Help. I Am Taking Copper And Still Have Deficiency!

[Kayaker]

Ok. You think donating blood might help? A lot of people claim this.

If you have high iron. If both are low, why not eat shellfish which is high in iron and copper?

 

[Blue Water]

Ok. You think donating blood might help? A lot of people claim this.

If the problem is due to iron, then yes. But check your transferrin saturation, iron, and ferritin levels.

If the problem is from copper being low, it might be harmful. Copper (via Ceruloplasmin) is essential for iron metabolism. It puts iron into FE3+ state which can be picked up and used by transferrin for blood cell formation. So if you lack copper levels, supporting red blood cell production will be harder, and donating might not be wise.

I think it is a gamble in some respects, but for me it makes sense given I have a lot of indications of hemochromatosis. If your iron status is like mine (normal ferritin but super high transferrin saturation), it might be worth it. If on the other hand you have higher ferritin, low transferrin or low serum iron, and low copper, it might not be worth donating because Ceruloplasmin being low, it might produce copper deficiency related anemia.

If you think you are super deficient in copper but your complete blood count is normal and you have signs of iron dysregulation, then it might be smart to donate. For me, I think the balance leans towards donating, so when I get blood tests I will do that and can report how it affects Ceruloplasmin.

The best thing to do would be to test everything before and after donation (testing zinc, copper, iron, and magnesium all together). But it is expensive.

 

[GorillaHead]

I think the connection of zinc and copper is highly misunderstood. I saw case study if a boy with loss of pigment in hair after consuming zinc his hard got its color back. Somehow zinc enables copper i would guess