Is There Any Way To Lower Iron Without Donating Blood?

[freal]

I wonder, lets say you have too much iron, How can you get rid of it. Is there any other way other than getting rid of some blood. How can you even get rid of any blood other than donating it and they take a huge ammount, too much.

 

[jyb]

Yes, but I believe it will just be a lot slower / negligible. If your diet is really low in iron, the balance could be negative because your body loses a very small amount each day. I've read about aspirin speeding it up a bit. Why is donation a problem? It's less than 10% of your blood.

 

[freal]

So basically without agreeing on giving up half a liter of blood there is no alternative. Why do they insist on taking so much.
Those epruvets in labs where they take blood for things like hemoglobin are nothing, like 10ml.

 

[Ben]

The problem with blood donation is that some people have a temperature, pulse, and blood pressure that's too high. I got the whole trifecta the last time I tried to donate blood, and that was back when I wasn't supplementing T3 yet (and I use 90 mc per day now).

I don't understand what problem you have with giving up half a liter of blood. You'll be a little weaker for a few days, but that's it. And usually people have too much iron stored in their tissues, so it's a good thing you're getting rid of this much blood.

 

[Peata]

I personally had an awful time due to a blood donation I made. See this thread: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2270

With what I experienced, I feel it was dangerous for me.

Freal, here's a thread on chelating iron from your system: viewtopic.php?f=56&t=2384#p28361 You might find something useful there.

 

[pboy]

I was reading some stuff and its actually pretty messed up, the whole blood donation thing...its not cool if you think about it to give someone else blood that you don't want, unless maybe they were severely anemic. Its just kind of weird to me also...but I dunno. Heres what you can do...do some kind of rigorous activity outdoors with light clothing and in the process you will likely get some cuts and bleed a bit. Joking aside, I read a study from the army done a while back...it was looking at replenishing minerals lost in sweat, apparently iron was sweat out in significant amounts during high sweat situations. I thought it was weird because Ive never read that anywhere else, and it wasn't even the main focal point of the study ( I was looking up stuff more on sodium and iodine and stumbled upon it). So maybe sweating could be useful, but I really don't know

 

[SQu]

I suspect you need to be strong enough to donate. I don't think I was, the one disastrous time I tried. it was years ago in my low calorie low fat phase.I had what I now realize was a stress hormone burst. I was shaky weak nauseous and dizzy for days. That little biscuit they give you was totally inadequate. They struggled to get much blood and stopped early, obviously not liking the look of my pale face and likelihood of passing out. I never tried again. Another consideration for me is that a family member got an award for being such a great donater - I think it was 100 pints by the age of 59 -later the same year she was diagnosed with bone cancer and given 18 months - 5 years to live. Coincidence? I truly don't know. But it seems the process is a shock - logically, any time you lose a lot of blood must be interpreted by your body's systems as a crisis. I do also wonder if it's as safe as they say seeing as blood is big business in some countries.

 

[j.]

the whole blood donation thing...its not cool if you think about it to give someone else blood that you don't want

You can just throw away your blood if that bothers you, and get the same effects. What benefits you is taking blood out of your body, not the act of putting your waste in others.

Also, if you don't want something it doesn't mean it's useless for others. It can benefit someone in a car accident, for example. The whole concept of trade is based on giving others something you don't want. The oranges producer can't possibly benefit from consuming the 10,000 oranges he produced, so after having a certain number for his own consumption he doesn't want them anymore, so he gives others something he doesn't want in exchange for something he wants, which can be money or another good if he barters.

 

[SaltGirl]

There is always surgery . My ferritin went from 200 to 35 in less than a year due to 4 surgeries. I also ate very little red meat and took copper.

 

[Ben]

the whole blood donation thing...its not cool if you think about it to give someone else blood that you don't want

If you lost a lot of blood in a car accident and could die from blood loss...

 

[himsahimsa]

I have donated blood my whole life, more often as I got older. I'm 65. I read that regular blood loss causes the blood production system to become stronger by coping and that made sense to me. That must have been in 1969. So most years I have given blood, maybe 3 times, as a long term average, sometimes more. In the past 20 years or so I have been more aggressive about it, some years giving as often as they would take it, which is about every 6 weeks. The last couple years I haven't but that's just because because. The only ill effect, and it isn't much, is that the stick zone on one vein is a little tough, not visibly but the phlebotomists mention it when they try to get that tube in, I never notice.

If you are "unwell" you should not "donate for use" because it's unethical, obviously. You are given the option of designating blood as "Do Not Use" with no reason required (they probably sell it for some industrial use). Also, if you are "unwell", as others have noted, a lose in blood volume of a pint MIGHT be a physical burden, but if healthy, usually only very small people are bothered. Like people who weigh less than 100 pounds. Blood banks have a lower limit, they will refuse you if you are under.

