I deal with that all the time, but I have Crohn's disease. D3 and Iron go together. Doesn't matter how many iron rich foods I eat or how much I supplement. For me it's 50,000 iu of D3 once a week and Iron injections every 2-5 months. It makes a huge difference in my ability to train.

I was diagnosed with iron deficiency about 13 years ago. I had cameras put in places where the sun don't shine to make sure that it was not cancer. All good.

I eat plenty of meat and green vegetables. The only way for me to maintain my iron levels at normal is to take an iron supplement.

When I was first diagnosed it took me about 4 months of iron supplements to bring my iron levels back to a normal level. I get my iron levels tested annually. I can now recognise the early signs of my iron levels being too low and increase my supplementation accordingly.

Google "iron deficiency endurance athlete" you will that it is reasonably common.

Talk to your doc to make sure that the iron deficiency is not due to a major medical condition If everything is OK your doc should be able to recommend how much iron supplementation you require.

Saying eating red based meats may not be good enogh... the meat mist stay more red, if you turn it brown then the iron is damaged. That you can see with cheap can tuna vs high grade sushi kind

Interested in hearing how this turns out for you. Of course, the why behind your iron deficiency is the main question, and I hope your doc can narrow things down for you.

That being said, after trying numerous iron supplements over many years, I really like Hema-Plex iron-- it's a 'blood-booster' blend containing B's, C and Iron and doesn't cause any GI upset like most iron pills (at least for me).

Good luck!

,

We are endurance athletes and to some extent we are supposed to have fatigue, that is very much part of the process. It requires some level of objective introspection in terms of why one feels the way they do. Questions to ask: Did I pick up a little bug, am I overtrained, am I undertrained, having I been getting enough rest?. Personally, I am getting a blood test every quarter, I have been pushing this quarter off, but it is a good reminder to do so thanks for that. Part of the problem with the usual doctor is they don't get to see many of us, How many high-level athletes does your doctor see? So often times they really don't know what is normal and what we are going thru.

Fwiw, it is quite common for endurance athletes to be low in Iron, Vitamin D, Magnesium, and of course T. Many many athletes who walk into the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Spring have deficiencies. When you look at my blood test values from last quarter the only issue I had was that T was on the lower side of the range, but if you talk to my Doctor thru ABT, Dr. Rock, he would tell that given my status as professional, my results are actually quite normal or even good (relatively speaking). And that is the one advantage of ABT. They work with athletes almost exclusively and have a lot of research in compiling that labs of athletes. Which brings me back to the reality that training is very hard on the body and we tend to deplete certain things more so than others. I think many athletes are shocked to find out that they have Vitamin D deficiency despite training outdoors. The question is whether that is actually causing the specific symptoms and that is

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This information will be helpful:
Are you male or female?
How old are you?
Over the last few months, how many hours a week do you train?

For the experts of ST:
Do Low Unbound Iron Binding Capacity and Low Total Iron Binding Capacity indicate iron deficiency?

Low D is typical as one ages. The iron data may or may not be significant. First, what is your hemoglobin and hematocrit?

Iron is a chemical element, not a chemical compound. To "damage iron" one would need a nuclear reaction. Something else may happen to meat during cooking to inhibit body's ability to absorb iron from it, but I don't know. Or, iron is bound to something else, probably oxygen to form iron oxide, and cooking changes that compound. There are 16 forms of iron oxide. Maybe we absorb iron better from some oxides than others? But I wouldn't know anything about that. I do know physics. :)

Anyhow, add me to the list for GI problems leading to up and down fatigue which affects training. I suspect iron but we have not gotten it tested while I was in the down phase. D3 is low. I know that.

No they don't in iron deficiency they go up. At least TIBC does I don't use UIBC. I hardly ever use TIBC either I just order a ferritin which measures iron stores quite well unless there is a reason to suspect an inflammatory disorder. If the ferritin isn't helpful then I order TIBC. As somebody else has stated the hemoglobin level and the MCV number would be helpful as would the pts age. These kind of numbers can be seen in anemia of chronic disease which can be related to any one of a large number of conditions. You have to look for the underlying condition. The vitamin D being low could be due to poor absorption or due to lack of sunlight (we just got out of winter)..

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

You could have anemia of chronic disease which is caused by any one of a large number of inflammatory conditions. I wouldn't add any more details because there are alot and depending on your age and if you have other conditions it would determine the approach to a degree. Your doctor needs to figure out why. Your age and absolute hgb and mcv number would be helpful. If they did a ferritin it would help too. Vitamin D is likely low because of lack of sunlight (we just got through winter) Could also be due to poor absorption for some reason too.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

Male
45 years old
Training volume has been averaging about 12 hr/ week save one week when I was travelling.

Thanks!

MCV was 79 fL
Ferritin was not run.

Thanks for the help and insight!

Hemoglobin was 13.5 g/DL
Hematocrit was 40%


Thanks!

Thanks.

Yeah, it started as even on a rest day I'm so fatigued by 3-4pm that I have a hard time not wanting to curl up and sleep (and if I do it isn't a short nap but turns into a 3-4 hour sleep). And that's on top of 7-8 hours per night.

My doc is starting me on a high dose of Vit D (20,000 IU). I'm hoping to hear back Monday on other next steps but she's making noise of a endoscopy and possibly a colonoscopy (it seemed like that was more a CYA/rule things out move than any specific concern).

Good to know that this is not unheard of / uncommon with endurance training.

Thanks very much for the information. It is helpful to know that this isn't that uncommon.

It does make me think that I need to be on top of blood work more frequently then when the check engine light comes on. :)

My wife was/is going through a similar experience.

She isn't a hardcore endurance athlete but was building running mileage for a fall marathon. She was experiencing more fatigue than would be expected. Her hair started falling out. She went to her doc and had a lot of blood work done. It ended up being a severe iron deficiency (anemia). I don't have the actual numbers. She is on iron supplements for 6 months (another 2 months to go) and will then get tested again. Not sure if the deficiency was something that was already present and the extra running made the symptoms show, or if the extra running contributed to the deficiency.

She is a vegetarian. I told her to eat more steak. :) Seriously though, she knows her diet well and would have assumably been getting everything she needs from her diet, even if somewhat restricted.

Yes and I hope if you read my post that the is the real benefit of doing these tests because it is super easy to get a blood test and say, hmm, those numbers are off. This is fishing essentially. The reality is when you felt fine 6 months earlier the numbers were the same but you just didn't know it. Doing quarterly tests or semi-annual gives you a baseline with which you can then draw better conclusions IMHO.

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You forgot the pink font.

Definitely got that message.

Thanks!

why pink for facts? is oxidation a good thing? http://www.todayifoundout.com/...s-brown-when-cooked/