I’ve been dealing with a number of issues for about the past 6 years that I realize are related to candida (stool test), adrenal fatigue (saliva test), leaky gut, indigestion, heavy metal toxicity (accidently chelated myself one time), and liver/gallbladder issues (pain in area). The question that always lingered in my mind in finding a solution was if there was underlying cause, or if one thing did lead indeed lead to another causing a chain reaction and all of my problems.
Well I went to see a chiropractor for the first time yesterday and he looked over my blood results from March which my doctor told me were fine. The chiropractor did not think so because my ferritin level was almost 600 between a range of 30-400. My iron levels were normal at 92 in a range of 45-165. My chiropractor wants me to get it rechecked along with some other iron indicators.
I tried to do some research but couldn’t much info on ferritin levels and their relationships to candida, adrenals, etc. Could the high ferritin level be the cause of everything im dealing with? Or is it just another piece of the chain reaction that resulted from everything else? Any other insight you have would be greatly appreciated as well. Thanks!
Ray Peat said in one of his works that the role of ferritin is not known yet. I will try to find post his words. Did you do liver studies? Usually, ferritin is high when there is an inflammation. I also have high normal ferritin and low normal iron.
Although most doctors believe that ferritn levels do not correlate with illness, my doctor believes the exact opposite and is treating me for low ferritin. He says that it is vital in the creation of atp which I believe is cell energy and also very important in thyroid and adrenal function. I can't remember what he says about hig ferritin but I believe it can be problematic as well. You might try googling high ferritin or hemocratosis? (Spelling) and Dr. Mariano. He has a website called the definitive mind in which he explains his definition of adrenal fatigue as well. I just know for me ferritin is one big thing that I am focusing on. He says once it is up I will no longer be running on adrenaline and therefore will reduce inflamation drastically and help everything else work better too. This of course is just one opinion by one doctor.
I also am dealing with LOW FERRITIN and I agree that the symptoms associated with it are awful! At my request, I asked my doctor to check my Ferritin in Dec. 2010 and it came back as 20! She sent me the results and said all my labwork was normal with no evidence of anemia & my iron stores were fine! 20!!! Are you kidding me???
Snobetty, you are very lucky you have a good doctor. I'm curious to know what your Ferritin was at before and now? My doctor's response made me pretty much give up on the "whitecoats" and just start to treat myself. I started taking Garden of Life Raw Iron and Lactoferrin. I got retested in January 2012 and was excited to have raised it to 55! But I know it needs to be much higher than that to regrow hair, get better digestion, stop having freezing cold flashes, poor sleep quality, feelings like my cells have no energy and like I don't get any energy from the food I eat.
One big reason to monitor your Ferritin closely is that zinc is extremely antagonistic to iron. I haven't been taking my iron regularly lately and now I can tell that I've got that low cell energy feeling back again! I'm planning to get my level retested soon....but I was taking more zinc lately and I think I pushed my iron lower again!!! :(
Anyway, here are some of my favorite links to articles about iron, both low and high are mentioned in these articles:
My ferritin started at 9!! Bottom of the barrel I have sense raised it to 35. Took me 2 months. May be a little higher now , but my doctor wants me to raise it to between 150 to 200. Most doctors think that is too high, but he says most dctors are afraid of iron supplementation and it is unwarranted for the mot part unless it is very high. He says that once you get around 80 then your body really starts to generate sme energy and will start to store iron more rapidly. Then you should closely monitor it. But he seems to think that the majority of my problems will be resolved at that point. I take 100 mg or ferris bysglycinate or easy iron at night. I also take desicated liver and eat liver a few times a week. He says it can take a year or more to get my numbers up. So I hope it helps me. Anyways good luck to you........
Hi. Thanks for the response! All my liver enzymes came back normal and i had a CT scan from my neck to pelvis which came back normal as well. I was reading that elevated ferritin levels can be caused by inflammation somewhere in the body such as the intestines, but i also has my antinuclear antibodies, sed rate, and C-reactive protein tested which are supposed to detect an inflammation anywhere in my body and all three of those came back normal as well.
So right now im a little unsure of what the cause of the high ferritin can be. From what i understand, the three primary causes would be hemochremotosis, liver inflammation (which the tests seem to rule out), and inflammation somewhere (which the tests also rule out). I'm getting my other iron markers tested for hemochremotosis, but not sure if its possible to have it with normal iron levels.
FYI, I lay overwhelming importance on getting my iron as low as possible. I take IP6 for ironrust chelation, take aspirin to lower ferritin stores and give blood donations every 8 weeks. I also drink coffee/cola when I eat meals with high iron load to prevent iron absorbtion.
Every kind of heavy metal will contribute to defect adrenals because these metal (if not binded correctly) are a constant source of free radicals further damaging the organs. Ray Peat has an interesting article in which he states that high iron is very dangerous. So beware of this. It is healthier to be a little low in iron as having high iron levels.
you should also look into getting organic vegetable forms of iron to help bind the toxic iron, like from greeuice. it seems counterintuitive but i heard that it works. also, drinking tea with meals will bind to iron consumed with the meal.
Hi, thanks for the response! Do you know what your iron/ferritin levels were/are if you dont mind me asking? My ferritin is close to 600 but my iron is normal at about 92. I'm going to have the saturation rate and iron binding capacity tested this week to see if my body naturally holds on to iron or if it's because of something else. I was thinking that i would need to start donating blood regardless of the reason. Did you notice any difference after you started on keeping your levels low/normal?
One of my Chiro's told me high ferritin + normal iron levels = inflammation in your body.
Elevated
If ferritin is high, there is iron in excess or else there is an acute inflammatory reaction in which ferritin is mobilized without iron excess. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferritin#Elevated
You should think about going on an alkaline rich and gluten-free diet.
It sounds like your underlying issue is environmental stress with that combination of diagnoses. Clearly the heavy metal is a toxic stress, but emotional and/or physical stress are probably it. I'm guessing ferritin is just one small piece of the puzzle although it is good to address it. The conditions you mentioned take a long, sustained effort and a healthier lifestyle to address. It can be done though! Good food, sleep, exercise. Learn all you can.
My husband went to a holistic doctor last year and had almost an identical set of issues (adrenal fatigue, leaky gut, heavy metal toxicity) He also has gallbladder pain (no Gallstones though). She also diagnosed a sensitivity to wheat, this is to be expected with leaky gut, you get sensitivities to whatever you eat most and in our society it is wheat. She encouraged him to address the metal toxicity, in his case he replace Amalgam fillings. He went off wheat loosely for about two months (he accidentally ate wheat about every other day, but that is MUCH less than eating it at every meal.) He also stopped drinking soda, reduced fast food, and ate almost no dairy. He took some vitamin supplements to help with low immune function, took a probiotic, and used digestive enzymes with his meals. During the time he was under her care he stopped snoring and sweating all the time. He also had terrible headaches as his body detoxed due to the sudden lifestyle change and he went off caffeine. Then his doctor suggested eating wheat only once or twice a week during the rest of his healing phase. At this point he had majorly reduced inflammation in his body so a bit of wheat a few times a week was deemed okay. It wasn't enough result for him to stick with it though, so he quit everything. Went back to fast food daily, caffeinated drinks, wheat, etc. The snoring and sweating came back instantly. I don't say snoring or constant sweating are the biggest issues in the world, but just little indications that his body did react to the changes he had made. I think the bigger health issues would have resolved eventually too if he had stuck with the healthier lifestyle. Sometimes the big issues take longer to heal.
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High levels of ferritin? 
