Are you looking at your blood tests and finding you have elevated ferritin in your blood? Maybe you're wondering what this means for you. Is it dangerous? What do you need to know about high ferritin in your blood? In this video we're going to look at high ferritin in your blood, and also what the dangers are associated with high ferritin and high iron states in general.

High Ferritin Doesn't Tell Us Why It's High

In this video we're going to look at high ferritin levels in the blood and the dangerous things that this high ferritin could be leading to. High ferritin in the blood doesn't exactly tell us why it's high. An important aspect of managing high ferritin, and what to do about it, is understanding why it's high to begin with.

Some of these reasons can include things like hemochromatosis, which we've discussed in other videos, inflammation, iron overload and diet. Of course with hemochromatosis it's a genetic problem with too much iron absorption from the diet, leading to iron accumulation and potentially damage to organs such as liver, heart, pancreas and even other endocrine areas of the body.

The second thing is with inflammation. The elevation in the ferritin levels is going up due to chronic inflammation, which can be caused by conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, or even long occurrences of infections like with COVID-19, other viral and bacterial infections. Iron overload disorders are things like thalassemia or sideroblastic anemia. And then with diet, it's just you're consuming too much from your diet, whether that's from an iron supplement or an actual food source that's high in iron.

Doesn't Iron Make You Strong?

So these are some of the common reasons or causes for high ferritin in the blood. But what's the problem with that really? Doesn't iron make you strong? Don't our bodies need it to be healthy? Why is high ferritin really a problem?

The answer to this is yes, our bodies do need it, but no, we don't want too much either. High ferritin suggests that it's well above and beyond the normal ranges. We're not going to talk about the specific ranges in this video, but mostly wanting to get into a little bit more of the problems from high ferritin and high iron in general.

Like most things in our bodies, you need a balance of just the right amount of things, and the same thing, maybe even more so, with iron. Our bodies definitely need iron to make things like hemoglobin for red blood cells to carry your oxygen around. Our body also needs it for white blood cells to produce their killing activities. Certain white blood cells need iron to produce some of their potent antimicrobial effects. We also need iron in our mitochondria so we can make energy.

Excess Iron, Reactive Oxygen Species And Oxidative Stress

It's when there's excess iron in our bodies that our bodies can become overburdened with the iron, and that iron can participate in reactions that generate reactive oxygen species, also referred to as ROS. These are free radicals, and these molecules are highly reactive molecules that can damage cells and tissues, and that overall process is called oxidative stress.

When the overall oxidative stress in our bodies outstretches the capacity of our bodies to quench those free radicals, or reduce the oxidative stress via our antioxidant systems like glutathione, vitamin C, vitamin E and things like that, it leads to inflammation. Now what is inflammation? Of course, inflammation, as we said in other videos, is increased immune activity. So those free radicals are acting almost like signals to the immune cells, to tell it that there's actually a problem going on. And that increased immune activity also occurs on a spectrum. You can have very low levels of inflammation, you can have moderate levels, you can have high, and then you can have really high, like in cases like severe COVID-19 or other chronic infections or autoimmune type reactions.

Lipid Peroxidation And Ferroptosis

Our bodies developed this special way to carry the iron around to protect our cells and tissues from these potential problems, because of the high potential for these reactive oxygen species. And these systems work really well, except when they're overburdened from too much iron coming in, for whatever reason. So a little bit of excess iron from, let's say you consumed a meal with a lot of beef, you're going to be fine. But as that accumulation of iron goes up and up, the systems get more taxed, which can lead to larger problems.

A large amount of excess iron leads to those reactive oxygen species, cell and tissue damage, and a process called lipid peroxidation. Once lipid peroxidation occurs, it's kind of hard for your body to unwind, and it leads to programmed cell death. This programmed cell death coming from iron is called ferroptosis. It has unique aspects in and of itself, which I won't go into here. But again, relatively small amounts of iron excess the body can recover from fairly quickly. Once this process starts, it can also very quickly lead to a wildfire type of problem, where it starts to spread to other tissues as well.

When High Ferritin Is Actually Protective

When you have a high ferritin, this actually can be a protective mechanism for the body to prevent those iron molecules from further causing more inflammation and damage. And we definitely see this happening with other chronic infections and autoimmune disease like rheumatoid arthritis, and prolonged infections with COVID-19. In these situations you're going to see a normal to low iron saturation level and a high ferritin level. This is because the iron is an essential nutrient for many microorganisms, and the iron rich environment gives them a nice breeding ground to proliferate.

Not only that, but when there's high inflammation in the body, adding even a little bit of extra iron can be really promoting and inflammatory to that already inflamed situation. So that's why I have to be really careful when we're considering giving iron, to check all the parameters to make sure they really do need it, and that it's not just a self-protective mechanism that the body is in because there's inflammation going on. Because in those situations it can definitely make the person a lot worse.

Want to decode your own iron labs? I put the lab patterns, thresholds, and next steps into the Iron Overload Decoder. Grab your copy here. Or schedule an appointment and we can go through your numbers together.

Topics: Ferritin, Iron Overload, Hemochromatosis, Inflammation, Oxidative Stress, Ferroptosis, Iron Saturation