Introduction
Question: Should I take iron every day or use alternate day dosing?
Reference: https://haematologica.org/article/view/9379
So, according to this abstract, in iron depleted women without anemia, oral iron supplements induce an increase in serum hepcidin that persist for 24 hours, decreasing iron absorption from supplements given later on the same or next day. Consequently, iron absorption from supplements is highest if iron is given on alternate days.
Bringing this back to a practical level, is it easier for you to maintain a habit of every day dosing or is it easier for you to maintain a habit of every other day dosing? Because I know for myself by far and away, the easiest thing for me to do is to have a little turntable inside my cabinet of everything I’m gonna take in the morning just take it all. The more complicated things get, the more you need a list or you need an app that reminds you to take it every other day.
When I wake up in the morning half the time I am not going to remember whether I took it the day before or not. So, I'm gonna have to keep track of that somehow. It's just so much more practical to take something every day at the same time than it is to try to impose more complicated dosing on it that I would want to be much more convinced that there is a real effect before I was going to bother with that greater difficulty of sustaining the habit.
This Q&A can also be found as part of a much longer episode, here:
For the remainder of 2020, I will be working full-time on finishing my Vitamins and Minerals 101 book, while reserving a portion of my time for consulting clients. You can pre-order my book at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/book. You can sign up for a consultation at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/consultations
DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice.
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