eimearrose
Member
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2012
- Messages
- 75
I'm not sure ferritin is such a good measure of iron stores. I see it more as an inflammatory marker, so in high iron situation, it could be elevated (but can be elevated for other reasons too). It is after all just a protein. For myself, I have been treated for low ferritin for years. With ridiculous amounts of oral iron I can get ferritin up to 50, and then my serum iron gets too high. So essentially my body is not making enough ferritin to lock the iron away. In haemochromatosis, the elevated ferritin is probably a sign the body is working hard to sequester the iron away. Mine cannot do that, and I realised only too late (and after an iron infusion that brought my ferritin up to 400 and very quickly down to mid 20s and very recently back down to 5) that iron is not my issue, but probably poor ferritin production (ie the protective protein). Most likely crappy liver and hypothyroidism. I'm interested to see in a couple of months if I can raise ferritin to a reasonable range with consistent thyroid.It's probably not just the beef, but also the lack of bloodletting and intestinal worms and fortified iron you ate (and if you are a male, being male) that got it to that range. Not saying that having intestinal worms is a good thing, but there were lots of ways iron was kept lower in the past, in more primitive cultures, and even in modern ones. Worms weren't really eliminated in most industrialized countries until about the 1960's.
Take a look at the graph below-
View attachment 44300
So, we have the combination of higher iron intakes (maybe the highest of all time, due to supplements and fortification), along with fewer ways to "lose" iron, with the elimination of things like intestinal worms and being more sedentary and such. It's no shock that ferritin levels (especially in men) are much higher today.
It depends on the source, and who you believe.
The "lab range" for ferritin is about 30-400. I've heard some suggest it should be more like 30-200.
In the Zacharsky studies, they found a dramatic reduction in heart disease (and cancer, and all cause mortality) when they got ferritin below 90. Personally, I think the target range should be between 25-75, and really, kept at the lower end of that range (maybe like 30-40). There are a lot of studies (by the likes of Zacharsky and Fachinni) that suggest this is a good place to prevent many degenerative diseases. Although I have had ferritin test as low as 18, and didn't notice any negatives. When lowering ferritin from 444 to that near deficiency range (around 30-50), I noticed benefits like improved mood and energy, as well.
Anyway, that was a long winded way of saying I think we need to think of iron and ferritin a bit more independently, especially in the low cases. And a high ferritin might not be accurately showing just how bad one's iron overload is- a 400 could just be maxed out ferritin production and the rest is trapped in tissue, and theoretically the 400 ferritin person could be worse off than someone with a ferritin of 900.