IRON Deficiency?

[Joanne Gurion]

My name is Joanne. I have generalized MG, diagnosed in August of 2021. I’m a newbie to MG, but have another autoimmune disorder called pernicious anemia. My mom had it. Her mother too. My body cannot absorb Vitamin B 12 in foods. I was diagnosed after having a very low RBC count. It’s not unusual to have more than one autoimmune disorder, so it wouldn’t hurt to ask about the possibility of  pernicious anemia. It’s easily solved these days by a weekly B12 injection. Best of luck to you

[Alan Bridle]

Tim – I am in a similar situation.  My red blood counts were on or just below low edge of normal before I was diagnosed with gMG.   I went into an acute myasthenia crisis shortly after my diagnosis after which I went on prednisone, Cellcept and IVIG infusions.  My counts quickly dropped well below normal.  My neurologist then discontinued the Cellcept and the counts recovered a little.  It looked like Cellcept played a role in my counts.

My PCP recommended that I also increase my intake of red meat and green leafy veggies (kale, collard greens, brussels sprouts, spinach, broccoli)  to get iron into me naturally.  After about six weeks that has also improved my red counts noticeably.  I am still not all the way back to “low normal” but the more iron rich diet has also helped and my PCP says I am no longer clinically anemic.   My neurologist now has me on Imuran instead of Cellcept and that has not had the same adverse effect on my red counts.

I was not a huge fan of all the iron-rich veggies by themselves but my wife has come up with a recipe for “iron soup” which I now have every day at lunch time.  That has been enough to close the gap in my case.

I hope this helps and I wish you luck.  It’s bad enough getting tired from MG without being anemic on top of it as well.