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Last fall, I had bloodwork done. I guess I should mention I am female. Here were the numbers:
serum ferritin: 21 (my doc. said this was normal!)
hemoglobin: 13.7
hematocrit: 39.4
serum iron: 80
Do y'all think these numbers are on the low end?
Prior to this blood test, I was having sub-par performances and generally felt weak. I supplemented with iron and was able to make some progress, but I ceased taking iron this past summer. Huge mistake! I'm back to where I started last year.
Is there a correlation between HGB, HCT or RBCs on serrum ferritin?
Do you know of some reason why serum ferritin isn't a standard part of a CBC?
This discussion lead me to pull up some blood test results i've had over the years when i suspected anemia (turned out to be hypothyoridism) and noticed that every single one of them has values in the low normal range (even after treatment for hypothyroidism).
It makes me wonder if my ferritin is still low and wondered if there was an equation to estimate ferritin based on HBB, HCT or RBCs.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge on this board.
Do you know of some reason why serum ferritin isn't a standard part of a CBC?
Good question. I had to request a serum ferritin test.
is there an MCV (mean corpuscle volume) value on your results?
i ask because the MCV being on the high end of normal (100-120) could be indicative of hypothyroidism, alcohloism, liver disease, or myelodysplasia. i'm reading page 335 from the "textbook of running medicine".
jane of the waking universe wrote:
Last fall, I had bloodwork done. I guess I should mention I am female. Here were the numbers:
serum ferritin: 21 (my doc. said this was normal!)
hemoglobin: 13.7
hematocrit: 39.4
serum iron: 80
Do y'all think these numbers are on the low end?
Prior to this blood test, I was having sub-par performances and generally felt weak. I supplemented with iron and was able to make some progress, but I ceased taking iron this past summer. Huge mistake! I'm back to where I started last year.
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Your readings appear to be well within normal ranges. However, it would be interesting to see what your previous readings were, if you have them. Everyone should have a base line to go back to since everyone runs differently at different levels. I'll take your reading any day! For a women, being on a supplement during the season is just a very good idea (ask your doc for proper dosage). Gettng checked every 6 months is also a good idea, especially if you are competing year round. With your readings I cannot believe extra iron will increase your performance but everyone is different. Have you considered over or under training? good luck!
Yeah, I wish I knew what my previous readings were. I read that some exercise physiologists think performance is impaired if serum ferritin is sub 30. I wonder if some ex.physos disagree.
Have you considered over or under training?
Yes, I have a tendency to overreach. I'm also older (35). I've had to implement safeguards such as more recovery days, etc.
leafy spinach has no more iron than dust. it has been a long held myth thanks to a mixed up decimal point in a lab experiment.
What the various symptoms of anemia? Thanks.
My freshman year I was running high 17's for the 5k off of basically no training. I did high mileage going into my sophomore year, probably 80 on average and ended up running the exact same times as my freshman year because I was always tired. I could not do workouts. I'd venture to say it added 2 min. or so to my time.
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This fall i had bloodwork done because I had trouble just running an easy pace, it always felt like i was racing even though i was running at a slower pace. I could tell that something was not right, ans also when i ran hard my heartrate was really low after a hard run.
My hemoglobin was 9.1 which is very low, along with my iron and other levels being drasticly low. At the beggining of my season of XC i was running a upper 32's for an 8k but when i started taking Iron supplements at about 165mg a day I went from a 32 min 8k to a 30 min 8k in just a week then 2 weeks after that I ran a 28:30 8k on a very hilly course. It depends on the person as to how fast you can recover form anemia when you begin to take suppliments.
some local chick who i usually beat by a minute over 5k kicked my ass. I started taking my iron after that.
Your hemoglobin is within the normal range and higher than mine. I don't know what my anemia is doing to me but now I'm more depressed about it.
My son's senior cross-country season has not been going well and frankly he has not been feeling well since late summer. His words are more poignant (he felt like utter crap) and this has been going on for a few months now. He has been dropping his training volume dramatically--he's down to roughly 40 miles a week or less now and was still tired as hell. He started taking 1 iron supplement tablet (65mg) about a month ago, but no change. We had thought about getting a blood test, but he pulled out the 16:37 on a tough course and we thought he was looking up again. Then he had the flu, which we thought might have been the cause, although in hindsight that wasn’t correct.
