14 as ferritin

Yes 14 is quite low. Ideally, you want to be well over 30, and 50+ would be even better. How do you feel running? Are you struggling to keep your pace? You’ll feel a lot better when you get your ferritin up, that’s for sure.

yes, actually i have slowed down quite a bit in my past few races... what should i do about this? Like people i was beating a couple of months ago are about the same pace as me

This is low and probably why you are feeling slower. I would see your doctor-but taking iron supplements is probably going to be your best best. Also make sure your diet includes iron rich foods.

Hemaplex works well for a lot of athletes. Start off at 1mg/kg/day. If you don't have digestive issues, go up to 2mg/kg/day after a week. Then to 3mg/kg/day the third week if still no issues. I don't recommend going above that for teenagers.

https://www.amazon.com/Hemaplex-Natures-Plus-60-Softgel/dp/B06WVL12RL/ref=pd_sim_121_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B06WVL12RL&pd_rd_r=7NNTSP8X3H6ZKWRQNJW9&pd_rd_w=LJBuD&pd_rd_wg=gajzJ&psc=1&refRID=7NNTSP8X3H6ZKWRQNJW9

You want to get the ferritin up to about 100-150

hsxcironman wrote:

You want to get the ferritin up to about 100-150

Mine is 397, but I'm a mutant.

You are even racing? My daughter's was measured at 13 and her coaches (who seem knowledgeable on this issue) made her sit out several races and also take it easy for about 4 weeks (very little running, some biking/elliptical). She's just now starting to get some energy back and is allowed to run races now but only as tempos. Her season goals are probably shot though so she's now mostly looking forward to track.

From what I hear it takes months to get it up to decent levels, unless you do intravaneous drips but that's hard for regular people to get.

The people on her team who have had this issue before swear by floradix liquid

My daughter should have been taking some supplements this summer just as a preventative.

The good news is that you will probably run MUCH faster once you get this fixed. There was someone on my daughter's team last year who had this problem and through supplementation and care got her levels up. She is now tearing it up this year almost 2 minutes faster for 5k.

hsxcironman wrote:

You want to get the ferritin up to about 100-150

No, that is ridiculous.

beenthere8 wrote:

hsxcironman wrote:

You want to get the ferritin up to about 100-150

No, that is ridiculous.

Tell that to Geb (150) and Bekele (250).

Men and women have different expected levels.

14 is low. Liquid iron works well for my daughter. She has been taking it twice a day for a month (her ferritin was tested below 10 a month ago) with vitamin c. We saw some pretty quick improvements. We are waiting results of her latest blood work.

You may need to take a stool softener.

You can still run while your ferritin is low but do not expect great things. It usually takes 6 weeks for your iron level to be at a good level. I would say 40-50 is a good level. It is ok to be higher.

There is good information out their just Google ferritin and endurance athletes.

calirunfan wrote:

14 is low. Liquid iron works well for my daughter. She has been taking it twice a day for a month (her ferritin was tested below 10 a month ago) with vitamin c. We saw some pretty quick improvements. We are waiting results of her latest blood work.

Let us know how the next blood results are, along with how much she weighs and how much she took over the time period between her first and second test. Otherwise the information is much too ambiguous and could be placebo.

If her ferritin is below 10 and has been taking iron twice a day (which will increase her ferritin levels) and her times are improving how would it be placebo?

If her ferritin isn't going up there would not be an improvement in performance.

calirunfan wrote:

If her ferritin is below 10 and has been taking iron twice a day (which will increase her ferritin levels) and her times are improving how would it be placebo?

If her ferritin isn't going up there would not be an improvement in performance.

The point is, you don't actually know that her ferritin levels have gone up. Sure, they probably have, but without testing you can't be certain. Saying she takes iron "twice a day" is meaningless without knowing how much she's taking or how much she weighs.

So you're saying the only thing that improves performance is ferritin?

Not trying to get in an argument, but being more specific would really help. For instance, what exactly was her ferritin? How much exactly is she taking? How much does she weigh? How much have her times improved exactly? How much has her ferritin gone up?

There is a lot of information that can be found googling as previously suggested, but most of it is extremely vague and not at all helpful.

I hope you understand why I wouldn't want to give exact personal information about my daughter even on an anonymous message board.

The information that can be found by searching on the web is not vague. The search engine or reading comprehension may be lacking.

If you understand the impact of a ferritin level below 10 you will understand that an increase in performance (~2mins) is significantly more likely due to increased ferritin level than something else.

You've been interested in this topic for how long now? A bit under a month? See how many other cases you can find of people dropping 40 seconds a mile in a few weeks. Something else has changed for your daughter if she dropped 40 seconds a mile.

If you say your daughters ferritin is 7, she weighs 103 pounds and is taking 60mgs per day of liquid iron do you think everyone is going to know who she is? Because that only narrows it down to about 10,000 girls running HS XC.

I have been interested in probably a whole lot longer than yourself and/or at least understand it a whole lot more than you. You are the one asking questions and don't seem to understand how ferritin affects running and say the research that is available is vague. If you understood it you would be offering solutions and not asking questions. Clearly you want someone to spoon feed you the answers. If you understood the issue you would know how off your comment about 10,000 high school girls have a ferritin level of 7 is.

Do some reading and educate yourself.

Anything under 50 is low!

My research on ferritin says that low levels can absolutely impact performance. Ferritin helps supply oxygen to your muscles when the supply is low (like in a race!)

I was crashing in my races after a mile, and I didn't understand it. I just had no energy halfway through a race. My ferritin was tested at 12. After four weeks of supplements, it was up to 40, and my times improved by 30-40 seconds. No more mid-race crashes. PS I am a male, so it is not just a problem for women.

If I had known during the summer, I would have taken iron as a precaution. I will bet that many HS distance runners have low levels and don't know it. The typical blood test for iron does not include ferritin - you have to ask the doctor to include it. My iron test at the start of the summer looked normal, but that was without ferritin. Now I take a maintenance supplement and get tested every three months.