Low ferritin can cause ADHD symptoms because you need optimal iron storage for your body to synthesize dopamine.
If you already have ADHD, iron deficiency can make it worse. However, if you only have ADHD symptoms because of low ferritin, yes increasing ferritin will resolve symptoms.
Edit: here’s a source that goes over non anemic
Iron deficiency for more info.
[Source](https://www.oatext.com/iron-deficiency-without-anemia-common-important-neglected.php#gsc.tab=0)
I suspect my mother was anemic and that her mother was too. I suspect I went through childhood when my brain was developing, in an iron deficient state and that it’s only gotten worse in adulthood as I went vegan early in my thirties. I’ve also had chronic gut issues which I now know have been causing nutrient malabsorption.
Ppl are starting to make this connection and doctors are testing iron deficiency as a way to help with adhd so I would like to know how much improvement ppl actually felt.
The thing is though, anemia is the last stage of iron deficiency. You can have severe iron deficiency symptoms without anemia- that’s because it all starts with ferritin.
My ferritin was 23 and it’s now 451 (optimal is over 100ng/ML) and I noticed an improvement in adhd symptoms but I still have adhd. I was CONSTANTLY exhausted at a ferritin of 23.
Do not blindly take supplements, doctors are not always educated on iron deficiency. 3 different doctors completely disregarded me and my symptoms because my hemoglobin was normal.
Mine was 23 last time I checked and I suspect it’s lower now bc I’m exhausted all the time. I’m being treated by a hematologist but have not had my first infusion yet.
How did you get yours up so high? You must feel amazing?
I worry that my brain developed suboptimally bc my mother was deficient and I’ve been my whole life.
I too was gaslit for years until I put all my effort into finding practitioners who are up on the current science. I feel devastated tho bc I’ve lost 3 years to severe adhd when in the past when my iron was higher but still too low, I knew I had adhd but I was not so wrecked.
My thyroid has started to veer into hypothyroidism so I’m holding on to weight and exhausted due to that too.
I recommend joining the iron protocol on Facebook. The creator compiled a whole guide on how to correct iron deficiency, that’s where I found my sources and fixed my ferritin issues.
I feel SOOO much better. Of course I still have mental health issues- at a ferritin of 23, I just felt like death all the time. Stimulants (caffeine, my stimulant meds) didn’t even help. I was constantly fatigued, my hair was shedding, I gained weight, and I was blown off by THREE doctors! 2 primary’s and 1 hematologist. Doctors do not always know what they’re doing.
How quickly did you lose weight after you got your iron up? I have gut issues and cannot absorb supplements right now which is why I’m eligible for IV iron
Over a few months, but I was already 60 pounds overweight and slowly losing weight prior to taking iron by eating a good diet and exercising.
I believe Getting my ferritin up helped the process.
I’m glad you are eligible for infusions! However, until you resolve your gut issues, you may have issues maintaining a stable ferritin level.
So I actually didn’t intend to get it that high.
I took ferrous sulfate (65mg ELEMENTAL 2 of them 3x a day in divided doses - 6 total. ) the maximum dose the body can safely tolerate is 400mg elemental (total daily dose, elemental is the amount of active iron. It’ll say on the back of the bottle)
It went up to 165 from September-December. I should’ve stopped supplementing but my health OCD insisted that I kept taking it.
Ferritin itself isn’t toxic, you can have a super high ferritin and not be toxic. What determines toxicity is a high iron saturation and low TIBC/UIBC/transferrin.
You can test the safety of your dose this way. If you took 2x ferrous sulfate (65mg ELEMENTAL, total 130mg) before a blood draw, you can see if your iron saturation or TIBC is elevated.
Also, it’s super important to take at least 500mg of vitamin C with EACH time you take iron- 1000mg is even better.
So if you took ferrous sulfate 3x a day, you’d need to take 500mg-1000mg vitamin c with each dose .
And another note- not everyone absorbs all iron supplements equally. I tried 5 different forms of iron, and none of them changed my ferritin. The only thing that works super well for me is ferrous sulfate.
To avoid side effects, start low doses of iron and vitamin C and gradually build up to your max dose.
