Low Copper, Iron And Ferritin

Douglas Ek

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Joined
Feb 8, 2017
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642
Hi everyone!

I've come here to ask about peoples opinion regarding some blood work i've done and symptoms that i have.
So to start my symptoms are following:

Fatigue
Restless legs
Bit depressed
Low libido
Joint stiffness
Cold hands and feet

So I've done some blood work to find out if there's something wrong with me and this is basically what I've found out:

Iron - 12 mikromol/L Ref range: (9-34 mikromol/L)
Ferritin - 53 mikrog/L Ref range: (30-350 mikrog/L)
Ceruloplasmin - 0.16 g/L Ref range: (0.15 - 0.30 g/L)
Zinc - 12 mikromol/L Ref range: (10-17 mikromol/L)

Hormones:
T4, free 19 pmol/L Ref range: (12-22 pmol/L)
TSH 3.0 mE/L Ref range: (0,3-4,2 mE/L)
DHEA 7.1 mikromol/L Ref range: (4,3-12 mikromol/L)

Vitamin D:
S-25-OH Vitamin D 123 nmol/L Ref range: (50-250 nmol/L)

Supplements I've taken in the past are a lot of Zinc because I thought first I was testosterone deficient. I have tested my testosterone now but haven't gotten the results yet. I will post as soon as i get em. I did minimum 30mg Zinc Picolinate/day and sometimes dosages up to 200mg Zinc. What i tended to notice was that higher zinc dosages started giving me more fatigue and joint aches. For some reason I didn't make the connection but now in hindsight I think that I was lowering my copper levels since zinc and copper are antagonists of each other. Once I started to read up on it I realized that zinc might have been the cause of my symptoms. Before i did this test I've posted now I quit zinc supplements completely and have been taking 4mg copper bisglycinate and 18mg or heme iron for like a week. Don't know if this would have brought up my iron and ceruloplasmin levels at the test but if it would have then my iron and ceruloplasmin might have flagged under the reference range. Also would like to mention that the fatigue and joint aches has gotten better since I started supplementing with iron and copper. But I was suprised to see that my Zinc levels weren't really that high either.

What is your opinion?
Should I keep on taking the copper and iron for awhile and stop the zinc see if I feel better and then go test my levels again?
Are these levels low enough to cause these symptoms? I know copper and ceruloplasmin is involved in ATP and energy production as well as iron is in oxygen so wouldn't be far fetched that it could be the cause?

Thanks guys!
Kind regards,
Doug
 

Waynish

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Causes, therapies, or truths about the potentials of low copper and ferritin on blood tests...
 
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Douglas Ek

Member
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Feb 8, 2017
Messages
642
Causes, therapies, or truths about the potentials of low copper and ferritin on blood tests...

Cause probably zinc supplement and excessive coffee drinkin. I have supplemented with copper and iron for a month now and it fixed the problem. I tested my levels 2 weeks ago and my iron had gone up a little bit. Will test again soon. I can post my results here then
 

Waynish

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Oct 11, 2016
Messages
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I ask because it sounds like a useful example of why people following the Peat forums should "perceive, think, act" before they assume they know the direction they need to "rebalance" their body in (whether via mineral, hormones, or food).
 
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Douglas Ek

Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2017
Messages
642
Causes, therapies, or truths about the potentials of low copper and ferritin on blood tests...

Just 1 month on iron and copper i feel so much better already
I ask because it sounds like a useful example of why people following the Peat forums should "perceive, think, act" before they assume they know the direction they need to "rebalance" their body in (whether via mineral, hormones, or food).

I couldn't agree more with you. There's so many things that lead me into this situation I wish I would had done differently in the first place. Because of recklessness I've suffered a lot more than necessary. Allow me to explain more in depth. I probably always had a bit of difficult getting adequate Iron through my diet for many different reasons. Like drinking a lot of coffee with milk where both coffee and calcium hinders iron absorption and also not that big on vitamin C foods like fresh fruits.

I started with zinc supplementation many years back for health benefits. As for anyone who take supplements you don't really know that much of what you're doing or what the supplements are actually doing for you. You just heard it's good. I've been researching things now for many years through websites as NCBI and Examine and one thing I've learned is that most people take supplement don't know anything about what they are taking and what Side effects it could have on their bodies. Anyway thinking back now I could tell that already years ago zinc had an negative effect on me probably through both copper and iron. They all use the same transporters in the stomach so excess Zinc hinders both copper and iron from being absorbed. This is bad specially when Irons absorption is already so strictly regulated by your body to hinder toxicity. On top of that it antagonises copper which in long term lowers your ceruloplasmin levels which is responsible for iron absorption. What basically happened to me is that I started to feel worse. And I started with other supplements and some of them helped for awhile and some probably made things even worse through chelation and excretion of the minerals that I was low in. I've been to many doctors and none haven't really said to me hey you got low ferritin. Probably because I was in reference range. Well reference range isn't always optimal and it all depends on you as a person. Someone who feels good at one value might be low for another person.

So doctors don't always have the answer and in most case I believe they don't have a clue at all. But there was one nurse I remember who told me that I was a bit low on iron and said I should eat more meat. It didn't sound that serious back then so I didn't give it that much thought but a year later it sorta came back to me and I googled it. That's when I realized this was something that could probably be a cause for what I was experiencing. And I decided that I should just get my ferritin tested. I did and that's the one i posted earlier here. My doctor didn't tell me it was low. But I saw that it was on the low end. Also when I read about copper and saw that my copper stores was borderline I made the connection. Just by researching the web a bit I quickly learned having ceruloplasmin as low as I have the doctor should test me for wilkinsons disease. Still doctor said I had normal levels.....

Anyway I really don't believe that I have wilkinsons disease because it's a very rare disease. Just sure I depleted my ceruloplasmin myself. And on top of that I read that for a guy my ferritin should be in the 120 range for feeling optimal and that women usually feel fatigue and symptoms when they are under 70 in ferritin. My ferritin was 50 so I consider that pretty low. Still doctors could let you go as low as under 30 because thats the reference range on the labs. My only advice to people is that be careful with what you supplement. If you have symptoms and don't feel very well you should get tested before you start experimenting. There's basic stuff to test and in the western world you can often order these test for a not to big amount of money. It's worth it in the end and I wish this is what I just did from the start. Now I've learned a hell of a lot though so it's kinda great for that reason. But every action has an reaction so to say. You never know if a supplement you take to replenish your body might deplete something else and make you sick.
 

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