Iron and Ferrous Sulfate -- the differences

[Guest guest]

The iron/ferrous sulfate thing always bothers me, because medical people

seem to have a habit of explaining it poorly or incompletely AND I truly

worry that someday someone is going to change to a form of iron other than

ferrous sulfate and overdose themselves by virtue of not understanding. –

Ferrous Sulfate is a COMPOUND which includes iron -- that is it is only

PARTLY iron. (FeSO4 if I recall correctly) – it is 20% iron by weight --

that is 1/5th iron. The other 80% (or 4/5ths) is the sulfate part. So, if

you’re taking 325 mg of Ferrous Sulfate – divide that by 5 and --- ---

you’re getting 65 mg of iron. If you switch to a different form of iron

(most of which are labeled in mg of iron NOT mg of compound - I have no idea

WHY the difference) it’s 65 mg. of iron that you want to replace – NOT 325

mg !!!!

Personally, I like carbonyl iron MUCH better than ferrous sulfate– as I find

it has much less drastic GI ramifications. It is micronized elemental iron.

Considering that I was at one point dosed at 325 mg. Ferrous Sulfate 4 times

daily -- I suspect I could have done myself serious harm when I switched to

carbonyl iron, had I not understood that is 65 mg. of iron - NOT 325 mg. of

iron.

Pat

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