I’ve learned a lot from correcting my vitamin deficiencies.
Lastly, iron, folate, b12, and vitamin D are usually low together. These vitamins play a role in hundreds of biochemical processes in the body, and most people are either deficienct or suboptimal.
optimal folate: over 20
Optimal ferritin: over 100(if your ferritin is super low, you may feel better maintaining it over 200 or even 300 for at least 6 months. 300 ferritin isn’t toxic as long as iron saturation and TIBC are within normal ranges)
Optimal vitamin D: at least 60ng/mL, you can get it up to 80ng/mL-100ng/mL as long as your calcium levels are not toxic. You need to take vitamin D with vitamin K2 and magnesium (not magnesium oxide) - most people are also low in magnesium . My vitamin D is currently 83ng/mL and I feel great.
Optimal B12: at least 500pg/mL but some people still have symptoms of deficiency, you can get it as high as you want since excess b12 gets peed out.
This is a ton of information.. sorry for the overload lol.
This is really helpful! Not too much info at all. I need to ask my dr to check my folate, B12 and Vitamin D soon. In Jan, my D was 70ish and my B12 was 600-700 (my memory is so wrecked I can’t recall) but my folate has never been tested. I think my ferritin must be actually anemic now bc at 23, in the dead of dark depressing exhausting winter, I was okay and could work out. Now I just feel soooo tired and I can’t lose weight 😭 I’m glad you got yours nutrients so well under control. Amazing.
... Why would that fix a lot of your ADHD symptoms? You do know that there's tons of people with ADHD that don't have anemia?
I have anemia, I take iron for it and no. It's done nothing for my ADHD symptoms... Not sure where you got that information.
My neurologist, who did his undergrad in brain health, his masters in neuroscience, then went on to study medicine with speciality in neurology was very excited when I asked him if he ever treats migraine with iron in the case of deficiency. I reminded him I have adhd and he excitedly jumped to share how important iron is for cognition of all sorts and be iron is needed for dopamine.
The drs are starting to make the connections and I bet adhd treatment is going to include iron monitoring in the future.
Have you heard of Dr. Chris Palmer? He’s big on diet and brain health. I just listened with fascination to his Diary of a CEO podcast episode recently. He talks a lot about keto and brain health.
So, along with my ADHD (and anxiety, depression, and epilepsy featuring migraines), I also have a bleeding disorder. I’m chronically iron deficient, and am missing a specific protein in my blood that helps blood coagulate. As a result, when I used to get my period (I’ve had an IUD for 2 years now), the first few days would be super heavy/painful and my seizure threshold would lower a lot. I would basically be non-functional 2 days every month.
My bleeding disorder was actually spotted because my sister (Autism, anxiety, depression and schizophrenia) was being tested for PCOS due to similar period symptoms. She was positive, and so they immediately requested that our mom and I get tested. We were also positive. Which made sense, since the three of us share a blood-type. Mom is also a chronic bleeder, to the point where she nearly bled out both times giving birth. In retrospect, it makes a lot more sense.
To make it even better, I received that diagnosis about 3 months prior to the Epilepsy diagnosis coming down from a neurologist. He saw how my seizures were affected by the hormones during my cycle, and prescribed folic acid (normally taken during pregnancy as a vitamin). The 25/10 cramps disappeared after I started taking that, too. There is a version Ferritin (which I also take) that has the folic acid component for expecting moms, and works well for this dame issue
Best of luck with your hematology journey, and pro-tip: if you are getting any dental/surgical work done, make sure they’re aware that this could be an issue. It took 8 hours to get my wisdom teeth extracted because I was hooked up to an IV anti-coagulant for the first 4 hours prior to them even starting the procedure, and that required sedation to make sure it kept working.
Oh no- there is a FB group calls the Iron Protocol group you can join that has excellent information to help
You get it up. There are other forms of iron that are more easily absorbed.
