← The FormularyLong gameIron
Also known as Ferrous bisglycinate / heme and non-heme ironThe one men should not take blind.
Iron is the ingredient in a men's supplement that most deserves a second look, and we would rather say it than not. Adult men need 8 mg a day; 18 mg is the figure for menstruating women, and INTAKE carries 18 mg. For a man with normal stores that is more than he needs of a mineral he cannot get rid of, and for the one man in two hundred carrying a haemochromatosis gene it is genuinely the wrong direction. None of this is dramatic at one capsule a day — but the honest instruction is: if you are a man taking iron, get ferritin tested, and if you have been told your stores are high, do not take this. We would rather lose the sale than skip that sentence.
The mineral at the centre of haemoglobin, the molecule that carries oxygen from your lungs to everywhere else.
The body has an efficient way to absorb iron and almost no way to excrete it. Regulation therefore happens entirely at the gut door, through a hormone called hepcidin that closes absorption when stores are full. That one-way design is why deficiency is common in people who lose blood and why overload is the risk in people who do not.
Carries oxygen in blood and muscle, and is required for energy production and normal immune function.
Anyone with a diagnosed deficiency, vegetarians and vegans, endurance athletes, and anyone losing blood. Men with normal ferritin do not need supplemental iron.
With vitamin C to aid absorption; away from tea, coffee, calcium and zinc, which block it. Bisglycinate is gentler on the stomach than sulphate.
If you were deficient, energy and exercise tolerance improve over weeks to months. If you were not, nothing good.
Grade A for correcting diagnosed deficiency. Hereditary haemochromatosis affects about 1 in 200 people of northern European descent, presents two to three times more often in men, and typically appears in the fifth decade. Iron is a leading cause of fatal poisoning in young children, which is why every iron product carries a child-safety warning.
Read the labelDo not supplement iron without a blood test. Men have no routine way to lose iron, and hereditary haemochromatosis — iron overload — affects roughly 1 in 200 people of northern European descent and presents mostly in men. Keep out of reach of children: iron overdose is a leading cause of poisoning death in under-sixes. Speak to a doctor first if you have liver disease.
Evidence grades describe how well an ingredient is studied — A well-supported, C emerging — not a promise of results. Educational, not medical advice. Doses are typical ranges; follow the label on the product.