āIn conclusion, tadalafil and sildenafil use in erectile dysfunction patients reduced mortality, cardiovascular disease, and dementia risks, with tadalafil providing more benefits. Tadalafil also conferred similar benefits to patients with lower urinary tract symptoms.ā Benefits of Tadalafil and Sildenafil on Mortality, Cardiovascular Disease, and Dementia - PubMed
thank you for this detailed exaplanation
Vitamin D? K2? Did you get your blood level of Vitamin D ?
what is Doxy? does that stand for doxycycline?
Yes it does
Rika, do you notice any benefit to taking rybelus once weekly?
I inadvertently drove my ferritin to 11 consuming lots of coffee, cacao, green tea, as well yogurt, turmeric and metformin - all iron inhibitors. Just something to be aware of.
I would do an aggressive course of iron bisglycinate to bump that ferritin up. 150mg per day until itās up to 50-80.
Testosterone and brain aging
That link doesnāt open for me.
Try this one: (PDF) Testosterone and brain aging
My ferritin is indeed low, tested a few months ago at 20 (ref. 30-400 ng/mL). I suppose I should try to bump it up slightly.
My ferritin was also low at 30 (38-380). Coffee, green tea, yogurt, turmeric and recently stopped metformin. Sure some cacao in dark chocolate but nothing pure.
My other iron studies and H/H were mid normal range.
Functional Health blamed exercise - which can also contribute. Given ironās toxicity, it is interesting that all our anti-inflammatory diet choices + exercise lower it. Not sure it is worth fixing although at 11 or 20 I probably would.
Another possible consideration is occult blood loss - ie GI. Low ferritin could be an early marker.
In my world, literally no one checks ferritin even when they should - ie fatigued, pre-menopausal women. The normal range is down to 12 (approx) for women.
I have had tremendous success with iron bisglycinate to get ferritin up rather quickly on at least three separate occasions. The only side effect for me was dark stools since this is the most bioavailable form of iron and has the least G.I. Sides.
Thanks, Luke, Iāll get it. I will probably hold off until my spinal fusion is successful (another 3 months) before adding another supplement. Thereās also the possibility that vitamin C supplements may somewhat boost iron absorption from food, and since the surgery Iāve been taking 100mg vit. C daily. After the fusion is complete and I return to my regular drug and supplement regimen, Iāll have another blood test for iron status (including ferritin), and if still low, Iāll give iron bisglycinate a spin. I am not sure what the optimal levels are, so I should do more research, but just getting it at least into range is probably desirable - right now, Iām below the range for ferritin.
No benefits or side effects so far. I consider switching to Semaglutide injections.
Interesting. My protocol was underdosed. Thanks.
Good call. There is a little debate about the optimal range but I like to keep it between 50-80. Hope the surgery goes well. Maybe you can talk to them about an iron infusion after.
Mostly (only?) women have been studied with 50-100 considered optimal. Unsure if men should be any different. I consider iron relatively toxic - especially to the liver but also predictive of CVD risk. Women complaining of fatigue have resolution (in RCT) if you drive ferritin to 50. Since iron def is relatively rare in males (except here?), no one has studied men.
Pre-op I would take the iron. You will be at risk for constipation for maybe 6 weeks after so you wonāt want to take it. Iron also is implicated in immune dysfunction/wound healing so some surgeons donāt want it right after surgery. Lastly, you will lose blood and thus iron. Even without blood loss, your nutrition will be inadequate after surgery and your bone marrow will be suppressed. I feel like spinal fusions are fairly bloody but not my field.
Last point even if modestly theoretical. Wound healing is effected by oxygenation and anemia. Now, the effect isnāt huge but if you are looking to optimize, you should optimize iron. The data is clear that wound healing is impacted by hypoxia and anemia but a low ferritin isnāt that - that is why I say theoretical.
Thanks! To clarify, I have already had the surgery a little over two weeks ago, now Iām recovering (seemingly well so far). The low ferritin is a reading from August 2025. Just before surgery I had a battery of tests to evaluate my readiness for the procedure, and it seems Iāve passed all the tests (one example: Prothrombin Time - 12.8 seconds [ref. range 11.5 -14.4]).
At the moment Iām focusing my drug and supplement regimen as well as diet on facilitating spinal fusion over the next three months or so. Ferritin is on my radar, but I need to do more research, as I feel underinformed about the subject of iron in the body.
Do you have any metrics regarding blood sugar levels on rosuvastatin vs pitavastatin?