Hi Everyone!
I wanted to ask what could be causing high iron but low ferritin when I have not been supplementing with iron? Could heavy metal toxicity be the cause or is there something else at play here?
Let me give a bit of a background. I have been struggling with low cortisol for almost 10 years now. I was diagnosed with celiac 8 yrs ago or so and I thought the adrenal fatigue was due to gluten but even after a strict gluten free diet, the low cortisol remained. I tried adrenal cortex and some HC off and on but every time I would wean from the HC I would be back to square one.
I have struggled with low cholesterol far back as I can remember. All downstream hormone have been low as well. In 2015 , most hormones were barely registering on blood work. Pregnenolone which had been around 160 or so was less than 10. Saliva cortisol test was flatlined. I took the nutricology pregnelone 150 mg for almost a year but found out it was converting more towards testosterone as free testosterone was very high at 7.2 (upper range being 4.4) The pregnenolone was supporting the cortisol but had to go off of that last year. So now being off the pregnenolone for 3 months the free testosterone is down to 4.2 but still highish.
I have had highish blood sugars esp fasting ( 118-130) which is not at all diet related. Ive struggled with low iron for as long as I can remember but now since last 2-3 years serum iron and percent sat has been high with low ferritin without any kind of supplementation.
Recent blood work showed:
hemoglobin 12.5 (11.1-15.9)
RBC 4.3 (3.77-5.28)
MCV 90 (79-97)
MCH 29.1 (26.6-33)
RDW 13.5 (12.3-15.4)
HA1 c 5.9
insulin is 12 ( this is up from 8 as I stopped the metformin as I was worried about it stealing b12. My diet is very clean so this is very surprising!)
carbon dioxide is 21 ( so mitochondriae still not humming porperly..I would like to get around 25)
potassium 4.4 ( 3.5-5.2)
sodium 138 (134-144)
Iron serum 160 (27-159)
UIBC 156 (131-425)
iron sat 51 (15-55)
ferritin 65
b12 >2000 (not getting inside cells as MMA was cell on OAT test)
folate >20
(All of this testing was done on day 22 of cycle)
DHEAS 168 ug /dL (57.3-279)
estradiol 132.8 pg/Ml (luteal phase 43.8-211)
progesterone 7.8 ng/ML (luteal 1.8-23.9) ( im on progesterone cream from day 21 to day 26)
testosteron free 4.8
serum testosterone 37 (8-48)
Pregnenolone is 113
SHBG 44.8 nmol/L
alkaline phospahe is 43 ( 39-117)
AST 24 (0-40)
ALT 23 (0-32)
Free t3 3.7 pg/Ml (2-4.0) I have upped my t3 meds by a 1/4 after this result
cholesterol 156
homocysteine 5 ( I am hetero for all of the CBS SNPS..homocysteine decreased from 7 after I added in 200 mg of hydroxy and a pill of dibencozide as MMA was high on OAT)
I have been takign 5 mg lithium orotate every day but would liek to get a baseline first. WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO TEST FOR LITHIUM please?
vit d is 45 ( low yes but been trying to get in sun to get the vit D..was 55 last august)
c reactive protein is 0.53
So my pertinent question is if the high iron but low ferritin points towards heavy metals then which type of test is best to get for that? Hair? I see that doctors data and Great Plains both are the exact same in the hair metals test but doctors data says head hair only while great plains says head or pubic hair is fine. So can pubic hair give good results and is it ok to use with doctors data hair metals test? My head hair is dyed plus not crazy about having to pluck more hair out of scalp as I have been shedding a lot of hair with all these issues as it is. What is the best way to test for lithium as well please? I was taking 5 mg about 3 times a day but maybe im really low in lithium..I drink reverse osmosis water only. I am afraid to be on 5 mg of lithium every single day without having a base line. Could you please go through this with a fine tooth comb and let me know what pops out at you please? I will post more of the OAT results in next post.
