Sunday 9 March 2014

Anemia Treatment - Ferrous Ascorbate Vs Ferrous Sulphate

Anemia is a simple condition of Iron deficiency in blood. To be more precise Anemia is decrease in number of red blood cells (RBCs) or less than the normal quantity of Hemoglobin in the blood. Because Hemoglobin (found inside RBCs) normally carries oxygen from the lungs to the capillaries, It's deficiency will leads to hypoxia (lack of oxygen) result in symptoms like weakness, Fatigue etc.



Recently I came across a story where doctors suggested a patient to have Ferrous Ascorbate. I went to pharmacy and found that it is quite a costly medicine. Then I started studying little bit about it, why Iron should be so costly.

Ferrous Ascorbate contains Iron salt as well as Ascorbic acid (which is Vitamin C) and Vitamin C act as catalyst in absorbing the iron. And Ferrous sulphate doesn't contain Vitamin C, which makes it little less effective. This is one of the main reason why Ferrous Ascorbate is costly though Ferrous sulphate is cheap.

So one simple thing can be done is, increase your Vitamin-C intake and take Ferrous Sulphate. To increase the Vitamin C, you can consume daily a Lemon, Aamla or Oranges, if you can't get that regularly, Ascorbic acid comes as chewable tablet also, like Limcee Chewable (500Gm) which comes only for 17-18 Rs for 10 tablets.

And usually both comes with Folic acid as a combination which is absolutely fine to take at any point of time, as Folic Acid is also a kind of Vitamin only.

During Pregnancy

It is absolutely safe to take any of the medicine.

Side Effects

Here is a little catch in this. Ferrous Ascorabate is known to have just a mild headache and chest pain, which can be considered as almost No side effect, though Ferrous sulphate can cause constipation and gastritis. So if you have constipation or gastritis related problem, do not go for Ferrous sulphate. But if you are healthy, there is no point in wasting extra money. One more thing Patients who are allergic to sulphur, should not take Ferrous sulphate as well.

Cost Comparison
Ferrous Ascorabate (Orofer Xt by Emcure) average cost 98 Rs for 10 tablets.
Ferrous Sulphate (Fesovit by GSK) average cost 40 Rs for 10 tablets + Limcee average cost 20 Rs for 10 tablets = 60 Rs for 10 tablets.

You save minimum of 40% :)

16 comments:

  1. Thanks prashant. your blog completely answers all my questions. The fact that being an Indian, the brand + price details too were helpful. Keep up t good job.:)

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  2. Thanks a lot zombinow :) I am glad that my blog has helped you in some sense. And yes there are many such medicines in market, just few days back, I found Orinil MR is much more effective than Mobizox and cost by less than half a price. Brand is making the medicines unnecessary very cost and this is unethical.

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  3. can u suggest whether ferrous fumarate is better than ferrous ascorbate in terms of side effects especially constipation. pls guide.

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  4. can u suggest whether ferrous fumarate is better than ferrous ascorbate in terms of side effects especially constipation. pls guide.

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  5. Is ferrous ascorbate a salt or a chelate?

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  6. can ferrous ascorbate be used by both men and women?

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  7. I have read a few excellent stuff here. Nice, Just wanted to respond. I thoroughly loved your post. Keep up the great work. best Specialist Doctors in Bahrain

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  8. My doctor adviced me for ferrous sulphate with nimbu pani to use. But i could not got it. After using the ferrous ascorbate+folic acid with nimbu pani I got feaver. Can you explain why

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  9. My doctor adviced me for ferrous sulphate with nimbu pani to use. But i could not got it. After using the ferrous ascorbate+folic acid with nimbu pani I got feaver. Can you explain why

    ReplyDelete
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  12. Thank you for sharing such useful information. I really enjoyed while reading your article. Also explore about - Ferrous Sulphate Suppliers who offers the best quality Ferrous Sulphate in Bulk ranges.

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