Slow FE iron was reformulated!!! So confused with dosing. Please help :/

[Elissa]

Hi everyone-

Like many of you, I have been taking Slow FE brand iron to try to raise my iron and ferritin levels. I have been taking it for several months now. Well-- today I went to the drug store to buy more since I was running out. And when I picked it up I saw on the redesigned box that it says "New Formula- See New Directions for Use". Well when I read the box in the store I was thoroughly confused, so when I got home, I compared the old box to the new box. Now I am even more confused. :confused: I went to the Novartis website to see if I could email someone, but there are no email contacts listed and there is no Slow FE website. I called the number on the box and spoke to someone in India who was of NO help and had no idea what I was talking about. Also-- when I gave her the UPC code on the box, it didn't match the product listed in her computer!

Anyway-- here is a comparison of both boxes. If someone could figure out what dose I should be taking, I would really appreciate it:

Old formula:
Iron (as ferrous sulfate USP) 47.5 mg Daily Value 264%
*I currently take 2 tablets to equal 95 mg of ferrous sulfate

New formula:
Iron (elemental) 45 mg Daily Value 250%
Then it says:
The 45 mg of elemental iron in each tablet is equivalent to 142 mg of ferrous sulfate

So essentially (I think) the old formula had 47.5 mg ferrous sulfate per pill and the new formula has 142 mg ferrous sulfate per pill? But then if it is so much more in the new pill, then how come the Daily Value is almost identical? This makes no sense!

So since I took 2 pills of the old formula, should I only take 1 of the new formula since it's more than double the milligrams? or am I just not reading this correctly?

Help please!!

Thank you ladies.. You all are the best!

~Elissa

*crossposted to blog*

[Elissa]

UPDATE:

I went to the pharmacy today (a Walgreens) and pulled the old and new formula off the shelf to show a pharmacist. She was stumped at first, but then she THINKS they MISLABELED the old box by writing ""Iron (as ferrous sulfate)" when she thinks they meant that 47.5 mg was the "elemental iron". She thinks this would explain why the "Daily Values" of both versions are so similar. So she thinks that the old formula was 47.5 mg of elemental iron, and the new formula is 45 mg of elemental iron. So the new label says this equals 142 mg of ferrous sulfate... so I guess we don't know how much ferrous sulfate was in the old version?

Also-- the dosing instructions/directions are different on the new label. The old label said you can take 1 or 2 pills. The new label say to take 1 pill. Well I want to take what I was taking before, so I am going to take 2 pills of the new version and cross my fingers I don't overdose and that the pharmicist's hunch was right.

BTW Novartis' website sucks and was not helpful at all. And whoever I spoke to on the phone was clueless too. So frustrating!

The scary thing about this whole thing is that I thought this entire time I was taking 95 mg of ferrous sulfate because of how misleading the old label was, was in fact I was taking much more!!!

Still confused a bit wiht all this. If anyone has any info or also asked any pharmists and got different responses, please share!

[KayBee]

Did you ever get the dosage you need to take daily straightened out? I'm going to start taking it today.