Iron
is essential for life as it transports oxygen in your body, helps
regulate cell growth, maintains brain function, metabolism and endocrine
function and is involved in energy production and immune function
Having
either too much or too little iron can have serious repercussions.
While iron deficiency is commonly checked for, iron overload is actually
far more common a problem, yet is often overlooked or ignored
Excess
iron accelerates every major disease we know of, and causes the
pathologies associated with liver and cardiovascular disease.
Fortunately, treatment is easy and inexpensive: Simply donate your blood
By Dr. Mercola
Iron is essential for human life, as it:1
Forms hemoglobin (the protein in red blood cells), as iron binds to oxygen and provides it to tissues for their metabolic needs
Is a key component of various proteins, as well as enzymes that catalyze cellular oxidation reactions
Helps regulate cell growth and differentiation
Helps maintain your brain function, metabolism and endocrine function
Is involved in energy production and immune function
Having either too much or too little iron can have serious health
consequences and, while iron-deficiency anemia is commonly checked for,
many doctors are still seriously misinformed about the dangers of iron overload,
which is actually a far more common problem.
In fact, most men and postmenopausal women are at risk for iron
overload due to inefficient iron excretion, since they do not bleed on a
regular basis and blood loss is the primary way to lower excess iron,
as the body has no active excretion mechanisms.
There's also an inherited disease, hemochromatosis, which causes your
body to accumulate excessive and dangerously damaging levels of iron.
If left untreated, it can damage your organs and contribute to cancer,
heart disease, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases and many other
health problems.
The good news is iron overload is easy and inexpensive to treat. By
monitoring your serum ferritin and/or GGT levels, avoiding iron
supplements and donating blood on a regular basis, you can avoid
serious health problems.
In a recent podcast, Chris Masterjohn, Ph.D., delves into the
biological imperatives of iron, the effects of low and high iron, and
how to address both of those issues. You can find that episode on Masterjohn's website.2
Health Problems Associated With High and Low Iron
Having just the right amount of iron is important, as without it,
your body cannot work properly, and with excess, iron causes a great
deal of destructive harm within your body. Following is a list of
conditions associated with either extreme:3
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
(NAFLD). Excess dietary fructose is a primary initiator of NAFLD,
but high iron is another culprit that triggers disease progression
Restless leg syndrome
Liver damage
and liver disease. Each year there are roughly 36,000 deaths from liver
diseases and about 6,000 liver transplants.
Most all of these cases are affected by excess iron, even in the absence of a hemochromatosis genotype4
Hair loss
Still's disease
Muscle weakness, decline in motor skills
Hemochromatosis
Mental changes and memory loss
Hemophagocytic syndrome
What's an Ideal Iron Level?
The serum ferritin test measures your stored iron. For adults, I
strongly recommend getting a serum ferritin test on an annual basis as a
screen to confirm you're neither too high nor too low. When it comes
to iron overload, I believe it can be every bit as dangerous to your
health as vitamin D deficiency.
As with many other lab tests, the "normal" ranges for serum ferritin are far from ideal.5
In some labs, a level of 200 to 300 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL)
falls within the normal range for women and men respectively, which is
FAR too high for optimal health. In reality, you're virtually guaranteed
to develop disease at those levels. An ideal level for adult men and
non-menstruating women is somewhere between 40 and 60 ng/mL. You do not
want to be below 20 ng/mL or above 80 ng/mL.
Maintaining a healthy iron level is also important during pregnancy.
Having a level of 60 or 70 ng/mL is associated with greater odds of
poor pregnancy outcomes.6 That said, iron deficiency during pregnancy is equally problematic. The most commonly used threshold for iron deficiency in clinical studies is 12 to 15 ng/mL.7
GGT Test for Free Iron
Another valuable test is the gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT)
test. GGT measures liver enzymes. Not only will this tell you if you
have liver damage, it can also be used as a screening marker for excess
free iron and is a great indicator of your sudden cardiac death risk.
