How bad did anemia affect you?

i can recall my hematocrit and ferritin levels, but my hemoglobin level was about 13.

as soon as i started into my runs, my breathing was heavier than normal. when i sat up from lying down, my HR would shot up from like 40 BPM to over 100. and it would take a while for my HR to come back down to normal after runs. also got lightheaded when standing up after sitting for a while.

it wasnt too bad for me--screwed up my marathon training at the time--though i still continued to run, just really slowly.

during that period of my life, i wasnt eating a whole lot of red meat and drank tons of green tea--which they say is a strong inhibitor of iron absorption. so whatever little iron i was getting may not have been getting absorbed.

i started eating more iron rich foods--liver, spinach, beef, and stopped drinking tea at my meals. after a few months, i started feeling better. i never went onto supplements b/c my doc didnt think i needed them.

good luck.

it added a minute to my 5k.

Hey, I recently had a blood test done about three weeks ago, and my ferritin was at 14.8. Very low. But, I had received a lot of help from people to get me to recover.

I take a Centrum pill everyday. Not so much for ferritin (although it does have iron in it) but more for nutrients. I believe this helps.

Also, as mentioned earlier, I am eating much better. I try and get a steak once a week (although that gets pricey) and I eat much more veggies. Following Jared isn't so bad, I've had a number of Subway meals as well (lots of veggies-lettuce, cucumbers, etc...) and I think that did the trick.

My ferritin is up to the low 90s now. I feel much better. I was actually training for a marathon when I started feeling lousy (mostly the same symptoms you were having). My PR 5k is 15:19 (although that was a few years ago) but I recently (July, or June, can't remember) ran a 10k just over 33min. I've put in over 60 mpw within the past few weeks, with long runs at 18.5 miles avg. just under 7 min pace, and I feel great when I'm done. Before it was very difficult to wake up and do much of any kind of activity.

My advice...get some mutivitamins, eat good, and get an iron supplement of some sort. Keep running, but slower and shorter distances. After a few weeks, get another blood test and see where you're at.

I hope you feel better.

Close to five minutes over 8k.

ANEMIA RUINS RUNNING! LOL!

I'm running with anemia now. I'm sure there are varying opinions on this, but I'm continuing running despite a horrendously low hemoglobin level (11.5 as 2 weeks ago, 10.0 as of mid-August). The reason for such low levels was a rare form of internal bleeding that just happened one day (yeah good genes). My ferritin was also quite low, so it's interesting I was probably heading toward anemia anyway.

But for your question...your hemoglobin has only gone up .2 g/dL in 8 weeks (although how hydrated you are at the time of testing affects the results), so most of the time you've been running things haven't improved much, so it just feels worse.

I don't know how you take the supplements, but here's what I do, and particularly since I upped it to twice a day in a more expensive liquid form (as opposed to the cheap pills) I've felt much better. I have it with breakfast and dinner, and make sure there's very little if any calcium within two hours of those meals (and then during the day I try to squeeze in all the calcium I can!). I also have it with mixed with something with vitamin C for better absorption.

Anyway, your doctor probably told you all that so don't mind the repeating. Tons of sleep is super important, too, and also, though it's not likely, it's possible you're losing blood gradually from somewhere. I know it sounds ridiculous but I'm 21, eat well, blah blah blah and I never expected to be running a 7-miler one day and in intensive care the next, and unless you've been taking all your iron with calcium and no vitamin C it seems odd your levels have stayed down for two months.

And for pace...I really just let my body do whatever it wants to do on any given day, so if you're feeling dead and still low on iron, just forget the pride and let the guys with strollers pass you as you run those 8 minute miles. Hope you feel better.

Thanks. I have been taking iron supplements, both pill and liquid form. I don't track the amount but it's in excess of 150mg/day. The liquid bottle is supposed to be 90 doses but I've just about drained it in less than a month. I also take a multi, magnesium, zinc, calcuim, C, E, and occasionally potassium.

I'm getting tests to see if I'm losing iron anywhere, but I'm running Chicago tomorrow (really should have just given it up) so they have to wait a few days until everything flushes out of my system.

Very, very frustrating.

