High ferritin

[sportsfan8724]

Just found out my ferritin is 319. Red Cross only lets you donate every 56 days. Is there any other ways to donate or have someone take my blood for free? I want to get my ferritin down to below 150. And feel like it'll take forever at only every 56 days.

 

[FeelingLost]

I don't use the Red Cross I use bonfils. You could check if there is one in your town. Here's the link I hope it is OK to post a link.
https://www.bonfils.org/

 

[captain]

You should look into why its high. It will be high if you are sick or have inflammation. I think autoimmune disease can make it high as well like hashimoto's disease.

 

[sportsfan8724]

I thought inflammation is caused from the high iron? How do I test for hashimotos disease?

 

[Vince Carter]

I thought inflammation is caused from the high iron? How do I test for hashimotos disease?

Thyroid TPO or Thyroid antibodies...shold run the full Thyroid panel concurrently:

TSH
T3
T4
Free T3
Reverse T3
Antibodies

 

[Saul]

Just found out my ferritin is 319. Red Cross only lets you donate every 56 days. Is there any other ways to donate or have someone take my blood for free? I want to get my ferritin down to below 150. And feel like it'll take forever at only every 56 days.

Hi Sportsfan. I have high iron too. 319 is not that bad. It is just a tad high. You most likely have no symptoms at that level. Just give blood every 2 months and you will be fine. Each blood draw will drop you 30 to 50 ferritin points. In one donation you will be back in range. Just give every two months and then test again in a year or 6 months. Sometimes it can drop faster. Although not required, you can try to cut back on iron, such as no liver, iron supplements, and reduced red meat.
.
People with really high ferritin are over 1000 and my Dr said he has had patients in the 5000 to 8000 range. One last thing, your ferritin can be high for other reasons besides high iron. How were your other iron levels in your blood work?
.
Do you know why you have high ferritin? One last thing, it is not a race or rush. It takes time to have your body make more red blood cells and for your body to pull the iron that is stored in your organs - and due so in a healthy manner. At 319 there is no rush and every 2 months in fine.

 

[Saul]

You should look into why its high. It will be high if you are sick or have inflammation. I think autoimmune disease can make it high as well like hashimoto's disease.

Agreed. Ferritin is a protein that is used to store iron but it can be high for other reasons as stated by captian, as well as too much fat, alcohol use. Yours is not really that high though. It is starting on the edge of high so it would be worth understanding why it is creeping up? Could be inflammation or other issues, or hereditary hemochromatosis, or too much iron in diet, or iron poisoning (external source).

 

[ratbag]

On hemachromatosis sites they recommend to reduce or cut out vitamin C because it also helps increase iron/ferritin levels. You must be careful when you give blood that you get some labs before you donate blood a second time because some people's (everyone is different) ferritin drops significantly with just one blood donation. So never donate twice in a row or you risk your ferritin dropping too low and if you read around you see this happens all the time.

 

[sportsfan8724]

Well I'm a lean 160 lbs and I had not had one alcoholic beverage in over 4 years. Honestly I've probably not had 20 drinks in my life. Could it be from overtraining with weights? I'm not sure what else it could be? Any other things that you guys can think would cause it?