I few months ago, I posted about what a horrible meet, performance-wise, I had at short course nats this year. Couldn't figure out why I swam so slow, and why I was feeling so fatigued.
Anyway, I had a physical a few weeks later, and my blood work showed my ferritin level at 11, and my hematocrit at 39%. Both very low values for an endurance athlete. Doctor has me taking iron pills (ferrous sulfate, 325 mg, twice daily), and I've been taking Proferrin ES for about 6 weeks. Just in the last month, I've noticed a huge increase in performance. I went a :52:33 for my swim split at Ironman Boulder, and I've been feeling great in workouts. Anybody else ever experienced iron deficiency? I'm wondering if the increased performance I'm seeing is due to the replenished iron, or if it's due to something else.
I had surgery after breaking my femur 5/23 and lost a unit of blood. They transfused that back, but my red count stayed down (called anemia, it think), and they put me on iron pills to build it back up. It took about two+ weeks or so. The combination of narcotic pain killers (causing constipation) and large doses of iron (causing tar) played havoc with BMs, and I was glad to at least get off the iron, as soon as possible.
Red blood cells transfer oxygen throughout the body, and if the count is low, a lack of available oxygen would make you tired. Iron apparently allows your body to replenish red cells and will boost the count and your energy levels. A few years back some of the TdF riders were doping by transfusing and boosting red cell production. You might want to find out why the levels were low.
I had surgery after breaking my femur 5/23 and lost a unit of blood. They transfused that back, but my red count stayed down (called anemia, it think), and they put me on iron pills to build it back up. It took about two+ weeks or so. The combination of narcotic pain killers (causing constipation) and large doses of iron (causing tar) played havoc with BMs, and I was glad to at least get off the iron, as soon as possible.
Red blood cells transfer oxygen throughout the body, and if the count is low, a lack of available oxygen would make you tired. Iron apparently allows your body to replenish red cells and will boost the count and your energy levels. A few years back some of the TdF riders were doping by transfusing and boosting red cell production. You might want to find out why the levels were low.