For women, a healthy GGT level is around 9 units per liter (U/L)
whereas the high ends of "normal" are generally 40 to 45 U/L. For men,
16 U/L is ideal, while the normal lab range can go as high as 65 to 70
U/L.8
According to Gerry Koenig, former chairman of the Iron Disorders Institute and the Hemochromatosis Foundation,9
women with a GGT above 30 U/L have a higher risk of cancer and
autoimmune disease. In the video above, Koenig discusses this and other
health hazards associated with iron overload.
What Causes Excess Iron Buildup?
Two of the most common causes of iron overload are:
1. Having one or both genes for
hemochromatosis (indicating mild or severe form). In the video below,
Masterjohn provides an overview of these two genetic markers. About 1
in 3.5 or an estimated 100 million people in the U.S. have the single
gene for hemochromatosis.10
Approximately 1 million people have the double gene variant,
considered the genotype most predictive of liver disease complications.
However, this only becomes a serious problem if significant iron
overload occurs before a diagnosis is achieved and proper treatment can
be administered 2. Inadequate iron elimination. Adult men
and post-menopausal women are at increased risk due to the fact they
do not have monthly blood loss, which is one of the best and most
efficient ways to rid your body of excess iron
Another common cause of excess iron is the regular consumption of
alcohol, which will increase the absorption of any iron in your diet.
For instance, if you drink wine with your steak, you will likely absorb
more iron than you need. Other possible causes of high iron levels
include:
Cooking in iron pots or pans. Cooking acidic foods in these types
of pots or pans will cause even higher levels of iron absorption
Eating processed foods fortified with iron
Drinking well water that is high in iron. The key here is to make
sure you have some type of iron precipitator and/or a reverse osmosis
water filter
Taking multivitamins and mineral supplements, as both of these frequently have iron in them
Why Excess Iron Is So Dangerous
Your body creates energy by passing the electrons from carbs and fat
to oxygen through the electron transport chain in your mitochondria to
produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Ninety-five percent of the time,
the oxygen is converted to water. But 0.5 to 5 percent of the time,
reactive oxygen species (ROS) are created.
Iron can react with hydrogen peroxide in the inner mitochondrial
membrane. This is a normal part of cellular aerobic respiration. But
when you have excessive iron, it catalyzes the formation of excessive
hydroxyl free radicals from the peroxide, which decimate your
mitochondrial DNA, mitochondrial electron transport proteins and
cellular membranes.
This is how iron overload accelerates every major disease we know of,
and how it causes the pathologies associated with liver and
cardiovascular disease. Unfortunately, few doctors understand the
molecular biology of this reaction, which is why iron overload is so
frequently overlooked.
If you eat unhealthy levels of net carbs (total carbs minus fiber)
the situation is further exacerbated, as burning carbs as your primary
fuel can add another 30 to 40 percent more ROS on top of the hydroxyl
free radicals generated by the presence of high iron.
Unfortunately, most people reading this are burning carbs as their
primary fuel. If you struggle with any kind of chronic health problem
and have high iron and eat a standard American diet that is high in net
carbs, normalizing your iron level (explained below) and implementing a
ketogenic diet as described in my book, "Fat for Fuel," can go a long way toward improving your health.
Taking extra antioxidants to suppress ROS generated by high iron
alone or in combination with a high-sugar diet is inadvisable, as ROS
also act as important signaling molecules. They're not all bad. They
cause harm only when produced in excess.
Your best bet is to lower the production of ROS rather than
squelching them after the fact. One of the easiest and most effective
ways to do that is to eat a diet high in healthy fats, adequate in
protein and low in net carbs. Eating healthy fats can make a bigger
difference than you might think, especially if you have high iron.
How to Address Low Iron
If your iron is low, you can improve your iron status by:
• Eating iron-rich foods,11,12 i.e., organ meats such as liver, grass fed red meat, dark turkey meat, clams, spinach, pumpkin seeds, quinoa, broccoli, dark chocolate (minimum 70 percent cooca) and seaweed.
