Link Between Iron Deficiency and Sleep Apnea

I have both and was wondering if there was a link between the two. I found this ariticle which seems to make a lot of sense to me.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/44900 ... eep-apnea/

It would be interesting to find out how many of you with sleep apnea also have low iron. Testing feritin levels in you blood is the way to find out. Mine is 7. Normal ferritin for women at least, are 13 to 150. It takes a while to build the iron stores to normal levels and it will be interesting to see if the apnea improves. I have always know that iron deficiency anemia is related to restless leg syndrome or PLD (periodic limb movement disorder which is a type of sleep disorder.

I've read how having OSA can cause irregularities in the blood, and that makes sense to me. Can't fathom the flip side of that, how anemia could contribute to OSA. But then again,

What's the status on treating your anemia since it was discussed back in July? Has treating your apnea and your anemia helped your levels? Is treatment helping your legs at all?

Teresalf wrote:I have both and was wondering if there was a link between the two. I found this ariticle which seems to make a lot of sense to me.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/44900 ... eep-apnea/

It would be interesting to find out how many of you with sleep apnea also have low iron. Testing feritin levels in you blood is the way to find out. Mine is 7. Normal ferritin for women at least, are 13 to 150. It takes a while to build the iron stores to normal levels and it will be interesting to see if the apnea improves. I have always know that iron deficiency anemia is related to restless leg syndrome or PLD (periodic limb movement disorder which is a type of sleep disorder.

This is where they lost any smidgen of my agreement.

Relation Between Low Iron and Sleep Apnea

"Low iron in blood aggravates sleep apnea and may even cause it. A person with low blood iron and anemia experiences reduced coordination of brain and respiratory muscles and reduced muscle tone of pharyngeal and respiratory muscles. This leads to sleep apnea and aggravates the problem if the person was already suffering from low iron prior to developing anemia."

As with other vitamin deficiencies, stopping breathing (apnea) is (potentially) lowering the oxygen levels......and can screw up the body's metabolism and chemical levels within. In my opinion, they have it bass-ackwards.
Sounds like they're setting the reader up to sell "snake oil".
There was a long-running thread on the forum about Vitamin D and suggesting that more Vitamin D could "cure" sleep apnea.
Same kind of crap.


Den

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Keteague and Wulfman :

Thanks for asking Kteague,I'm two months in to it, taking 325mg ferritin 2x a day. Dr wants to recheck in one month as rebuilding the iron levels is a long process. Still having the feeling of shortness of breath all during the day with little exertion because the red blood cells (which are low) carry oxygen throughout the body and still lots of fatigue and the leg problem. Who knows how long I've had it. I'm not able to sort it all out at this point since apnea can cause fatigue as well and we all know about the lack of oxygen of sleep apnea (although that's while asleep)

As far as the flip side, I'm not ready to say there is NO chance anemia could cause OSA, probably not BUT but could it contribute to it???? I just don't have enough evidence yet and may never have. But I do know this, iron deficiency results in decreased amount of red blood cells whose job it is to carry oxygen to the cells of the body such as the brain, heart, muscles etc. The central nervous system consists of the brain and the spinal cord, lack of oxygen to the brain can effect your central nervous system and guess what controls all aspects of your breathing?????? The central nervous system as we all know. Muscles are controlled by the nervous system as well.

Obviously not all OSA sufferers have iron deficiency anemia nor do all sufferers of iron deficiency anemia have OSA but how can anyone say that it can't cause it or maybe contribute to it given the above facts about the body? The jury is still out for me. Just throwing that out there to provoke thought. Another thing I know for a fact, doctors do not know everything about how the bodily functions work in conjunction with vitamins and minerals and new findings are coming out on a regular basis linking low levels to different disorders of the body, makes since considering that's what we're made of.

P. S. Before I get blasted (ducks) I realize many factors come into play with OSA. I welcome you thoughts and if my reasoning is faulty I also welcome your critiques.

.

Do a Google search on "vitamin C binds iron in blood" and start reading.


Den

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Wulfman... wrote:Do a Google search on "vitamin C binds iron in blood" and start reading.


Den

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Okay will do, but I do know that I have to take vitamin c with my iron as it needs an acidic base to be absorbed correctly. Can you be more specific about what I am looking for? Google's a big place

I don't have any references, but apparently low iron levels are associated with either Restless Leg Syndrome or Periodic Limb Movement Disorder. Even if you don't have Sleep Apnea, either of those can certainly disturb your sleep.

Also, there are at least two (possibly three) distinct blood tests for "iron." My regular doctor said my iron levels were fine, but my sleep doc said, 'you also want to check for iron stores, not just iron level' and sent me for one or more tests.

The tests came back slightly low. I took rather large iron supplements for several months and eventually my iron stores / levels / whatever came back into normal range. After that, it seemed that my "leg twitchiness" decreased some. Nothing dramatic though.

Something that puzzled me about iron supplements was the dose value. It turns out that iron supplements come in two or three versions, differing in the compound of iron used. The different compounds have different amounts of iron available ... the same dose size of different compounds will not deliver the same amounts of iron to your body.

ericob wrote:I don't have any references, but apparently low iron levels are associated with either Restless Leg Syndrome or Periodic Limb Movement Disorder. Even if you don't have Sleep Apnea, either of those can certainly disturb your sleep.

Also, there are at least two (possibly three) distinct blood tests for "iron." My regular doctor said my iron levels were fine, but my sleep doc said, 'you also want to check for iron stores, not just iron level' and sent me for one or more tests.

