Optimal Iron Levels For Men?

[healthnut123]

Hi,

I'm struggling to find information online about optimal values for iron blood tests for men (I'm 26). For example, some sites say ferritin should be 100+ for men, others say 50-80 is optimal, others say 30-40 etc. Does anyone have reliable information on what is optimal for all iron tests? Here are my lab results:

IRON 120 mcg/dL; (50 - 195 mcg/dL)
TIBC 329 mcg/dL (calc); (250 - 425 mcg/dL (calc))
IRON % SATURATION 36 % (calc); (15 - 60 % (calc))
FERRITIN 43 ng/mL; (20 - 345 ng/mL)

Thanks for your help!

 

[jaakkima]

Low normal saturation % is probably good. Ray has said saturation % usually reflects real iron stores. Irondisorders.org has some useful reference charts for interpreting labs regarding different types of anemia, overload, etc.

 

[Mito]

“On the full iron panel you want your transferrin saturation to be between 30% and 40%, probably your ferritin between 60 and 150 in American units.”
https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/2017/01/27/need-manage-iron-status/

 

[gabys225]

In regards to ferritin, here are some notes from Dr. Jerome Sullivan.

Achieving a zero ferritin is diagnostically useful

Some interesting bits:

"At a zero level of stored iron, we can be fairly confident that a state of iron overload is not present at the time of the determination. The only way to have any real confidence that stored iron is not contributing to a patholgic process is to remove it and see if the patient does better clinically. "

"Having a ferritin or zero and "having some iron around" are not mutually exclusive! With a zero ferritin, assuming hemoglobin level is within normal limits, there is a great plenty of iron around. Remember that iron metabolism is dynamic. Iron is constantly being shuttled around even if there is flat zero STORED iron present. My
impression is that, indeed, the whole system gets better at getting out the last traces of stored iron as a mild anemia develops."

Remember, the ferroxidase enzyme that moves iron around is copper dependent. In my own experiences with therapeutic phlebotomies I noticed that if I wasn't consuming foods rich in copper my hemoglobin level would drop about 1 point from one donation to the next.

If I had adequate copper, I could donate a pint with a reading of 15.9 and give another pint in 2 weeks with a reading of 16.0.

I personally feel better when my iron stores are very low, however, YMMV. Hope I gave you some food for thought. Experiment safely!