What is a natural remedy for iron deficiency, I lost a LOT of blood recently and my cell count is low?

Question

Iron tablets make me feel lousy. Does red wine help? What foods and drinks ( tea/coffee ) will help? Is Guinness any good? What veggies will help. Any natural remedy would be preferable.

Answer 1

i was told to eat a few prunes a day it brings your blood count up

Answer 2

blackstrap molasses is good for iron.

Answer 3

Leafy green vegetables are always good.  Of course liver is also good.  I recently read that if you drink a glass of orange juice with your meal, that it increases your body's ability to absorb iron.  Once when I was anemic, I started eating "Total" cereal.  It contains vitamins.  My blood was MUCH better after only a month of eating it.

Answer 4

Iron rich foods help. Here's a list:

http://www.healthcastle.com/iron.shtml

The best iron replacement is a product called Floradix

http://www.florahealth.com/flora/home/Ca...

Answer 5

"RAW" spinach & radish leaves are packed with iron...

Answer 6

lots of spinich (green leafy veggies) and red meat!

also a guinness every now and then will be good for you!

not tea coffee or red wine,

oh another really good thing to eat is liver, i hate the stuff but it really does build up your iron stores.

Answer 7

Two tablespoons of liquid chlorophyll a day. It got my iron count up almost immediately. I used to suffer on and off from anemia. It tastes terrible but you can stick it in juice. You can buy it at a health food store and it's pretty inexpensive. Good luck!

Answer 8

Many good ideas here.  Very lean meat, if you add meat, and make broth from the bones (the marrow is an excellent source of iron).  Using osso bucco-type bones (lamb shank) has LOTS of marrow.  

I always use non-sulphured dried California apricots (I used to be borderline low when I gave blood and this raises it quickly).  And the spinach is good, lightly cooked to unbind some of the nutrients.

Answer 9

When women are pregnant and about to give birth, they are often anaemic.  This state, however, can lead to maternal death from hemorrhage and so it is imperative that any midwife bring a woman's crit up IMMEDIATELY, especially if they are close to birth.  There is a liquid iron supplement which is highly absorbable and will bring a crit up within days.  It is called Floradix.  It is non-toxic and non-constipating.  It is made from fruits, vegetables and herbs.  It's Swiss in origin, made by a company called Salus, LLC, and it works WONDERFULLY!  All the other sources of iron listed will work, too, with the possible exception of the spinach as it is so high in oxalic acid that it tends not to have a lot of readily available iron.  (My understanding is that the oxalic acid makes the iron not bio-available.)  Add to the list dried fruits, dark cherries, eggs (especially the yolks), molasses and brewer's yeast, plus almost all green veg except for spinach, beet greens and chard.  I'd eat even those.  They've got to be more healthy for you than ANY dessert.  The post about Vit C being a co-factor for iron absorption is absolutely true, too.

Answer 10

Red meat is the best source of iron in that your body can absorb it easily. If you'd rather avoid red meat, drink orange juice with whatever source of iron you choose--green leafy vegetables, supplements, etc. The vitamin C in the juice helps your body to absorb the iron.

Answer 11

try and take iron tablets if you can although i have to same trouble with them upsetting my stomach.

guiness or stout beer is a good source of iron, ( they used to recommend it for pregnant ladies) or believe or not corn beef. my doctor told me corn beef is high in iron and of course green vegitables

cabbage sprouts and most green veg is good and rich in iron.

ps ohhhhhh yes and liver.

Answer 12

Guiness is no better than most beers for increasing iron this is a myth.

Foods rich in Haem iron are, red meat, liver and of course black pudding.

foods rich in non haem iron are, Red kidney beans, dark green leafy vegetables, pulses and currents. There are probably lots more.

Iron absorbtion is actually helped by mild alcohol consumption so red wine may be helpful.

Spinach is very rich in iron but also another chemical (i have forgoton the name, maybe someone else can help!) which inhibits iron absorption. Consequently this isn't the best way to get it.

Ensuring you have a rich supply of vitamin B12 will help your body manufacture good blood cells. this is readily found in animal products and yeast extracts.

Answer 13

The nurse at the blood donor session always advises to eat breakfast cereals, as they are fortified with iron, vitamins and minerals.

A natural and delicious way to up your iron levels.

Answer 14

spinach and curly kale red meat guinisse

Answer 15

A low RBC count is not the same as iron deficiency. Unless you were already iron deficient, just eat a balanced diet ... your body evolved to handle things like this, but it doesn't fix itself overnight. (males are almost never iron-deficient).

If you lost a lot of blood ... you lost a lot of cells. It takes a while to rebuild the cells ... a couple of  weeks to replace a 1-pint blood donation, for example. I don't know what you cinsider "lots" of blood, but it can take a couple of months to get back to normal.

You are constantly making RBC, but if there is a sudden loss, the  body has to first make the cells that make the RBCs ... and after those are made it takes 7 days to get a cell from into the circulation.

Answer 16

Have you heard of Floradix? It comes in a bottle or tablet form. You can buy it without prescription or your doc can probably prescribe it. It's an entirely natural iron supplement with much fewer side effects than the other types. The other natural iron supplement is Spatone. It comes as little sachets of iron rich mineral water. you take one a day in a glass of water or orange juice - again,entirely natural and gentle on the body. Either of these would be available from your pharmacy or health food store. Red wine would not help. Modern Guinness would probably be more processed than the old version that was used as a tonic years ago. Best stay away from alcohol anyway til you build yourself up again. My personal favourite would be the Floradix Liquid Iron tonic; Stay away from tea/coffee for a half hour before or after taking iron or you'll be wasting your time because they block absorption. If you are very anaemic, your doctor may recommend iron injections -a bit sore, but they do the trick.

Answer 17

Pumpkin seeds are high in iron  as are chick peas and spinach.

Answer 18

dark green vegetables like spring cabbage, spinach kale broccoli brussel sprouts etc. also lean red meats or liver, sea food like oysters clams tuna.  beans pasta and fortified cereals. drinks like stout or guiness also have iron in them.

Answer 19

Drink tea and coffee between meals and not with meals. The tannin reduces iron absorption from food. Eat a lot of green leafy vegetables which are iron-rich. Red meat is also rich in iron. Vitamin C enhances iron absorption, so eat plenty of fresh fruit and veg, and have a glass of orange juice with your meals. A lot of breakfast cereals have added iron too, and so does some bread. Check the labels.

Hope you soon feel better.

Answer 20

Iron tablets aren't recommended. They can cause hair loss and horrible side effects from toxicity.

Sources of iron are: red meat (like medium rare steak, liver, etc), beets, spinach, leafy vegetables. If you eat a lot of red meat you still run the risk of toxicity, but the iron is more readily absorbed because it is in natural food form.

Some things to help increase you iron absorbtion would be to eat iron-rich foods in conjunction with Vitamin-C rich foods. Vitamin C improves the absorption of iron. However, it is recommended that you get your iron from meat sources because vegetable sources, although still great, contain plant fiber which inhibits iron absorption by the body