I think I can take the record for this one... my hemoglobin was 7.2 and my ferritin was 1, i.e. as low as is possible, go me.... I'm a girl but it was still taking me 28+ min to run 5K, and after a few months on iron I was running in the 18s.

Weird how Dr's down-play this whole iron issue. I saw 2 Sports Med guys because I wanted 2 opinions on this problem we call anemia. I had a Serum Ferritin level that was off the chart low range is 11-200 mine was below 10, when its that low you do not usually get a number...I went from racing well over 5km and the mile, sub 18 for 5km and 5:07 for the mile, to struggling to make it through a 5 mile race in July. I was breathless going up-stairs and I had heart palpitations, basically I was worn out with lead legs all the time and I felt depressed on top of all that.

I basically took the Summer off, hiking and slow jogs, and am just comning around abit now. My most recent blood work shows stored iron at 22 thats Serum Ferritin, but the overall iron count is now 28 points too high. I have supplemented since finding I was in dire straits, and take a natural form of Iron called Floradix, a natural supplement that has alot of B vitamins and Vit C for absorbtion. The Docs say I was "over-trained" and thats why I had this issue, they also tell me that this has no effect on running, but I know better, and so do you guys that have battled this issue... Another Dr posting from Italy on a seperate running message board tells me not to worry about my overall iron being high, what do you think? Any Dr's out there that know about this? I have found the ones I have seen locally to be less than helpful. I am glad to say I am on the road back from this pit and will need to take iron the rest of my running life I am sure...

sarah,can you email me so i can ask you an iron/heart palpitations question? something is definately wrong with me but i wanted to see if you had the same thing going on as i did.

A doctor should never down play anemia, and I am not sure how they could have come up with your iron count being too high, when Ferritin was only 22. Ferritin can only indicate iron deficiency-not anemia.

It is also hard to base your iron status just on Ferritin. You should assess hemoglobin, hematocrit and serum iron/total iron binding capacity (to get something we call transferrin saturation). Together, this can tell a doctor what stage of iron deficiency you are in and provide the appropriate dosage to help you regain and maintain adequate iron status.

When the body does not have enough hemoglobin, it cannot transport oxygen well b/c hemoglobin is the protein responsible for binding oxygen and helping to remove carbon dioxide. That is why with anemia we see a significant drop in maximal oxygen consumption and slower pace at the lactate threshold (i.e lactate accumulates much more so and at slower paces). Thus, the decrement in performance and it also reduces the ability to recover after training. You usually feel tired on a regular basis-despite enough sleep.

Overtraining can lead to anemia b/c it can cause you to reduce food intake without realizing you are doing so; so this may be where the doctors were going with that.

Here are some general guidlines for iron status based on stages:

Stage one iron deficiency: Ferritin < 20 ng/dl. Takes approximately 1 month to come back from it.

Stage two iron deficiency (erythropoiesis): Ferritin < 20 ng/dl, Transferrin Saturation < 20%, Serum Iron < 60. Takes approximately 8-12 weeks to come back.

Stage three iron deficiency anemia: All of the above plus a hemoglobin less than 12 g/dl and hematocrit less than 38% (for athletes; non athletes they usually use 36%). Usually takes 4-6 months to fully come back.

The time it takes for someone to come back from any decline in iron deficiency is always individual but is often dependent on their willingness to increase iron intake in the diet-usually red meat since this offers the greatest form of the most absorbable iron.

Hope this helps

I also wondered the same thing. I had a ferritin level of 24 and an iron level of 70, so I started supplementing at the advice of my doctor. After 3 months of taking an oral supplement, my iron levels shot up to over 170, but my ferritin remained 26. My hematocrit and hemoglobin are high and always have been -- 14 and 44.

I had it explained to me that my ferritin just remained low for some reason and if my other levels were high, I shouldn't worry. I continue to wonder if there is someway to increase my ferritin without increasing my overall iron level. Wouldn't it affect my performance positively to have a higher ferritin level?

After I got my anemia under control (my ferritin was once 11), I took over 2 minutes off of my 5K time!