Don't discount the psychological effect of loosing blood, of seeing it go, through a tube, of knowing. You don't have to be a wuss to drop from that knowing. Big bad ass guys, (like Seals, and others) guys who have definitely seen blood (mostly other peoples'), have told me flat out that they personally couldn't take it. There must be some really basic thing going on that just gets to some people for whatever reason.

(I tend to be pretty healthy but I don't know that blood donation has had anything to do with it.)

 

[lexis]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8410355

Vitamin E protects iron toxicity problems

 

[Blossom]

The reason I give blood regularly is that it seems the best way to lower iron reliably and for my situation I need that. If I were 20 years younger and had not let myself become so compromised in my health I may do things differently. What I believe is true is that lipofusion(not sure if I spelled it right) is the terminal toxin in cellular respiration as RP explains in his writings. Since I have had multiple pigment issues over the last 20 years I feel that donating blood is essential for me due to the involvement of heme in lipofusion. I have not had any new dark spots develop on a Peat style approach including blood donation. That said, I would not donate if I felt it would endanger me in anyway. I know this approach is synergistic and having lower prolactin and serotonin are also involved. When I took bromocriptine years before discovering Peat I had improvement in pigment issues at that time. So when I try to grasp his work I feel that the lowering of iron is just one more way to move in a more regenerative direction as opposed to a degenerative one.

 

[himsahimsa]

Lipofuscin.

Benfotiamine, a derivative of vitamin B1, is helpful in stripping existing deposits of lipofuscin and is overall a health promoting molecule. No bad side effects. Very rapid and very good for alleviation of neuropathic pain and of spasm/twitching even approaching tetany.
(As, for instance, that which may have been caused by fluoroquinolone poisoning.)

Usually 100 - 300mg/D, divided.

 

[Blossom]

Hmmm, interesting. I'm thinking of things like levaqin. I'm sure taking high doses of that drug for 50 days straight would do some damage. Thanks himsahimsa!

 

[himsahimsa]

One single dose of a fluoroquinolone is enough to trigger all devastating sequelae.

 

[Blossom]

Wow, I'm speechless. I took that drug back in9 after a body fluid exposure at work. I never started to recover until about 1 &1/2 years ago when I went on a gluten free diet. After learning all of that, I guess I'm lucky to be alive! It's just another example of 'medical science' harming rather than helping. I'm the one who sought treatment though so it's not like anyone held a gun to my head and made me take it. What a shame. Great information.

 

[himsahimsa]

45mg/D in fat (15mg 3 times per day) menatetranone is also very helpful to heal the horrible arthritic/connective tissue degradation. The fluoroquinolone destroys (among other things) the lining of the intestine so you get reactive immune response to things eaten until the gut is restored. What exactly ends up as the worst sensitizer probably depends on the individual. I think it may also, at least temporarily (if your lucky) completely block thyroid function, (just a guess based on symptoms). Or maybe it's the estrogen from hell.

 

[Blossom]

I did have the joint pain while taking levaquin but luckily that resolved after stopping the medicine. I did go on to receive a diagnosis of CFS and years later celiac disease. I guess I'm just fortunate it all happened at 30 years old when I had some youth on my side despite a horrific environment I was still somewhat resilient. Maybe this is why I feel good effects when I take b1?

 

[lexis]

Green Tea Extract
After water, tea is the most commonly-consumed beverage in the world.32 Green, unfermented tea leaves have numerous health benefits, chiefly attributable to their content of a polyphenol molecule called epigallocatechin-3-gallate, or EGCG.32 EGCG is a well-known antioxidant.33 In recent years, it was shown to powerfully chelate unbound iron and protect vulnerable tissues.34,35

Green tea extracts rich in EGCG bind to iron, and scientists have proposed their use as an alternative or adjunct to commercial iron chelators, which, while effective, may come with negative side effects.36,37 Such drugs are used to treat thalassemia, a condition which when severe enough, can cause massive iron accumulations as the result of frequent blood transfusions. EGCG from green tea has now been used safely and effectively to bind and remove iron from the blood of individuals with thalassemia.37,38 And in studies of animals deliberately overloaded with iron to mimic aging, green tea extracts are able to bind free iron and reduce iron-related tissue oxidation in brain and liver tissue.36,39,40

Unlike many drugs and nutrients, EGCG readily crosses the blood-brain barrier.41,42 This allows it to capture and isolate iron from the brain regions affected in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s diseases.43 In contrast to many current drug therapies, which can only modify symptoms in these tragic conditions, iron chelation by EGCG rich green tea extract offers the potential to prevent and reverse the progression of the disease process itself.44-46

http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2012/mar2012_Excess-Iron-Brain-Degeneration_01.htm