in remission for about a year. You will get there!my GI was no real support. He said it's not auto-immune, no mast cell activity is involved, and basically I'm stuck with it for life and need to decide what works for me in treating it.
Let me know if you have questions.
Brandy
PS. forgot to mention I was non-menstruating when I went through this. Definitely stay on top of your scores.