Thank you very much for your intelligent post. Basically my hematocrit is around 39.1 and Hemoglobin about 13.8, when my Serum Ferritin was low in Utah a year ago ( not as low as it got here in NY) I was at 21 and the transferrin was 308. I am not sure what the transferrin is now, but I believe the test said my total iron capacity was 28 points "out of range" over the top of the scale they use. The letter I just got from the most recent Sports Med guy has my Serum iron at 198 whatever that means. He told me not to take iron every day, but another Dr , on another message board said not to worry and that the SF still needs to come up and be closer to 40 than where it is at 22. I am also puzzled how SF can still be low, but the saturation of iron be so high ,and what sort of health risks I might be facing. I think I was low all through my mile indoor season, and got to the point in the Spring where my quads would hurt for hours after a speed work out or race and then the times went from 18 flat and sub 18 to barely cracking 19 minutes. I would last ok in a mile race because the breathlessness and utter fatigue would kick in some time after about 5 hard minutes of racing.I do feel like I am on the mend and have always eaten red meat regularly, have normal regular cycles as well... Its still a puzzle to me, for now I think I will stick with the Floradix liquid iron as its very natural and less harsh on my system than the pills...

I am glad to hear that they checked more than just your ferritin. The reason ferritin stays low despite a normal hemoglobin and hemtocrit, is that inflamnation from training induces what are called cytokines-they act on the liver and indirectly on the intestines. By doing so, they cause a rise in what is known as Hepcidin which then goes to the intestines and signals what is known as ferroportin (the transporter for absorbing iron from the gut)to decrease and the body will then only absorbed the bare minimum iron needed-thus why ferritin stores do not rise any further.

The disadvantage to taking large doses of iron on a daily basis is that this can suppress what we call erythropoiesis-ie the making of new red blood cells-by causing a decline in EPO-the hormone responsible for red blood cell synthesis. Thus, if all the other parameters are normal for iron status, you should just maintenance with the recommended daily allowance (i.e 18mg for women and 10mg for men).

Because of the way your legs feel, etc...I would recommend consuming some type of carbohydrate/protein beverage immediately post exercise (i.e a boost, ensure, Met-Rx drink, etc...or just good ole fashined milk will do). Do this everyday within one hour of training, and if possible get your legs flushed out by a trainer if your a student athlete or use a rolling pin gently (its the cheap version of "The Stick")to massage your legs...you should feel alot better, and it will decrease the inflammation.

Best of Luck

what are the symptoms of anemia?

Hey guys.

How rare is it for a male to struggle from anemia?

These past few weeks i have been not able to make it through any run without walking, and only 3 weeks ago i averaged 5:30 on 6 mile repeats, and now i can not go under 6 on any with an average of 6:20. Today i ran a 5k race in 20:11 compared to 18:30 from 2 weeks ago. I run around the first 5 minutes on pace and then start fading just before the mile mark. Does this sound like anemia.

Thank you for your very quick response from my post! I would like to update you with Sarah's new blood results & see if you have any further comments. The first blood test was from July 11th, 2005; new results from the last test from Aug 12, 2005 are as follows. We don't have the Transferrin Saturation in front of us, sorry.Serum Ferritin is now 22, the scale being 11-307; in July it was lower than 10. Hemoglobin is now 12.8; in July it was 12.9. RBC is 4.25; in July it was 4.27. Hematocrit is now 38; in July it was 39. Total Iron is now 198!!, range is 28-170; in July it was 39. Her training is half as much as before & we followed the advice to take liquid iron. As you can see her stored total iron is now off the charts but her Serum Ferritin is just in the lower end of the correct range. Sarah is chomping at the bit to start training harder, she is feeling much more rested & able to run faster without as much fatigue. If it is possible she would like to break 5 minutes for the mile indoors this winter season which will break the WR for Females over 45 (5:08.55), as last year March, 2005 she ran 5:07.2. Thanks,John & Sarah Stiner jzstiner@zoom-dsl.com

1500 meter runner: Yes it sounds like iron, go to a drugstore and buy iron pills and start taking them asap. Seriously. When I had it I knew something was wrong when I could not finish a workout. When I started a workout it felt like I had just finished a workout if that makes any sense.

My XC 5K times this fall are about 2 min. slower than last fall due to anemia (hemoglobin=11), and I had a much better summer (mileage wise) than last year. I shouldn't have stopped taking Fe supplements this summer!!

At least with anemia you know how to fix it...