As a rule, animal-based iron is more readily absorbed while
plant-based sources are less bioavailable. Avoid iron-fortified foods,
as these provide an inorganic iron that is far from ideal and may
actually promote oxidative stress and could cause gastrointestinal side
effects • Taking vitamin C can help improve bioavailability of the iron in your food.13 Avoid combining iron-rich foods with calcium-rich foods, as calcium binds to iron, thereby limiting absorption • Taking a liposomal iron supplement.
Beware of ferrous sulfate, a form of iron found in many multivitamins,
including children's multivitamins, as it is relatively toxic and can
lead to significant problems. The biggest danger is acute overdose,
which can be lethal. A safe form of supplement is carbonyl iron.
However, keep ALL iron supplements away from children, even carbonyl
iron, and do not take any kind of iron supplement if you have
hemochromatosis, hemosiderosis or hemolytic anemia such as sickle cell
anemia or thalassemia (aka Mediterranean anemia, a type of genetic
anemia where hemoglobin is not well formed)
How to Address Iron Overload
If your iron level is high, the easiest and most effective solution
is to donate your blood. If you're an adult male, you'll want to donate
blood two to three times a year once your levels are normal. If
ferritin levels are over 200 ng/mL, a more aggressive phlebotomy
schedule is recommended.
It is also wise to have a percentage transferrin saturation done.
Ideally, this value should be between 30 and 40 percent. If it is
higher, and you have an elevated ferritin level, then I am sad to tell
you, but you have iron overload that is hurting your mitochondria. This
needs to be addressed if you want to lower your risk for chronic
diseases like heart disease and cancer.
As noted by Masterjohn in the video above, trying to control high
iron through your diet by avoiding iron-rich foods can have a number of
detrimental effects, as you will also forgo many valuable nutrients.
Ideally, you will want to donate your blood twice or three times a year
until your lab values normalize. If you are unable to donate your
blood, you can get your doctor to write a prescription for a
therapeutic phlebotomy to have this done.
When you donate blood, they typically remove a pint of blood, which
can be a challenge for many. Most people tolerate this process much
better when they do smaller donations more frequently. So, if you or
someone you know can draw blood, removing 2 to 6 ounces every few weeks
would be a wiser strategy.
A recent study14
in Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience notes that iron-restricted diets
"affect brain ferritin levels, dopamine metabolism and cellular prion
proteins in a region-specific manner" — effects that highlight the
importance of adequate iron for general brain health and for the
prevention of neurological diseases.
That said, if your iron is high, you may want to avoid combining
foods high in vitamin C with foods high in iron, as the vitamin C
increases iron absorption. On the other hand, calcium will bind to
iron, limiting absorption, so eating iron-rich foods with calcium-rich
foods can be helpful.
Avoid using phytate or phytic acid (also known as IP6) to prevent
iron absorption and chelate iron out of your body, however, as this can
easily result in other mineral deficiencies, such as zinc deficiency. A
far safer alternative is curcumin. It actually acts as a potent
chelator of iron and can be a useful supplement if your iron is
elevated.
Maintaining an Adequate Iron Level Is Important for Optimal Health
Iron is indeed essential, but it's important to maintain a level that
is neither too low nor too high. Being at either extreme can lead to
significant health problems and aggravate many chronic diseases and,
contrary to popular belief, iron overload is actually more common than
iron deficiency. To reiterate some of the most important points in this
article, if your iron is high, be sure to:
Lower your net carb intake and increase healthy fats to switch over
to fat-burning mode and protect your mitochondria. This will help to
radically reduce ROS and secondary free radical production
Donate blood at least twice a year to normalize your level as
indicated in the lab discussion in the previous section. Recent U.S.
legislation allows all blood banks to perform therapeutic phlebotomy
for hemochromatosis or iron overload. All you need is a doctor's order
Don't avoid iron-rich foods. Instead, just avoid combining them
with vitamin C-rich foods. Combine them with calcium-rich foods
instead, to limit absorption. Also avoid alcohol, which will increase
the absorption of iron in your diet. You could also consider a curcumin
supplement to reduce your iron load without risking the elimination of
other valuable minerals
Unless you have a lab-documented iron deficiency, avoid
iron-containing multivitamins, iron supplements and mineral supplements
that contain iron
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