Supplements

Iron

Yes there are alternatives. Your standard pharmacy iron is ferrous sulphate and it is highly irritating as well as ineffective.

The best alternatives are HEME IRON and LIPOSOMAL IRON.

Heme iron comes from meat but you can buy it purified as a supplement, I recommend 3 arrows iron repair simply heme. No side effects

Liposomal iron is synthetic iron (like ferrous sulphate) but it is encased in a delivery method called a liposome which protects the GI tract and allows the iron to bypass the normal absorption mechanisms. The bioavailaibility is close to 100% if taken on an empty stomach (for standard synthetic iron it is about 2%). Liposomal iron will get your levels up the fastest, I saw someone on this sub who took 4 pills or 168mg daily for 2 months and their ferritin went from very deficient to 216!!! So this method works best. This is what they used: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Liposomal-Supplement-Increase-Superior-Absorbed/dp/B0BWV18YYH?th=1

Once she got infusions (colon cancer was causing her low iron / anemia so get the colonoscopy) I gave her holo-Lactoferrin to keep her hemoglobin up as studies show it works better than iron supplements. It CANNOT be Apo-Lactoferrin (as all US Lactoferrin are). I would recommend the Canadian brand AOR but it seems to be sold out most places. I personally bought a bunch as I am based in the US and as soon as Trump announced tariffs I bought 5 bottles.

If you are refering to AOR brand, it does not explicitly state it is holo form. Life Extension brand tells me that their product is APO form.

It does not explicitly say it is holo form. I should note that APO form still helps. I buy both APO and native forms.

I can’t find it now but someone emailed AOR and they said it was holo.

There are some people on the anemia forum who said Apo worked for them and others said it did not. It’s individual.

Lactoferrin can be bad for autoimmune

The prevalence of anti-lactoferrin autoantibodies varies across conditions. In patients with ulcerative colitis, they are found in approximately 29% of cases, while in Crohn's disease the prevalence is around 13%. In PSC, the prevalence is about 22%, and notably, patients with PSC who also have coexistent ulcerative colitis show a significantly higher frequency of these antibodies. Among autoimmune liver diseases, anti-lactoferrin antibodies are present in 35.7% of PBC patients, 28.6% of AIH patients, and 100% of AIC patients

they were found in a significant proportion of reactive arthritis patients (42% had anti-lactoferrin antibodies), but were rare in ankylosing spondylitis patients (14%)