low red blood cells / iron deficiency - advice needed

[Heike]

Had some blood work done yesterday.
I started on a vegan diet about 6 weeks ago, after my cholesterol came out very high with the last testing. I am 45 years old, female, 5.8 tall, 130 pounds, 18% body fat, I thought I eat quite a healthy diet (obviously not) and I exercise about 5 -7 times a week (cardio and power yoga). For this reason I was very irritated when my cholesterol numbers appeared to be totally out of range. Total cholesterol was 260, LDL 160 and HDL 99. My doctor send my home saying "there is nothing to worry about, the numbers are a bit high but the LDL/HDL ratio is still pretty good and he told me to do nothing. Then I did some investigation in the internet, read all books I could get about diet and heart disease etc. and thought I need to change something! So I went on a plant based, whole food diet. I use very little oil and fat.
The good thing is after 6 weeks on a vegan diet my total cholesterol dropped almost 60 points from 260 to 200, LDL went down from almost 160 to 120 and unfortunately the "good" HDL also went down from 99 to 72. Having said that, it appears that my red blood cells are very, very low too. My doc thinks this is due to an iron deficiency (which I did not have before) and that I should go back to eating red meat 2-3 times per week - bummer! This is not what I want, because I am sure the Cholesterol will go up again, besides all the other negative effects of meat. Has anybody experienced this as well and do you have any ideas/suggestions beside supplements to avoid this? Thanks

[Archie]

Dr. McDougall has some information about anemia on his site that is a pretty good read (http://www.drmcdougall.com/med_anemia.html). If I remember correctly vitamin C eaten with dark green vegetables helps with Iron absorption.

[pinkrose]

Heike, congratulations on improving your diet!

I also have a history of anemia. So when I started McDougalling I was reluctant to give up the daily multiple vitamin and mineral supplement. However, after over a year of nutrition education here and improving my diet, I decided to give up the supplement. A few months later, all of my lab results were good!

I will give you the details of what I eat and you can compare it to what you eat: I eat over a pound of green leafy veggies daily and big servings of other color veggies--broccoli, celery, cauliflower, carrots, tomatoes, snow peas etc. I usually also eat about five cups of brown rice and a pound or two of sweet potatoes or potatoes daily.

I think several of the above foods are high in iron and I have no reason to believe that I am now at risk for anemia. I also take a small B12 supplement weekly.

So I think you probably can get all of the iron and other nutrients you need without eating animal products if you will focus on eating the colorful veggies and unrefined starches.

Let us know how you do!!!

[somnolent]

Hmmm...if I recall correctly, red blood cells live for quite a while (3 months), so it seems odd that you would suddenly become anemic because of 6 weeks on a vegan diet. Are you sure that you were not anemic before? And that you are anemic now?

[Heike]

Heike, congratulations on improving your diet!

I also have a history of anemia. So when I started McDougalling I was reluctant to give up the daily multiple vitamin and mineral supplement. However, after over a year of nutrition education here and improving my diet, I decided to give up the supplement. A few months later, all of my lab results were good!

I will give you the details of what I eat and you can compare it to what you eat: I eat over a pound of green leafy veggies daily and big servings of other color veggies--broccoli, celery, cauliflower, carrots, tomatoes, snow peas etc. I usually also eat about five cups of brown rice and a pound or two of sweet potatoes or potatoes daily.

Thanks so much for your eating tips!! I am trying to eat a huge variety of veggies but maybe I need some more of the green leafy ones you mentioned. I don't think I eat that much of it. After 6 weeks I am still a bit reluctant in giving up all of my vitamins Is it right that you do not take anything except the B12? Was there any change for you, except for the better? I am not taking a lot, just one multivitamin pill a day, which also contains the necessary amount of B12. In addition I have a condition called KPU which basically means my body cannot use a couple of vitamins from the B group as well as other people do so I need to supplement high amounts of it. Therefore I take some medication here too and basically that's it. It sounds great to me that after you have given up the supplementation your numbers were normal and good, wonderful.
I know I still have a long way to go with my cholesterol, that is why I wanted to stick to the plant based diet and not go back to meat. Thanks Heike
I think several of the above foods are high in iron and I have no reason to believe that I am now at risk for anemia. I also take a small B12 supplement weekly.

So I think you probably can get all of the iron and other nutrients you need without eating animal products if you will focus on eating the colorful veggies and unrefined starches.

Let us know how you do!!!

[Heike]

Hmmm...if I recall correctly, red blood cells live for quite a while (3 months), so it seems odd that you would suddenly become anemic because of 6 weeks on a vegan diet. Are you sure that you were not anemic before? And that you are anemic now?

I have had my blood work done in May this year and the red blood cells were absolutely fine. Of course cholesterol was totally out of range
I am now almost 7 weeks into the program and I don't know what is going on. My doctor says it's because I am lacking the red meat and because of my current diet...although I have to say she seems not to be very into this form of diet anyway.

[somnolent]

I think it is easy for people to blame diet instead of looking for other causes. There are so many causes of anemia that it seems a little impulsive just to assume that it is diet.

Do you happen to know the rest of the numbers from your blood test, such as hemoglobin, hematocrit, and mcv?

[greentea]

I think it is easy for people to blame diet instead of looking for other causes. There are so many causes of anemia that it seems a little impulsive just to assume that it is diet.

Do you happen to know the rest of the numbers from your blood test, such as hemoglobin, hematocrit, and mcv?

Yes, and it does seem odd that you would develop a low iron count in such a short period of time. Often, low iron is not caused by diet, but by something else medically going on...heavy periods, ibs/colitis/crohns etc...
There are lots of plant foods that are high in iron.
here's some additional info on iron http://www.drmcdougall.com/med_anemia.html

[HealthyMe2010]

Are both you hemoglobin and iron levels low or just hemoglobin?

I have chronic bleeding due to crohn's disease and my hemoglobin is low, but my iron levels are up from two years ago, which means the diet is providing enough iron, I'm just bleeding too often to keep the hemoglobin up.

Have you been tested for internal bleeding via stool sample?