This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

I have a question for people concerning ferritin levels... I went back and looked at my old records from the year 2000. I had just seen an environmental illness doctor, and I basically believe that this woman saved my life. She was the only one to run a proper thyroid panel and the results were such that she said "I don't know how you are walking around". I had virtually no free T3 in my system, even though my TSH was normal. But when she looked at the rest of the lab work, she shook her head because she said my ferritin level at 88 did not make sense when I was that hypothyroid. 88 (reference range 25-205) was pretty good according to her, but she said most people that were that hypothyroid would be anemic. Which prompted me to say I was anemic when I was in my teens and early 20s but I started to use cast-iron cookware and the problem resolved. She sort of frowned, but we did not pursue the iron levels any further. I am going to go today and ask for a ferritin level blood test, but I am wondering whether anybody else have some numbers that they could contribute. Bill Sardi who writes about iron overload says that a good level of iron is 25-35, because otherwise you get a lot of free radical damage. I have not had my iron tested for years, and I have been on thyroid medication since the year 2000, so I shudder to think what my levels may be. It turns out if you are simply a carrier of the hemochromatosis gene you can accumulate too much iron.



It seems that one in six Irish people are simply carriers for hemachromatosis. But just being a carrier causes too much iron accumulation, although at a slower rate than if you have two genetic mutations resulting in full-blown hemachromatosis.


http://www.squidoo.com/Hereditary-Hemochromatosis

best not to speculate til you get the results--
the iron tests you should get:
Serum iron. This test measures the amount of iron in your blood. The level of iron in your blood may be normal even if the total amount of iron in your body is low. For this reason, other iron tests also are done.

Serum ferritin. Ferritin is a protein that helps store iron in your body. A measure of this protein helps your doctor find out how much of your body's stored iron has been used up.

Transferrin level, or total iron-binding capacity. Transferrin is a protein that carries iron in your blood. Total iron-binding capacity measures how much of the transferrin in your blood isn't carrying iron. If you have iron-deficiency anemia, you'll have a high level of transferrin that has no iron.

If you had hemochromatosis, it would have been picked up in your tests in 2000.

also, remember, the iron that is deposited in the brain is not from excess iron in the blood (although you could have excess, but also a deficiency of iron in the blood, and still have these abnormal depositions)--the speculation is that the deposits are from blood leakage from the cells -cells with stay too long in cerebral cirulation because can't drain properly due some problem with veins--veins either twisted, and/or clogged. (and I also speculate veins possibly constricted by bone problems--ie, twisted atlas pushing on the vein, obstructing it, etc.)

Well I went yesterday I got the blood test for ferritin, mainly because that is the only iron test I would have to compare with old numbers. My Dr. was aware of Zamboni, and he said kind of kiddingly that he expected me to come in the next day and ask for the ultrasound. But I said no I first want to check out some of the iron levels in my system, although I did go over my existing structural problems as a reminder to him that I have pre-existing problems and might just fit into the profile of someone with CCSVI. He said he finds the whole thing fascinating and was very agreeable to testing ferritin. My timing was great at the lab, sometimes I find the technicians are kind of taciturn, but this guy was very open to discussing iron. The guy ahead of me turns out had just gotten rid of a pint of blood due to hemochromatosis! The technician said this guy used to come in for a blood draw and it would take a half an hour to get the blood out, because it was so thick! Iron overload does make for thick blood, it makes the platelets stick together. I told this guy that I had an older reading of ferritin at 88 and he said he thought that was high because they try to keep it below 60 in the case of hemochromatosis. So I question the reference ranges for iron, when you start to read about IOD (Iron Overload Disease) there are dissenting opinions on what is a healthy level of iron. I found a blog yesterday

http://blogcritics.org/scitech/article/ ... cess-iron/

somewhere on that site she says she feels better with an iron level of 15!

Frankly, given that they say they always find thick blood in multiple sclerosis, what is the relationship between iron and MS? Reference ranges are ridiculous, they are so broad and they are usually determined when they test a bunch of sick people. When you have iron overload, it is my understanding that your glutathione gets used up trying to deal with the iron... anemic people have very high levels of glutathione which I find fascinating. I was anemic as a teenager, and I had tons and tons of energy, more energy than anybody I knew. So I don't know if we really understand whether iron overload or thick blood and cause restriction of the veins etc. it was so nice to hear this lab technician verify for me that too much iron causes this problem of thick blood which would definitely definitely have an impact on circulation.

I mean take a look at this for ferritin... they cite reference ranges of up to 300 for males, and up to 200 for females... but then just below that they say the ideal maintenance is 25-75! The guy at the laboratory yesterday said that 88 was high in his opinion... again, anybody else have these numbers that they could give me some feedback?

http://www.irondisorders.org/tests-to-d ... on-levels/

Also, please be aware that reference ranges are ridiculous. You see, 95% of the population will fit into a reference range that are given by laboratories, but as the population gets sicker and sicker, they adjust the reference ranges! You should hear my environmental Dr. go on and on about this, about how bloody ridiculous reference ranges are... they are not optimal ranges, they are simply reflecting where most people fall, but as the population gets sicker and sicker, and as the reference ranges get changed, then you are considered normal even if you have all kinds of symptoms of illness. I found this out when I was doing thyroid medications, trying to find the right dose. They keep lowering the free T3, a few years ago, the reference range was 2.8-4.3. But as the population gets sicker, that lowered the reference range to 2.3-4.0... whereas if you go to an anti-aging physician, they will tell you the reference range should be 2.8 to 6.5! Some of the laboratories for iron are recommending female rates should be 12-180... which is still way too broad for good health as far as I am concerned

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merlyn, you are so right about reference ranges. this point cannot be emphasized too much, especially for newcomers to TIMS.

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thick blood can be from not enough E, and other antioxidants.

Where did you find the info on anaemic persons having super amt of Glutathione? To my knowledge, there is no relationship. thanks

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NHE

I am trying to remember where I read this, although to me it just makes sense that the less iron you have, the less glutathione you will use up combating free radicals, especially the hydroxyl free radicals created by iron. All nutrient heavy metals have a very fine line between enough for maintaining health and then toxic overload... there'll kinds of studies out there on hemochromatosis and the free radical damage done to organs. I have read many times glutathione levels of the main indicator of longevity, that the old old people still have good levels of glutathione. And also that as we age accumulate more and more iron, the less glutathione is available...

http://sciencelinks.jp/j-east/article/2 ... 200518.php

I will keep looking and try to find a better study done with humans.

Okay, I am a little ticked. When I went to the doctor to ask for a ferritin level test, he went through my file looking at older bloodwork and he said and I quote "You cannot have a problem with iron, because your hemoglobin has always been normal".

Well for some reason today I was going back through Marie Warder's blog which is fascinating and she made the statement in there that hemoglobin is normal in hemochromatosis!

http://blogcritics.org/writers/marie-warder/

One possible involvement I had steered clear of was that of esophageal varices or enlarged veins in the throat. To me this was just too horrible to contemplate. I now consider that I erred in this omission from my booklet, for I now believe that to have shrunk from all mention of this complication was sheer cowardice. Could this have been simply another manifestation of my never-failing inclination towards euphemism? Since the time when one of my earliest correspondents had described to me her husband’s death as the result of a massive hemorrhage, I had added to my files several accounts that were similar. If I had written about them, I might have done much good.

In general the word “varices” refers to distended veins (from "varix," a word derived from the Latin word for “twisted”).


http://blogcritics.org/scitech/article/ ... is/page-3/

I have ordered her book from the library, this thing about the veins in the neck is just too weird. She says that happens after the liver is full of iron.