Dosage · Supplement
Iron: dosage and how to take it
60–120 mg elemental, alternate-day, with vitamin C, under care.
- Overall grade
- Grade A
- Last revised
- 0
- graded outcomes
- 0
- references listed
Assembled by the app from other entries in this library. It adds no evidence of its own — follow the links to the entries it draws on.
The evidence in words
How much to take
Treat against a lab value under medical guidance. Emerging evidence favors alternate-day dosing (e.g., 60–120 mg elemental every other day) for better absorption and fewer side effects. Take with vitamin C, away from calcium, coffee, and tea.
Timing & separation
Take Iron apart from: Calcium (Calcium blunts iron uptake — split across meals.) · Zinc (Competes for absorption — separate.) · Levothyroxine (Binds thyroid hormone — separate by 4 hours.) · Caffeine (Coffee polyphenols cut non-heme iron ~40% — separate 2 hours.)
Why the dose is what it is
Heme iron ferries oxygen in blood and muscle and shuttles electrons in mitochondria. Non-heme (plant) iron absorbs poorly and is enhanced by vitamin C and blunted by calcium, tea polyphenols, and coffee. Deficiency starves oxygen delivery and cellular energy long before anemia appears.
Bottom line
Get ferritin tested before you touch it. If low, iron with vitamin C (ideally alternate-day) fixes real fatigue. If normal, skip it — more iron is not more energy.
How it is used
As the entry records it, from the studies it summarises. Not a recommendation for you — doses that suit a trial population may not suit you.
- Repletion
- 60–120 mg elemental, alternate-day, with vitamin C, under care.
Goes with
- IronFull Iron monographEvidence grade A
Related reading
Entries that share this one's tags or conditions.
- Iron for Fatigue with low ferritin (non-anemic)Evidence grade B — Benefit when ferritin is lowEvidence grade B
- Iron for Iron-deficiency anemiaEvidence grade A — DefinitionalEvidence grade A
- Iron for Restless legs syndromeEvidence grade B — When iron-deficientEvidence grade B
- Iron: side effects, safety & interactionsConstipation and GI upset are common; overdose is dangerous, and iron is a leading cause of pediatric poisoning — store Evidence grade A
Sources
This entry lists no references of its own — it is assembled from the entries it links to, whose sources are on their pages.
Last revised . A grade is this entry's reading of the evidence, not medical advice.