Mosquitoes Have Loved Me My Entire Life… Until Now

Due to many years of undiagnosed celiac disease, I’ve pretty much dealt with low iron my entire life. I finally found out I had celiac in my early twenties because of an iron absorption issue. One doctor connected the dots, and I’m so thrilled she did, but twenty years ago, iron was really only offered to me in pill or liquid form.

It wasn’t until I moved to Portland in 2017 that my primary care physician there, who was a naturopathic doctor, told me about IV iron.

Unfortunately, my introduction to iron infusions came after a miscarriage in which I ended up hemorrhaging. I was told to go through the hospital and receive an iron infusion once a week for six weeks.

That was my introduction, and I can’t even begin to explain how different I felt afterward..

Never had my health felt better. My hair was fuller. My energy increased. My brain fog lifted. I felt so much stronger. Iron is responsible for so many things in the body, and I think when you’ve been low in iron for most of your life, you can start to normalize the way you feel. You just think that’s the way everyone feels..

It wasn’t until I received those IVs that I realized, Oh! This is how I’m supposed to feel!

As women, especially throughout our bleeding years, iron and ferritin are something I think are so important to pay attention to. Now that I know how good I CAN feel, iron is something I continue to keep an eye on.

I didn’t actually start doing an iron infusion once a year until after having my second baby, when I hemorrhaged again. That was when my dear friend and naturopathic doctor, Dr. Piper Dobner, introduced me to Dr. Cory, who I can only describe as an IV genius. I’ve been seeing her ever since. And I just got to see her this past weekend :)

Along with the iron, we did a bunch of other vitamins and nutrients. We did glutathione to continue supporting my liver while I’m still working through mold detox, a bunch of vitamin C and magnesium, and all the B vitamins, because I’m typically very low in B vitamins. I supplement, but if I’m being truthful, I’m not always very consistent with my supplements, so it felt great knowing I was getting a big dose.

When the B vitamins started going through the IV, I could taste them, which totally tripped me out. It was the strangest experience to have something going directly into my bloodstream, but somehow be able to taste it in my mouth.

Apparently, this can happen with IV vitamins. Because they’re going directly into your bloodstream, certain compounds can circulate through the body, interacting with our senses of taste and smell. Some compounds can also make their way into saliva or be exhaled through the lungs, which is why you can suddenly experience a vitamin-like taste in your mouth even though you haven’t swallowed anything.

I found that so fascinating. And then I realized- for years I have been reading about B vitamins and mosquitoes. I know this is not necessarily popular belief, but among a lot of the crunchy doctors and practitioners I follow, I’ve read over and over again that people who are lower in B vitamins can tend to get eaten by mosquitoes more, and that increasing B vitamins can help.

I am someone who has been ATTACKED by mosquitoes my entire life- I can’t even begin to tell you, no one else in my family will get eaten and somehow I’ll walk away with what feels like 100 bites.

I went to Thailand a couple times and stayed for a month back in my New York days. And even though I had brought all the natural mosquito repellents, nothing seemed to work. At one point I counted 80 bites on my body! I was in such excruciating discomfort from all the itching that I’m not even going to tell you the crazy remedy I resorted to in order to heal them.

You gotta go to extremes sometimes, but that is another story for another day...

But let’s just preface all of this by saying-mosquitoes have always loved me. And for years I have read B vitamins. B vitamins. B vitamins.

Since moving back to Topanga, I’ve dabbled with taking a B-complex supplement, but again, I have yet to really stay consistent with it. So when I was sitting there during my IV and could literally taste the B vitamins entering my body, I suddenly thought, This is going directly into my blood and mosquitoes are about to come out in full force at home… So naturally, I decided to put this little theory to the test…