Hi guys,

For the last week I've had a headache off and on. When I got out of the shower yesterday morning, I noticed I seemed very pale with deep dark circles. I was short of breath after folding the clothes and again after cleaning the bathroom. I just really felt worn out.

I called one of my very good friends who is a nurse. She told me to come right over. She checked my vitals (which were okay) and went with me to get a physical and my blood checked at the emergency clinic. The results are in. Turns out, I'm suffering from iron deficiency. My calcium levels were also low. Besides that, I'm in great health. Because of the fact that we eat so much meat products and also because I have well water with a trace amount of iron in it, I figured I was safe. Obviously not. On the way home, we stopped and I got an iron supplement and a calcium w/ D supplement. Now I'll have 4 supplements to take every day -- my Atkins Basic 3 multivitamin and Atkins Essential Oils are the other two.

I found a terrific link which tells you exactly what symptoms you can expect from deficiency in just about every basic vitamin and mineral.

http://www.diet-secrets.com/vitamin...rals_chart.html

I just thought I'd post this in case anyone else wasn't feeling well.

very helpful...thank you. i was severely deficient a couple months ago and had to take some from my doctor. 150 mg /day!! anyway, make sure you don'g get too much. mine went from 6 to 75 in less than a month. hope you are feeling better.....

I use fitday usually. One of the great things is that you can see if you are getting what percentages of your daily nutrients from diet.

Next time you go to buy suppliments, don't waste your money getting a seperate iron suppliment and the Atkins brand. Just get a good multivitamin with iron. I like Twin Labs once a day because it is sugar free, unlike the One a Day Weight Smart I had tried previously.

The iron in the water is probably not absorbed by the body. And if you are anemic, just eating red meat isn't enough. Glad you went to get checked out and that your friend was thorough. I hope your doctor keeps checking that & looking for causes if it persists.

From anything I've ever heard, iron in water is absorbed by the body, as is the iron from cooking in a cast iron skillet. But I do agree, if a person is anemic, it likely won't be enough.

Anyhow, thanks for posting the link! It's a wealth of info!

I know how that feels, I once had a preiod that went on for months and I lost a lot of iron. My doc fussed at me for waiting so long to go to him and said I was probably anemic from iron loss, ooh, so tired. Felt much better with iron pills and the "pill" to regulate me.
Elaine

Everyone here is so kind and supportive. I'm feeling somewhat better this morning. The doctor said it might be a day or two before I was really feeling myself again. I was feeling so yucky last night when I posted that I almost forgot the good news!

I was due this week or next week to do the retests that Dr. A suggests but now I won't have to. I don't have the numbers in front of me but my total cholesterol was down, my triglycerides were down, my HDL was up and my LDL was down. That was news worth getting sick to hear!

Julie