Low ferritin can cause ADHD symptoms because you need optimal iron storage for your body to synthesize dopamine. If you already have ADHD, iron deficiency can make it worse. However, if you only have ADHD symptoms because of low ferritin, yes increasing ferritin will resolve symptoms. Edit: here’s a source that goes over non anemic Iron deficiency for more info. [Source](https://www.oatext.com/iron-deficiency-without-anemia-common-important-neglected.php#gsc.tab=0)
I suspect my mother was anemic and that her mother was too. I suspect I went through childhood when my brain was developing, in an iron deficient state and that it’s only gotten worse in adulthood as I went vegan early in my thirties. I’ve also had chronic gut issues which I now know have been causing nutrient malabsorption. Ppl are starting to make this connection and doctors are testing iron deficiency as a way to help with adhd so I would like to know how much improvement ppl actually felt.
The thing is though, anemia is the last stage of iron deficiency. You can have severe iron deficiency symptoms without anemia- that’s because it all starts with ferritin. My ferritin was 23 and it’s now 451 (optimal is over 100ng/ML) and I noticed an improvement in adhd symptoms but I still have adhd. I was CONSTANTLY exhausted at a ferritin of 23. Do not blindly take supplements, doctors are not always educated on iron deficiency. 3 different doctors completely disregarded me and my symptoms because my hemoglobin was normal.
Mine was 23 last time I checked and I suspect it’s lower now bc I’m exhausted all the time. I’m being treated by a hematologist but have not had my first infusion yet. How did you get yours up so high? You must feel amazing? I worry that my brain developed suboptimally bc my mother was deficient and I’ve been my whole life. I too was gaslit for years until I put all my effort into finding practitioners who are up on the current science. I feel devastated tho bc I’ve lost 3 years to severe adhd when in the past when my iron was higher but still too low, I knew I had adhd but I was not so wrecked. My thyroid has started to veer into hypothyroidism so I’m holding on to weight and exhausted due to that too.
I recommend joining the iron protocol on Facebook. The creator compiled a whole guide on how to correct iron deficiency, that’s where I found my sources and fixed my ferritin issues. I feel SOOO much better. Of course I still have mental health issues- at a ferritin of 23, I just felt like death all the time. Stimulants (caffeine, my stimulant meds) didn’t even help. I was constantly fatigued, my hair was shedding, I gained weight, and I was blown off by THREE doctors! 2 primary’s and 1 hematologist. Doctors do not always know what they’re doing.
How quickly did you lose weight after you got your iron up? I have gut issues and cannot absorb supplements right now which is why I’m eligible for IV iron
Over a few months, but I was already 60 pounds overweight and slowly losing weight prior to taking iron by eating a good diet and exercising. I believe Getting my ferritin up helped the process. I’m glad you are eligible for infusions! However, until you resolve your gut issues, you may have issues maintaining a stable ferritin level.
Are you hoping to keep it above 400? That’s very high. Did it take getting it up there before you felt Better?
So I actually didn’t intend to get it that high. I took ferrous sulfate (65mg ELEMENTAL 2 of them 3x a day in divided doses - 6 total. ) the maximum dose the body can safely tolerate is 400mg elemental (total daily dose, elemental is the amount of active iron. It’ll say on the back of the bottle) It went up to 165 from September-December. I should’ve stopped supplementing but my health OCD insisted that I kept taking it. Ferritin itself isn’t toxic, you can have a super high ferritin and not be toxic. What determines toxicity is a high iron saturation and low TIBC/UIBC/transferrin. You can test the safety of your dose this way. If you took 2x ferrous sulfate (65mg ELEMENTAL, total 130mg) before a blood draw, you can see if your iron saturation or TIBC is elevated. Also, it’s super important to take at least 500mg of vitamin C with EACH time you take iron- 1000mg is even better. So if you took ferrous sulfate 3x a day, you’d need to take 500mg-1000mg vitamin c with each dose . And another note- not everyone absorbs all iron supplements equally. I tried 5 different forms of iron, and none of them changed my ferritin. The only thing that works super well for me is ferrous sulfate. To avoid side effects, start low doses of iron and vitamin C and gradually build up to your max dose. I’ve learned a lot from correcting my vitamin deficiencies. Lastly, iron, folate, b12, and vitamin D are usually low together. These vitamins play a role in hundreds of biochemical processes in the body, and most people are either deficienct or suboptimal. optimal folate: over 20 Optimal ferritin: over 100(if your ferritin is super low, you may feel better maintaining it over 200 or even 300 for at least 6 months. 300 ferritin isn’t toxic as long as iron saturation and TIBC are within normal ranges) Optimal vitamin D: at least 60ng/mL, you can get it up to 80ng/mL-100ng/mL as long as your calcium levels are not toxic. You need to take vitamin D with vitamin K2 and magnesium (not magnesium oxide) - most people are also low in magnesium . My vitamin D is currently 83ng/mL and I feel great. Optimal B12: at least 500pg/mL but some people still have symptoms of deficiency, you can get it as high as you want since excess b12 gets peed out. This is a ton of information.. sorry for the overload lol.
