Iron + Vitamin C Was Half The Equation.
Vitamin C helps iron absorb. But it does nothing about the hormone that locks iron in storage once it's inside your body. That hormone is hepcidin.
When hepcidin is elevated — which it is in most women with chronically low ferritin — your body takes the iron you just absorbed and traps it. Your ferritin goes up on paper. But your brain and your hair follicles never see it.
So the fog stays. The shedding continues. And you keep taking iron that technically "works" but doesn't change how you feel.
Iron Smart adds 100 mg of lactoferrin — the protein that tells your body to stand down and release what it's been hoarding.