Advice to someone trying to build their iron stores before surgery...

I've been working on building my blood over the past months, I had some bleeding problems related to my miscarriage that have left me anemic once again.

Here's a totally wacky suggestion but since I was just up in the Andes you should know that your body will produce more red blood cells at higher altitudes. You could plan on spending the next month up at a higher elevation.

I don't have it in front of me but the book Healing with Whole Foods (Pitchford) had suggestions for what to take for anemia. You might check it out at a book shop if you have time; I love this book as it provides information on how to correct illness and various conditions through diet. B6, B12, Magnesium, Vitamin C and of course Iron work together to bolster blood development. There was some other theory about transmutation or something where one other nutrient turns into iron into the body but I don't remember what it was you have to read the book.

There are also blood building herbs you can take, from what I recall these are yellowdock, nettles, and dong quai but I wouldn't use them on my own -- better to work with an herbalist, naturopath or chinese medical specialist than dabble. Also, since surgery is so close at most you might be able to use them for a couple of weeks.

If you are still bleeding in the meantime Potassium is supposed to help control bleeding so make sure you are getting enough in your diet. Also, things like garlic and onions are blood thinners so you will want to be careful of that.

I just wanted to show you this quote that I just found which explains from a chinese medicine perspective why just eating iron rich foods might not help treat anemia:

"Of course, knowing that a patient suffers from a specific type of anemia may influence the treatment strategy as a whole, i.e., if a patient suffers from iron deficiency anemia, iron rich foods and possibly iron supplements should be consumed. However, even in such a scenario, if the patient suffers from the spleen and stomach vacuity weakness pattern of blood vacuity, iron supplementation plays only a secondary role; the fortification of the spleen and stomach are primary. As long as foods are not absorbed correctly, no iron supplement will be of any help. This explains why certain iron deficiency anemia patients fail to improve even though they are on megadoses of iron." (from A Clarification of Andrew Gaeddert’s Article Key Blood-Building Strategies)

I've been eating lots of iron rich foods, even more so since I've been back from vacation and I'm still ailing -- pale gums, pettichae (little red spots on my breasts that are associated with anemia in Western medicine). When I went to see my acupuncturist yesterday he said I had blood stagnation and qi depletion and already after one treatment I'm feeling a bit better though we still have a ways to go. He's going to treat me with herbs after this period (which started today) is finished. Hopefully I'm not going to be hemorrhaging again, so far so good.