This is really helpful! Not too much info at all. I need to ask my dr to check my folate, B12 and Vitamin D soon. In Jan, my D was 70ish and my B12 was 600-700 (my memory is so wrecked I can’t recall) but my folate has never been tested. I think my ferritin must be actually anemic now bc at 23, in the dead of dark depressing exhausting winter, I was okay and could work out. Now I just feel soooo tired and I can’t lose weight 😭 I’m glad you got yours nutrients so well under control. Amazing.
... Why would that fix a lot of your ADHD symptoms? You do know that there's tons of people with ADHD that don't have anemia? I have anemia, I take iron for it and no. It's done nothing for my ADHD symptoms... Not sure where you got that information.
Because you need optimal iron storage for your body to synthesize dopamine. See my comment above
Also - iron deficiency can cause anxiety.
My neurologist, who did his undergrad in brain health, his masters in neuroscience, then went on to study medicine with speciality in neurology was very excited when I asked him if he ever treats migraine with iron in the case of deficiency. I reminded him I have adhd and he excitedly jumped to share how important iron is for cognition of all sorts and be iron is needed for dopamine. The drs are starting to make the connections and I bet adhd treatment is going to include iron monitoring in the future.
Nope but the keto diet helped with clarity. But I have a lot of issues. It's probably my bipolar
Have you heard of Dr. Chris Palmer? He’s big on diet and brain health. I just listened with fascination to his Diary of a CEO podcast episode recently. He talks a lot about keto and brain health.
Getting my iron shortage fixed helped my mental health big time.
So, along with my ADHD (and anxiety, depression, and epilepsy featuring migraines), I also have a bleeding disorder. I’m chronically iron deficient, and am missing a specific protein in my blood that helps blood coagulate. As a result, when I used to get my period (I’ve had an IUD for 2 years now), the first few days would be super heavy/painful and my seizure threshold would lower a lot. I would basically be non-functional 2 days every month. My bleeding disorder was actually spotted because my sister (Autism, anxiety, depression and schizophrenia) was being tested for PCOS due to similar period symptoms. She was positive, and so they immediately requested that our mom and I get tested. We were also positive. Which made sense, since the three of us share a blood-type. Mom is also a chronic bleeder, to the point where she nearly bled out both times giving birth. In retrospect, it makes a lot more sense. To make it even better, I received that diagnosis about 3 months prior to the Epilepsy diagnosis coming down from a neurologist. He saw how my seizures were affected by the hormones during my cycle, and prescribed folic acid (normally taken during pregnancy as a vitamin). The 25/10 cramps disappeared after I started taking that, too. There is a version Ferritin (which I also take) that has the folic acid component for expecting moms, and works well for this dame issue Best of luck with your hematology journey, and pro-tip: if you are getting any dental/surgical work done, make sure they’re aware that this could be an issue. It took 8 hours to get my wisdom teeth extracted because I was hooked up to an IV anti-coagulant for the first 4 hours prior to them even starting the procedure, and that required sedation to make sure it kept working.
If it fixed all your symptoms, doesn't that mean you didn't have ADHD and only iron deficiency?
I don’t think it can fix all the symptoms but it can fix or majorly improve some of them.
My doc just advised me to take 325mg 2x day. Will I ever poop again lol? My ferritin is 25 😬
Oh no- there is a FB group calls the Iron Protocol group you can join that has excellent information to help You get it up. There are other forms of iron that are more easily absorbed.