Last week, he ran a 16:49 when we really thought he was going to run 16:00 or better. The course was a little long, but the big concern was the way he looked at a mile--he was just holding on and laboring. And he was laboring tremendously coming in--again a bad indicator as he usually finishes strong. We went ahead and took the blood test on Monday and cut back his running a bit more.
This week, we ran the home meet and he was very hopeful (expected) to break 16:00. The course has one large hill, but can be fast. He ended up running 17:09, slower than last year and was exhausted. He said he was dead coming off of the hill. That afternoon the doctor called and said Nathan's iron levels were way below normal. Iron Serum(?) level was 49 mcg/dL when normal range is 70-180 mcg/dL. Low hemoglobin, the works.
Although this is bad news, for him it was good as it's been terrible for him. Not only was he running much slower than anticipated, running was becoming drudgery and he didn't know why--he thought he was just mental. We actually have something now, he can work on. The Doctor has prescribed one 350 MG iron pill for a couple of days and then two of them a day (700 MG) till we get him back up. Does this pseudo-science community think that's good?
Any ideas you have will be appreciated on the subject, as we're told this is not an overnight fix--based on this thread its pretty apparent it may take a month or more to sort out.
When a runner (or other endurance athlete) starts feeling lousy on a regular basis (not just now and then), something is wrong. The check list I go through is to talk about amount of sleep, any particular problems in life, any rather strange diet being experimented with. If negative to all these then get a blood test. Ask to see the numbers, not just have to deal with, "you are in the normal range; nothing is wrong." If hemoglobin, hematocrit are 13.5 or higher and HCT over 40 then things do look good there. Ferritin is less telling as some people staty pretty low and do well (I tested a guy for 5 years and never saw his ferritin over 29-- nor under 22 -- and he was an Olympic champion). Normal range in ferritin varies from lab to lab, but often numbers like 20-200 or such values are thrown out there. More important here is how does a test now coompare to one a couple months ago, or a couple months from now -- if more recnt tests are higher then you are doing well, if lower, something needs to be done. If all is OK on the iron front, check for mono. IF negative there, get a thyroid test. I know a woman marathoner who went from running low 2:30 marathon to a 1-mile time trial in 7:20 with a heart rate of 200, in a matter of a few months. After many blood tests (her dad was a physician) they finally go to a thyroid test and that was not sormal (not even too bad), and with proper medication she made the next Olympic team in the marathon. Find a good hematologist to work with, and if the one you use is not up on sports have them consult with one who is. Get tested when you feel great running, so if the day ever comes that you don't feel good you have some baseline data to compare with. A 20 ferritin is sort of meaningless with nothing to compare with
Alright I've got a copy of my son's lab results now and I'm unsure of the recorded areas. He has two result areas highlighted with words below stating very low. The first result: IRON 49 (normal range 70-180 mcg/dL); the next is TIBC 220 (normal range 250-450 mcg/dL). I do not see a ferritin level, which I suppose means they didn't do that test. Obviously, the iron level is low, but does anyone know what test that is for? and TIBC? Thanks for any words/advice.
I don't know if the Ex Phys Doc is still around, but as I've read back through this thread, I see he mentions a Serum Iron < 60 is bad. I'm guessing that is the unknown IRON result (49) from my son's lab results. Anyone have an idea on the TIBC?
Also, his informative post makes the comeback look even longer than the doctor had said for my son...any way to accelerate?
What is your sons hematocrit level? Is it 49? The normal range for a healthy person is about 42-47.
No. His hematocrit level isn't too bad it's 44.2. Actually, as I'm looking at it his hemoglobin still falls in the "normal" range as well, barely--13.1 with the range being 13.0-16.0. It's really the IRON, which I'm pretty sure now is a serum iron reading (49), which is very low (70-180 norm). Still don't know about the TIBC though?