NOW Supplements, Iron 18 mg, Non-Constipating*, Essential Mineral, 120 Veg Capsules

Worked well Alone and With Ferret’s Iron. These are really some great Iron pills! in early 2013, I was having issues with my hair thining and finally I told my primary care doctor to send me to an endocrinologist to be tested since she couldn’t really give me reasonable answers to my issue. After getting a full panel of blood work done and having it indicate that I almost had no iron in my body, I spoke to my my brother (who is a health enthusiast) and he told me to look into the issue of thinning hair and low iron in women. Low and behold, I found a lot of information about women’s thinning hair issues and having low iron without anemia. I went back to the endocronolgist armed with my research and she too confirmed that having such low iron could be contributing to my issue so she prescribed me 325mg of ferrous sulfate (which equals 130mg of elemental iron). This dosage is 600% more than the daily recommended iron dose for women! Yes, my iron was that low… As i looked back over previous blood test from my annual physical exams, apparently it had been like that for years, but because the ferritin level was at the very bottom end of the very wide range or big gap of what is considered normal, my Dr didn’t bother to mention any concern for the issue. This is why, to some degree, I’ve learned that you really have to take your healthcare in your own hands. Anyhow, after just taking the prescription drugs for 2 or 3 days, my stomach was in so much pain that I had to leave work a few times. The prescription drugs also causes you to be very constipated. The endocrinologist told me that I would have to take those pills about a year to get my iron and ferritin levels up to par, but I knew there was no way in hell I was going to suffer taking those pills for a whole year because they debilated my quality of life just that much. So, I started looking for alternatives immediately and I came across these pills. I began taking them about 30 days before my next blood test and as I took them, I had no stomach cramping, no feeling of nausea and best of all, I wasn’t constipated at all. However, you must have something on your stomach before taking them because they can make your stomach upset a little if it’s empty. To put this review in perspetive, in Aug 2013 before taking these pills my ferrition was 11.6 on a scale of 11.0-307 and my iron was 27 on a scale of 50-212. When I went back in about 30 days to have my blood re-tested my ferritin had increased to 17 and my iron had increased to 142! That was amazing to me! Research says that you need to get ferritin levels up to at least 70 for several months before any significant change with hair can be seen, but I will say that just taking these pills alone (2 pills 2x per day) definitely was a big help! However, because I needed way more iron to build of my iron stores (i.e. ferritin, since it’s the hardest to build up) and I didn’t want to pop these pills all day long, I now take these along wth Ferrett’s Iron Supplement because you get 106 elemetal iron in one pill with the Ferret’s brand iron. In early Oct 2013, I began taking 2 of the Now iron pills first thing in the morning with a tangerine (Vitamin C helps increase absoption) and 2 hours before having any dairy (dairy decreases iron absorbtion). And at night, I take 1 Ferretts Iron Supplement pill and one 1000mg of Vitamin C tablet before I go to bed and I am delighted to report that my 3rd blood test that I took on Nov 6, 2013 revealed that my iron level is now 168 and my ferritin is 49.9. I am very glad that I choose the natural alterntative to increase my iron levels and if you try either of these two products, you will be glad too! If you don’t need as much iron as I do, then these pills may work just fine for you.

Great stuff. I bought this for my father who got himself into anemia again. *sigh* really?Yeah, so ever since he started taking 2 of these a day (one in the morning, one in the evening) because that’s really the absolute max a 80+ year old dude who doesn’t eat well enough because he doesn’t want to…can take.Over a few days, he says he started to feel better, with more energy. That’s really what’s been his issue, is lack of energy. Now he’s slowly getting back to normal.He says there’s no weird taste, no stomach upset. He does take the capsules 1-2 hours after he’s eaten and with vitamin C (for better absorbancy) and with a tall glass of water.I always like NOW brand supplements. They seem to be a good company.

Good iron. This is a good product.