How much iron is too much?

I take a multivitamin in the morning that has 28 mg of iron in it. Sometimes in the evening I get RLS (restless leg syndrome) and usually taking an iron pill helps me. Little known fact, sometimes RLS is related to an iron deficiency. However, I have no way of knowing whether my iron is actually deficient...it's not like I can go and get a blood test every time my legs go nuts at night and it only happens once or twice a week usually. The iron pill I take in the evening is 18 mg. So total I take 46 mg of iron on those days.

Is this still a safe dose? I usually take the 28 mg about 8 am and the 18 about 8 pm, so basically 12 hours apart. If this is a safe dose I may just start taking the extra iron pill in the evenings to prevent getting RLS to begin with. I won't take any of the medications on the market specifically made for RLS because the iron actually works and all those other drugs have side-effects that are WORSE than the thing they're supposed to treat.

RLS is absolutely real, I've had it since about 16 before it was widely publicized and at that point I didn't even know what it was. However I also compare it to something like nausea - a symptom of another problem, not a disease in itself. Iron deficiency is one cause, pregnancy is another, and there are a few others they know of I think.

The Dietary Reference Intake (successor to the Daily Recommended Value chart thingy) lists the tolerable upper intake level for iron in adults to be 45 mg/day.

The body self-regulates how much iron it digests, though, so you're probably safe. To a point, anyway. If you force-feed your body way more iron than you need, you can potentially end up breaching the iron toxicity threshold. Unless you're just packing away the red-meat like mad, though... I'd say you're safe.

RLS is still currently in debate, as to whether or not it's a legitimate syndrome. I've spoken with people who insist they have it, and believe their troubles to be legitimate. The occurrance of symptoms seems to be inconsistent enough, though, that I'm inclined to believe it's something other than a specific syndrome which causes it. It's more likely a symptom of another issue.

As far as your possible iron deficiency... whenever you donate blood, they test your iron levels in your blood. If you tend to be anemic without suppliments, you might curtail your intake of tea, as tea inhibits the body's absorbtion of iron from food ingested during the day.

Sorry if it's a lot to swallow... but there ya go.

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Borges, be careful!

The average human body contains 3500 to 4000 mg of iron at any given time.

Iron loss for a healthy woman is only about 1.5 to 2 mg daily.

Even if you're losing ten times the amount of a typical woman daily, say 20 mg, if you're consuming nearly 1,000 mg of iron a day in suppliments, and metabolizing more than 2% of it, you're running very close to a potential risk of iron overload. Be careful.

well im looking at my bottle of iron i bought otc at my doctors recommendation and it contains 65mg of iron per tablet...i am like always anemic and am horrible at taking it on a regular basis......i also take a vitamin (usually at the same time as the iron pill) which contains another 18mg of iron.....so you should be good......but if you ask a pharmacist at any pharmacy, most the time they are happy to consult w/you.....

Hi there! I take 3 pills of 325mg a day. Im severly anemic. I also take a multivitamin and it has an additional 25mg in it. So i think ur fine. Except for the constipation it brings on lol. I think i have RLS too, so thanks for the heads up on that. Im gonna ask my dr wat he thinks about the iron and rls. I hope u feel better soon. take care.