Thank you so much!
I wanted to ask what could be causing high iron but low ferritin when I have not been supplementing with iron? Could heavy metal toxicity be the cause or is there something else at play here?
Let me give a bit of a background. I have been struggling with low cortisol for almost 10 years now. I was diagnosed with celiac 8 yrs ago or so and I thought the adrenal fatigue was due to gluten but even after a strict gluten free diet, the low cortisol remained. I tried adrenal cortex and some HC off and on but every time I would wean from the HC I would be back to square one.
I have struggled with low cholesterol far back as I can remember. All downstream hormone have been low as well. In 2015 , most hormones were barely registering on blood work. Pregnenolone which had been around 160 or so was less than 10. Saliva cortisol test was flatlined. I took the nutricology pregnelone 150 mg for almost a year but found out it was converting more towards testosterone as free testosterone was very high at 7.2 (upper range being 4.4) The pregnenolone was supporting the cortisol but had to go off of that last year. So now being off the pregnenolone for 3 months the free testosterone is down to 4.2 but still highish.
I have had highish blood sugars esp fasting ( 118-130) which is not at all diet related. Ive struggled with low iron for as long as I can remember but now since last 2-3 years serum iron and percent sat has been high with low ferritin without any kind of supplementation.
Recent blood work showed:
hemoglobin 12.5 (11.1-15.9)
RBC 4.3 (3.77-5.28)
MCV 90 (79-97)
MCH 29.1 (26.6-33)
RDW 13.5 (12.3-15.4)
HA1 c 5.9
insulin is 12 ( this is up from 8 as I stopped the metformin as I was worried about it stealing b12. My diet is very clean so this is very surprising!)
carbon dioxide is 21 ( so mitochondriae still not humming porperly..I would like to get around 25)
potassium 4.4 ( 3.5-5.2)
sodium 138 (134-144)
Iron serum 160 (27-159)
UIBC 156 (131-425)
iron sat 51 (15-55)
ferritin 65
b12 >2000 (not getting inside cells as MMA was cell on OAT test)
folate >20
(All of this testing was done on day 22 of cycle)
DHEAS 168 ug /dL (57.3-279)
estradiol 132.8 pg/Ml (luteal phase 43.8-211)
progesterone 7.8 ng/ML (luteal 1.8-23.9) ( im on progesterone cream from day 21 to day 26)
testosteron free 4.8
serum testosterone 37 (8-48)
Pregnenolone is 113
SHBG 44.8 nmol/L
alkaline phospahe is 43 ( 39-117)
AST 24 (0-40)
ALT 23 (0-32)
Free t3 3.7 pg/Ml (2-4.0) I have upped my t3 meds by a 1/4 after this result
cholesterol 156
homocysteine 5 ( I am hetero for all of the CBS SNPS..homocysteine decreased from 7 after I added in 200 mg of hydroxy and a pill of dibencozide as MMA was high on OAT)
I have been takign 5 mg lithium orotate every day but would liek to get a baseline first. WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO TEST FOR LITHIUM please?
vit d is 45 ( low yes but been trying to get in sun to get the vit D..was 55 last august)
c reactive protein is 0.53
So my pertinent question is if the high iron but low ferritin points towards heavy metals then which type of test is best to get for that? Hair? I see that doctors data and Great Plains both are the exact same in the hair metals test but doctors data says head hair only while great plains says head or pubic hair is fine. So can pubic hair give good results and is it ok to use with doctors data hair metals test? My head hair is dyed plus not crazy about having to pluck more hair out of scalp as I have been shedding a lot of hair with all these issues as it is. What is the best way to test for lithium as well please? I was taking 5 mg about 3 times a day but maybe im really low in lithium..I drink reverse osmosis water only. I am afraid to be on 5 mg of lithium every single day without having a base line. Could you please go through this with a fine tooth comb and let me know what pops out at you please? I will post more of the OAT results in next post.
Thank you so much!
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