Quantity question for those taking tender Iron

I am curious for those of us that are taking tender iron (carbonyl which I think most of us get from vitalady.com)    Just how many 25 mg pills are you taking each day. I am especially interested if your iron labs are good.  I just had my labs done and they are ok  not great. Iron was 89  but doc did not test freeatin for some reason so I want to have that redone.   I swallow 4 pills daily with one vit C.   I am thinking about chewing them now & maybe upping the dose but would like to hear the range of doses everyone else is doing.    Diana RNY 9/17/03 360/191.5/forever aiming at 180

Diana, I was taking 6 faithfully at one time and my labs were good, got off track and my ferritin dropped tremendously.  Last labs just a couple of weeks ago I'm at a 14 from January last year when it was 100. I have just started taking 10 per day, I slowly added them because I wanted to be sure I would react ok.  I haven't tried chewing them but see many who are and wonder if that might help better.

Diana, I chew 6 tablets first thing every morning with 500mg of Vit C.  I don't take anything else for 2 hours.  I love Tender Iron.  I think that ferritin is the most important iron test.  It is your iron stores and it can be low and your other iron tests can been within normal ranges.  I am trying to get my ferritin to 100.

I've only been taking 3 per day. My labs were good before I even began taking it a few weeks ago, but I was feeling run down and thought maybe I should add some iron on my own (dr never recommended for me to be on iron). I am also afraid of any constipation due to the iron although most people say they're fine on it~I'm so afraid to end up where I was before in such pain so I thought I'd up it slowly over time. This is a great question b/c I have no clue how much I should truly be taking just as a preventative measure!

I take 12 per day, with a vit C (300mg elemental). In the last few months, I've added copper.

Last labs were just this April, last Oct and last April. Iron levels were all right about 90.

Ferritin was around 160, 175 and then 329! I'm wondering if the copper super charged it! LOL

However, I'm a very distal RNY and have not had low iron for many years now. But before Tender, we were on 1000mg of two different rx irons and STILL deficient. Ended up on about 300mg of Tender back in the 90's (different name) and iron was again steady in the 90's for years.

Our first ferritin test was run by accident in 1999, I was 5 yrs, Don was 4 yrs. We came back with ferritin of 800 & 600. !!!

No clue what it was before that, but by then we'd been on the Tender predecessor for 3 yrs or so.

As for a guide, I usually suggest bands and proximals start at 150mg + C (and I'm starting to say copper more often!), and DS and distal like me at 300mg. My doc calls for 300mg for bands & proxies; 450mg for distals 'n DS.

If my ferritin continues to leap, I may be able to drop back on some of the iron, because the copper may enhance it. But I wont' get a peak now til October again.

I am able to take the 12 with no change in bowel, upper or lower discomfort. Just a bit darker color.

We have never chewed them personally, as the early ones tasted like iron, of course. LOL So, even tho they are sweet now, we still prefer to just chug 'em with the C.

This new formula is much easier to chew and a bit sweeter...The Taste is different than the old ones. I chew them with the Vit C and they taste good...Not bad at all. You get used to the taste...I almost crave them sometimes...That's scary!  LOL  I eat so many they are almost a snack!

Adn we never even ASKED for chewable in the first formula. Who'd ever think that iron could be made pleasantly flavored? LOL

I crave my ProScore 100 choco. Never quite recovered from my first crush on it in 1996. LOL

I was anemic 2 months with Ferritin at 5.1 and Iron at  22  (Low blood counts too) I eased into chewing 13 Tender Iron (325mg) with Vit C ascorbic acid in the morning (nothing else for 2 hours before and after the iron...Only water....I found it was too harsh on my system to start at a high dose all at once...So I began with 4...and moved up two a day til I reached 13...Much easier on your system! No trouble at all now...I do eat fiber one cereal just in case my other vits bind me, like calcium...Everything is smooth running!  :) Later I take another type of Chewable Iron as Amino Acid Chelate at night (108 mg) and a Vitamin C as Ester C My blood levels have climbed back into normal ranges (barely...but they are there!) I suspect at the dosage I am taking I will have all my Iron in normal ranges in 4 months if things keep going as well! I am so excited!!   I'm also taking dry Copper (Twin Labs) and later Zinc (Vitalady) (Taking high doses of Iron can deplete these two minerals...so I am taking them as preventative measures...Copper is sooooo good for your skin and hair as is zinc ...Gotta take those separate from each other too!