QUESTION: I was wondering if I could get your opinion on my case again. With my case, I am currently 2 months pregnant. My RA symptoms have improved (not complete remission yet), but I ran my first set of labs this week because I’ve been so tired, and it is showing that my hemoglobin is low (11.3), with all the other CBC iron markers barely hanging on in the normal range (low normal). However, my serum ferritin is now 364 (was 278 before pregnant on Jan 3rd), TIBC 276, serum iron 82, iron saturation 30, and liver enzymes are currently good at 13 and 14. So it seems as if my ferritin is going back up and my concern is that my liver enzymes were affected before (increased) when this happened. Is it just that my liver isn’t storing the iron, even with my improved RA symptoms? That seems so strange to me. Is there something that can help the liver with storage, that is also safe in pregnancy? Is there something I should watch for as the pregnancy progresses?
Your recommendations from our conversations before – curcumin, boswellia, and liposomal artemisinin- what dose are you using in pregnancy? I’ve read no more than 1g of turmeric/curcumin in pregnancy so that’s what I’ve been doing. I wanted to get started on the artemisinin but when I called the lab, they told me they aren’t sure about dosing during pregnancy. And for the boswellia, some resources I’ve found say it’s contraindicated in pregnancy. Do you have any clinical experience with these herbs and pregnancy, that would say otherwise?
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