The tests came back slightly low. I took rather large iron supplements for several months and eventually my iron stores / levels / whatever came back into normal range. After that, it seemed that my "leg twitchiness" decreased some. Nothing dramatic though.

Something that puzzled me about iron supplements was the dose value. It turns out that iron supplements come in two or three versions, differing in the compound of iron used. The different compounds have different amounts of iron available ... the same dose size of different compounds will not deliver the same amounts of iron to your body.

Thank you Ericob, yes I have the Periodic Limb Movement Disorder, that's actually one of the reasons I had my iron stores (ferritin level) checked. Apparently it is not useful to merely check the iron levels as a meal of steak can make the iron in your blood appear normal, but if the ferritin is checked (the storage unit for iron) that is a more accurate indicator of your true situation as far as anemia goes, that and the iron saturation. Takes a while for the iron to build back up so I don't expect any overnight miracles for sure. Thanks for your info.

Teresalf wrote:

Wulfman... wrote:Do a Google search on "vitamin C binds iron in blood" and start reading.


Den

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Okay will do, but I do know that I have to take vitamin c with my iron as it needs an acidic base to be absorbed correctly. Can you be more specific about what I am looking for? Google's a big place

This whole thing is complicated.......and there are various categories of "Iron" in the tests and things that affect the levels.
But, here are a few places to start.

Den
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https://labtestsonline.org/map/aindex/

Iron
Iron Binding Capacity
Iron Indices
Iron Tests
Iron, serum

https://labtestsonline.org/understandin ... erum-iron/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_iron_metabolism

http://www.irondisorders.org/frequently ... stions-faq

http://www.drwells.net/nutrition/Nutrients/VitC.htm

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I know this thread is old, but I have had fatigue issues for 5 years now. I also have MS. My neurologist sent me for sleep studies for 5 years until this year when I suddenly had sleep apnea and severe RLS. Well, I also finally got into my endocrinologist (I had diabetes but have not for 7 years now, went back due to feeling so bad and weight gain). My ferritin was 8. It was 12 way back in 2012 when I first complained of hairloss and severe fatigue. My hemoglobin was .2 above where they just transfused you at this clinic. The hematologist called the neurologist and negated the sleep study, which was great since all I did was fight the machine all night, and after 2 infusions and ferritin at 60(which is actually still to low to recover hair and such) the next sleep study was CLEAR. So do what works for YOU. Screw what someone's opinion is.

No diagnosed conditions here, but I recently started taking an iron supplement and noticed that I now find myself sometimes holding my breathing while trying to fall asleep. My hypothesis is that the body gets used to lesser iron availability, and when the iron availability increases, the signals for needing to breath are reduced.

I was anemic briefly, due to enormous uterine fibroids.
Once they (and the no longer needed uterus) were gone, so was the anemia.

danrb wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 12, 2019 11:58 am

No diagnosed conditions here, but I recently started taking an iron supplement and noticed that I now find myself sometimes holding my breathing while trying to fall asleep. My hypothesis is that the body gets used to lesser iron availability, and when the iron availability increases, the signals for needing to breath are reduced.

Probably a faulty hypothesis based on people's misconception that the drive to breathe is related to oxygen content of the blood.
It's not....the drive to breathe is regulated by the amount of carbon dioxide in the blood.
While more iron in the blood can carry more oxygen...it doesn't really have much to do with carbon dioxide at all.
We feel the need to breathe when the levels of carbon dioxide in the blood stream get elevated to the point where the brain sends the signals to breathe.

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 12, 2019 2:25 pm

danrb wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 12, 2019 11:58 am

No diagnosed conditions here, but I recently started taking an iron supplement and noticed that I now find myself sometimes holding my breathing while trying to fall asleep. My hypothesis is that the body gets used to lesser iron availability, and when the iron availability increases, the signals for needing to breath are reduced.

Probably a faulty hypothesis based on people's misconception that the drive to breathe is related to oxygen content of the blood.
It's not....the drive to breathe is regulated by the amount of carbon dioxide in the blood.
While more iron in the blood can carry more oxygen...it doesn't really have much to do with carbon dioxide at all.
We feel the need to breathe when the levels of carbon dioxide in the blood stream get elevated to the point where the brain sends the signals to breathe.

This is true.

I was diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia back in November of 2017. I went to the doctor with a list of problems that were bothering me.

Really bad fatigue. I was falling asleep after work while my dinner cooked in the microwave. On my days off, I would sleep late, eat some food, and go back to bed. For awhile I thought I was depressed due to an event that got cancelled at the last minute.

Asthma acting up - I was waking up gasping for air. It would continue even while I was awake. Not sleep apnea, and not getting better with my inhaler. I was also getting out of breathe easily at work. I was also getting a dry mouth and cracked lips from the excessive mouth breathing all day long.

Major restless legs syndrome. Previously, I might have half an hour of restless legs once every month or so. This was 1-3 hours a night, almost every night,

Really cold at night.

Hands easily hurt by small things.

My doctor looked at the list and decided to test me for iron. If it wasn't iron, then she would prescribe new things for the asthma and restless leg. But it was iron, and that was the cause of ALL the things on my list. My asthma was really low oxygen in my blood. With a week on iron, that all improved.

It has been 2 years, and I am STILL taking the iron. If I stop, the symptoms come back. Nobody knows why I still need to take the iron supplements.

I have never noticed anything about holding my breathe. All I noticed with iron is that the symptoms go away, and it causes digestive issues.