Help! Female friend low in Ferritin

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TheBeard

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Her bloodwork is as follows:

Hemoglobin 14 (12.5-15.5)
Hematocrit 42.6 (37-47)
Serum iron 48 (50-170) LOW
Transferrin 2.55 (2.5-3.8) LOW
Transferin saturation 13.5 (25-40) LOW
Ferritinin 16 (10-291) LOW

I have no idea how to interpret these bloods and what they mean for the bigger picture.


She has adequate meat intake, no excessive periods.
She tried iron supplements but it doesn't change the values, and I think Peat recommends against them.

Her symptoms:

- fatigue
- easy weight gain
- constipation and bloating
 

Aries

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Jun 25, 2019
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Hemoglobin an hematocrit are alright. In my experience serum iron and thus transferrin saturation are unreliable due to big variance despite fasted tests.

The best tests for iron deficiency would be transferrin receptor and ferritin (which is already tested low). Transferrin on the other hand is elevated in iron deficiency but in this case it is low.

Both tested proteins here are low when they generally would have inverse relationship. I don't know if that implies widepread protein loss but it wouldn't hurt to test albumin next time as well.
 

PaRa

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Transferrin binding affinity isn't there but those numbers would indicate iron deficiency IMO
Transferrin isn't very high tho so maybe it lacks smthg to make it or whatever

@redsun ?
 

Yucca

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Liver, red meat, and blood sausage at least 1-2x/week (each)

No worries, because hematocrit/hemoglobin is totally normal.
i had also very low ferritin levels last year (10, and I’m a man so it should be higher than a woman), because I donate blood 5x the year before...then with the food above and no blood donation, all is back to normal levels now.
She should also try to avoid tea/coffee with meals.
 
OP
T

TheBeard

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Liver, red meat, and blood sausage at least 1-2x/week (each)

No worries, because hematocrit/hemoglobin is totally normal.
i had also very low ferritin levels last year (10, and I’m a man so it should be higher than a woman), because I donate blood 5x the year before...then with the food above and no blood donation, all is back to normal levels now.
She should also try to avoid tea/coffee with meals.

Thanks.

So you suggest iron-rich foods in spite of @Aries pointing that low Transferrin is indicative of correct iron stores,

This is a confusing topic for sure.

@haidut @Hans @Amazoniac do you guys have any hint to help my friend?
 

LoryEl

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Hi. Not sure if this will help but both myself and my daughter are anemic. Our blood tested show much much lower on all fronts than your friend. I believe your friend is doing fine, quite good actually compared with myself and i am better now that i used to be a while back:) maybe just repeat blood tests mid way through the menstrusl cycle, ideally 2-3 weeks into her period?
What age is she? Where is she located? What is her lifestyle?
But most important how does she feel? Is she tired all the time? Trouble sleeping? Headaches? These are a few things that i feel under severe anemia.
As with what helps really good advice above. Vitamin C may so help with iron stores. Maybe low doses of vitamins C. B12 and folic acid also help me but i do not believe she needs it now. May increase her hemoglobin.
 
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T

TheBeard

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She has to pee at least every hour without even drinking that much, puts on weight whithout a lot of calories, cold hands and cold feet.
 

LoryEl

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K i see. Did she got tested for thiroid ? How are her pulse and temps in the morning? Seems hipothitorid issue more than anemia but maybe someone else here could provide some guidance. Peeing often is a sign of adrenal fatigue i believe and cortisone or adrenaline excess.
How is her sleep?
 

Karamela

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She has to pee at least every hour without even drinking that much, puts on weight whithout a lot of calories, cold hands and cold feet.
I used to have the same problem with frequent urination, also during the night and it got much better since I started eating a raw carrot a day. This made me think that it had something to do with estrogen excess in the body and stimulation of extrogen receptors on the bladder. A carrot a day prevents estrogen reabsorption and helps excretion. The other symptoms indicate imho low thyroid function.
 

PaRa

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She has to pee at least every hour without even drinking that much, puts on weight whithout a lot of calories, cold hands and cold feet.
For sure it’s low iron, I have had a blood work showing iron deficient with multiple markers (iron/ferritin/tranferrin panel) and these symptom, currently supplementing iron and SLOWLY getting better
Too Low iron will mess with thyroid and dopamine
@redsun @Lokzo
@Hans
 
OP
T

TheBeard

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For sure it’s low iron, I have had a blood work showing iron deficient with multiple markers (iron/ferritin/tranferrin panel) and these symptom, currently supplementing iron and SLOWLY getting better
Too Low iron will mess with thyroid and dopamine
@redsun @Lokzo
@Hans

Yes but there is no way she'll take iron supplements, they are poison.
The idea is already to prevent the iron from leaching.
 

Jessie

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I'm pretty sure vitamin A (retinol) is responsible for the mobilization of iron. So in addition to eating iron rich foods, eating vitamin A rich foods is probably advisable too. I would probably just eat liver daily until my numbers came up.
 

LoryEl

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Yes but there is no way she'll take iron supplements, they are poison.
The idea is already to prevent the iron from leaching.
Not all iron is poison, however not all iron deficiency blood tests are the best at determining actual anemia. If she needs to take iron the sulfate version is safe. A good study is found here. It was referenced by @haidut in one of his posts. I am using the sulfate version.
In regards to her deficiency, it is a chicken and egg problem i believe. I would start before introducing iron with improving thyroid function, temps and diet. Also a lots of sun and red light.
Improving diet for iron deficiency by itself can fix quite a bit. Having good quality protein like gelatine in her diet is paramount accompanied by things that improve absorbtion of protein and avoid things that deplete iron. For example avoid coffee for a while since it depletes iron stores. There is a tone of advice throght the forum if you use the search on what diet improves iron absorption. How about also writing to dr Peat for her? He would have some good advice.
 

yerrag

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@TheBeard

Just RBC info alone is not enough. What's her WBC and differential count?

I've begun to see rbc as Yang and wbc as Yin. If there is a lot of energy spent on defense (Yin), the tradeoff would be less energy available for Yang.

Frequent urination could be seen as the body doing a lot of redox that produces a lot of water. Oxidative stress being met by antioxidant action, or even reductive stress being met by oxidant action.

It's possible also thst in a state of infection, the body is keeping iron away from pathogens, as they feed on the iron.
 

Mito

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Maybe mild iron deficiency heading in the direction of anemia caused by nutritional deficiencies caused by gut inflammation caused by hypothyroidism?

 
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I think vitamin a is very helpful in the situations. There’s a study here somewhere how vitamin a helps mobilize the stores of iron and she could benefit from eating liver once a week.
 

Rock_V

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Look into oxalates and see if they are in her diet! They can cause anaemia and make you wee all the time because of the stress they put on your kidneys.
 

JKX

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Lactoferrin or colostrum for a couple of months might be worth a try to see if it makes a difference. A good vit b complex might also help.
 
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Look into oxalates and see if they are in her diet! They can cause anaemia and make you wee all the time because of the stress they put on your kidneys.
This! I’ve been dealing with oxalate dumping for the last one year and have low iron parameters. Eating liver and red meat helps a great deal. There’s also endogenous oxalate production. B1 and B6 deficiency can potentially cause increased endogenous oxalate synthesis. Hydroxy-proline can be a precursor for oxalate profuction - lot of peaters are big on gelatine. Oxalate likes to bind to bivalent cathions: Mg, Ca, Iron - dumping can deplete those.
 
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