Am I good to eat red meat with H63D gene as long as i donate blood, eat iron rich foods with calcium

Okay to eat red meat (From an iron overload POV ONLY)

  • Fine

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  • Not fine

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Josh

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Mar 2, 2018
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344
Hi all. I have the H63D Gene for Hemochromotosis and at the end of 2017 i started eating red meat more regularly for first time in my life, 6 months later of that i had my first iron blood test and everything was great, low iron saturation at like 30% along with every other iron marker etc.. Carried on regularly eating red meat and then 1 year later in 2019 i had another iron blood test and that showed like 52% iron saturation within one year and all other high iron markers, ferritin etc..

Started donating blood from that point infrequently and re tested every few months and it did drop, but crept up if i wasn’t donating blood regularly.

I donated March, September and December last year 2020 last and have been eating red meat pretty regularly, along with chicken and i try to consume a calcium supplement with each meal. Recent blood test attached below which is great, iron levels are right down!


Since i found out i had high iron a few years back and had that gene, i’ve been really reducing red meat quite a lot and replacing most of it with chicken and Cod which is not ideal as you can imagine. I’m looking to replace the higher consumption of chicken and fish and consume more red meat again.

(I know i know the phosphoro/tryptophan etc etc etc, i’m not bothered, felt great since dropping the dairy which was messing my eczema up and increasing meat intake, i also need the higher intake of protein as i’m in the gym quite regularly)..



So could i safely increase my consumption of red meat as long as i am continuing to donate and eating calcium with iron rich foods based on the fact my iron levels are so low now even though i’ve been eating a decent amount of red meat the last few months? (Purely looking at it from an iron standpoint, and not the common negative things people mention with higher consumption of meat in general here).

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Jessie

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Jul 9, 2020
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Your numbers look fine actually. Just keep doing the high calcium thing and you can eat all the red meat you want. Drinking some coffee and taking an aspirin tablet with your meals will provide additional support. Keep in mind that you don't want iron to drop too low either. It is common to worry about the inflammatoary nature of high iron, but low iron can reduce oxygenation. It could actually be anti-thyroid for iron to drop too low.
 
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Josh

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Mar 2, 2018
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344
Your numbers look fine actually. Just keep doing the high calcium thing and you can eat all the red meat you want. Drinking some coffee and taking an aspirin tablet with your meals will provide additional support. Keep in mind that you don't want iron to drop too low either. It is common to worry about the inflammatoary nature of high iron, but low iron can reduce oxygenation. It could actually be anti-thyroid for iron to drop too low.

Thank you Jessie! Good to know.. Yeah you can see in that first blood test ferritin is actually kind of anemic!
 

tankasnowgod

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Jan 25, 2014
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In response to the question in the title....... Well, I do.

More important that those genes or iron in meals is to regularly monitor iron levels. After I got de-ironed, I still regularly donate blood. I usually do an iron panel once a year. If I see Ferritin creeping back up, I know I might have to do some more aggressive iron removal strategies.

The Weinberg book suggested long term maintenance of ferritin in the range of 25-75. I haven't even tested over 50 for a few years now.
 
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Josh

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Joined
Mar 2, 2018
Messages
344
In response to the question in the title....... Well, I do.

More important that those genes or iron in meals is to regularly monitor iron levels. After I got de-ironed, I still regularly donate blood. I usually do an iron panel once a year. If I see Ferritin creeping back up, I know I might have to do some more aggressive iron removal strategies.

The Weinberg book suggested long term maintenance of ferritin in the range of 25-75. I haven't even tested over 50 for a few years now.

Yeah, I've been eating a lot of red meat since and levels have crept slightly from test I had a week ago. but all in range still: -: Saturation 32% (20-50), Ferritin 61 (30-400), Serum iron 19umol/L (10-30), TIBC 61 (41-77).

Will likely donate in August next!
 

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