Thread where actuaries diagnosis medical issues

Think of all the weight you could lose on the raisin diet

Oysters and mussels are also high in iron if you are avoiding or don’t care for red meat

No, and the iron in them is a lot less digestible.

Table 1 lists the current iron RDAs for nonvegetarians. The RDAs for vegetarians are 1.8 times higher than for people who eat meat. This is because heme iron from meat is more bioavailable than nonheme iron from plant-based foods, and meat, poultry, and seafood increase the absorption of nonheme iron [5].

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But digestion of them is aided by consuming food high in vitamin C (like OJ), though.

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this is making me think i need to eat more meat. i have no idea if that’s why i’m run down, but i go long periods of time not eating meat other than 2 slices of bacon each day.

Raisins are poisonous to dogs. YAP!

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blaspheme!! that needs to be 20 slices/day!!

What you need is to eat more kangaroo!

looking at the food i eat and a lot of food has iron, not just animal based products. this oatmeal i’m eating right now has 20% of the daily recommended allowance of iron according to the package. english muffin has 8%. almond butter 6%.

oh nuts are high on the list there. i eat a lot of nuts.

in googling eggs, i’m confused why it’s on that list. at least according to google, it doesn’t seem to contain a lot of iron.

But the RDA is set assuming you aren’t bleeding. Or at least, you’d aren’t bleeding more than a typical monthly period. (It’s higher for premenopausal women than for men and post-menopausal women, to make up for the bleeding.)

All the iron is in the yolk. It’s fairly easily absorbed iron, unlike the iron in vegetables. And it’s a pretty high ratio of iron to calories.

Egg white is pretty much just protein and water. Egg yolks, in contrast, have every nutrient the developing chick needs, which is pretty close to every nutrient people need

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Do you also take a lot of vitamin C? It seems that without this, the plant-based iron doesn’t necessarily make it into your system (compared to the animal-based iron) as efficiently.

So while one might be consuming 20% of the RDA of iron, a (much?) smaller value is actually absorbed into your body.

[Beavis & Butthead: hehehehe; she said nuts; hehehehe]

I eat berries and a banana every day, which has vitamin c. might not be a lot. I’ll eat a mango or tangerine today which I think has an abundance.

just checked my bacon package. it has no iron at all! wth?

my gastroenterologist is taking me off the dexilant just in case that’s what’s causing the fatigue. i seriously doubt that’s the issue having taken that med for years on and off with no issues at all, but we’ll see.

i think the bleeding stopped. :grimacing:

he suggested depression as a cause for fatigue. while i might have depression issues, i sincerely doubt that’s what caused this. it’s just too crushing, not just a little tired.

Not saying it’s your issue, but depression can be debilitating.

i have my doubts that depression is what is causing the fatigue. i have no doubts that depression can be debilitating though.

i have had on and off fatigue for years, but it was way worse with my bout in september and now.

my gastroentrologist suggested i get tested for adrenal insufficiency. in looking that up, it looks scary, but i don’t have most of the symptoms outside of extreme fatigue which is listed on top.

made myself a bacon cheeseburger for dinner. DOES THAT HAVE IRON?

i don’t think the bleeding is the cause of any of my fatigue anyway.

gonna try to eat more meat and fish because i go long stretches of time without it.

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Ok I have dealt with iron issues a bit. Yes, the cheeseburger should help.

Did your dr test your iron levels? There are several ways low iron could show up. Do you donate blood? If so, see if the problem improves in 8 weeks.

My hemoglobin was in the normal range but my dr tested something else and found a deficiency and she had me take a certain kind of iron for 30 days. I’ll have to pull up the records and see.

But also, thyroid issues can cause both wacky periods and tiredness, and TSH alone (what most drs check) doesn’t tell the whole story. So you might ask for a complete thyroid panel if they haven’t done that. (I had to switch drs to finally get that done, even with both my parents and a sister having thyroid issues.)

ETA my dr checked Ferritin and total iron and that was low when hemoglobin looked fine. She just had me take a multivitamin with iron for that, and I take it still.

Then last year on my CBC, my MCV & MCH were low & she said that suggested iron deficiency. I don’t know what those are. She specifically suggested 65mg of elemental iron for 30 days.

My primary care physician basically ghosted me when she couldn’t figure out what was wrong after my blood tests came back normal. Then I magically felt better after about 6 weeks of crushing fatigue. Now I feel bad again 6 months later. So not really sure what to do. I’m thinking my primary care physician might be incompetent. Don’t really know how to go about finding a competent one. I’ll have to look at my blood tests when I manage to drag myself out of bed again and see what was done to compare with what youre saying. Iirc almost all came back normal, likely including iron from my tests 6 months ago.

It tends to be at its worst the later in the day it gets and I feel somewhat normal in the mornings.

I’m not sure my period being wacky this one month has any underlying cause than my age. It was normal when I had the earlier bout with fatigue. I think this fatigue thing has happened to me years ago every so often but just never this bad and didn’t seem to have anything to do with my period.

Hoping sleep this weekend will magically cure me.

Doctors are so useless to me with this.

I don’t donate blood.

Based on what you’re saying maybe I’ll try just taking iron on my own and increasing my food intake with iron and see what happens since doctors are so entirely useless so far.

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