this could be the reason you're always tired😴

what I wish I knew 15 years ago🧛🏻‍♀️!!!

This time last year I could barely get out of bed. My energy was so low that every goal, every dream, every habit felt impossible. Sometimes I would have good days and make a lot of progress, but they were always haunted by the fear that it was just a matter of time that the low energy days would come back at random and set me three steps back. It was sooo frustrating! I knew something had to change! How is anyone supposed to do anything if they have no energy? I didn’t even have kids, so I felt like I had no excuse.

how I felt, but less glamorous than Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation (2003) dir. Sofia Coppola

Although I knew a lot of that lack of energy came from my auto-immune disease, I was determined to find out if there were any changes at all that were in my control to give me even 10% more energy.

We’ve all heard about how sleep and exercise helps, but what if your sleep is fine but you barely have enough energy to go for a walk? And because you can’t go for a walk, you’re gaining weight, eating your feelings, and getting depressed in a long loop of never-ending exhaustion?

Enter…my naturopath!

I was so skeptical of going back to a naturopath, as the first one I encountered years ago was no help and made me feel like the practice wasn’t based in science😅. Thankfully, my sister recommended me to Dr. Krista Moyer who completely changed my mind about the profession. Not only was she compassionate and took me seriously, but she also had so many evidence-backed options for me during a time where I felt like I couldn’t find any good solutions.

The first thing she did was hear my story, analyze my charts, and get a full picture of where my body was at. A lot of the time, medical professionals will take one look at your basic blood levels, say “they’re normal”, and leave it at that. Not Dr. Moyer! She examined every result, knew what my levels actually should be at, analyzed what was going on in my body as a whole like a detective, and came up with a personally tailored plan just for me, metaphorically holding my hand the whole way. I actually cried happy tears because I was so grateful to finally have some professional support!

We worked on quite a bit, but today I specifically wanted to talk about iron deficiencies, as it’s something a lot of women don’t realize is the easiest fix of them all!

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I had been taking capsule iron supplements for over 15 years (even doing this didn’t get my levels up to where they should have been) and dealing with a lot of the symptoms I mention below, so an iron infusion would have saved me SO much time if I knew it was an option! I really hope this post reaches at least one person who will get the help that could have saved me so many years of pain.

Although I’ve been doing a lot of other lifestyle changes since, getting an iron (monoferric) IV infusion was the first, easiest step to breaking my depressing can’t-get-out-of-bed-or-do-anything loop.

Wait- before we begin, what’s the difference between “iron” and “ferritin” again?

“Iron is a vital mineral used to create hemoglobin and carry oxygen, while ferritin is a protein that stores this iron in an inactive, safe form within cells. Think of iron as the currency in your wallet (active) and ferritin as your savings account (stored). A low ferritin level indicates depleted iron stores, often serving as a more reliable, stable marker of long-term iron status than serum iron.”

(Source)

If you watch this video, the two fun naturopaths who helped me will tell you all the information about whether an iron infusion is right for you or not! (I don’t think I need to remind you that I’m not a doctor lol, just relaying information from doctors that helped me!)

CLICK HERE for all the iron info you could want at the clinic I got it at (Gravity Health)! And here is the 18min video below:

And…here’s my summary of what I think are the most important elements of the video in case you don’t watch it:

1. On your latest blood test, if your ferritin is <100 µg/L, you should seriously consider it…especially if you are female since we are prone to iron deficiencies! Many times if you haven’t reached anemia (<15), family doctors will graze over your results, but you are actually deficient unless your ferritin is below 100. If you have anemia (<15) it is severe deficiency. This example of results shows “52” as a result, so it won’t be flagged, but again, it should be over 100:

   

2. You could also qualify for an infusion if your ferritin levels are above 100 but you have chronic inflammation:

   

3. If you have any of the following symptoms, it could be due to low iron:

   

   Some of the above symptoms kick in as early as ferritin levels in the 90s.

4. If you get an iron infusion, you could: have way more energy, have no more headaches, have an increase in sex drive, a stronger immune system to fight off sicknesses, have less depression…basically the opposite of all the symptoms listed above!

5. To get one, you just sit down for 90 minuted with an IV- easiest thing ever, you don’t need to make any new habits!

6. It takes about 2 weeks for it to kick in. The only side effects I had was feeling like I had the flu for a day the week after my infusion as my body adjusted. Totally worth it!

7. The naturopath who performed it for me said I wouldn’t need another infusion for 10 years, or if I have a baby (babies make you lose a lot of iron apparently lol).

8. If you have extended health benefits, it can be covered (my benefits weren’t great at the time and it still covered 100%), otherwise it’s more than worth paying the money out of pocket in my opinion!

Many things we do for our health require so much time and effort: exercise, eating well, remembering to take our vitamins, etc., so why wouldn’t you do the easiest thing first?

The worst case scenario is that the iron infusion doesn’t solve all your problems. But! Even if that’s the case, now you know the iron deficiency isn’t the root cause of your issue, and you can cross that off your list as one less thing to worry about.

I know it sounds like I’m getting sponsored for all of this (I wish I was😂) but I am so passionate about raising awareness about this since it’s made such a difference in my health journey, and I was NEVER told about any of this in school or by my family doctor!

According to WHO and this video, “approximately 30% to 40% of women of childbearing age suffer from iron deficiency, a common issue often caused by menstruation and, in some cases, pregnancy. Studies show nearly 40% of teenage girls and young women (aged 12–21) are iron deficient. Globally, about 539 million non-pregnant women aged 15–49 have iron-deficiency anemia.”

!!! That’s a lot of people suffering from something that is totally curable in one 90min session!

So if you know someone (especially if they are female) who is constantly tired, ask them if they know what their ferritin levels are and help educate them, or direct them to this post! You never know, this might just be the catalyst that changes everything, like it was for me🤍.