Increased Ferritin Value: What To Do?

Elevated ferritin levels can cause tiredness, abdominal and joint pain and darkened skin. 

Ferritin is a protein that is used to store iron in cells. It is the most important iron store that the organism can fall back on when this mineral is needed. However, an elevated ferritin level in the blood is a sign that something is wrong with the iron level.

The majority of ferritin is in the liver,  but this protein is also found in the blood. The blood level can be used to read off whether the iron concentration is in the normal range or not.

Iron is essential for red blood cell hemoglobin to bind to oxygen and transport it to the cells. In today’s article we explain what happens when you have an elevated ferritin level and how you can reduce it.

Elevated Ferritin Levels: What Does It Mean?

As mentioned earlier,  ferritin is a protein that stores iron in cells. The blood level provides information about the iron reserves, which can be normal, too low or too high.

The normal ferritin level in the blood is between 12 and 300 nanograms / milliliter in men. In women, the normal value is between 12 and 150 ng / mL. The difference is due to the fact that women lose a significant amount of iron through menstruation.

An elevated ferritin level means that the iron level is also high. Various causes can lead to it, for example an injury to the liver. Other possible triggers are:

• Frequent or excessive consumption of alcohol
• Inflammatory processes that  can result from a wide variety of diseases (such as cancer)
• Very iron-rich diet
• Anemia. This situation is very complex. Since it is an iron deficiency, the organism tries to make up for it by increasing the amount of circulating ferritin in order to make more iron available.
• Blood transfusions
• Macrophage Activation Syndrome (MAS). It is a complication of an autoimmune disease that causes dysregulation of the immune system and excessive activation of macrophages. Ferritin is also stored in these cells.

We must not forget  that elevated ferritin levels also depend on genetic factors. An inherited condition known as hemochromatosis (iron storage disease) is when the body takes in too much iron from food.

Which symptoms can arise?

This disorder is usually asymptomatic at first, but various symptoms can appear over time. People very often feel tired and weak. 

Abdominal and joint pain are also typical. The skin can darken and heart problems can also occur.

Elevated ferritin levels: what to do?

Various therapeutic options are available to lower ferritin levels. The first thing to do is to reduce the amount of iron in your diet. This means that those affected should avoid spinach, liver and red meat.

In addition, the doctor usually recommends taking chelates. These are substances that bind to metals in the blood,  including iron, and thus help to remove them.

A phlebotomy (bloodletting) can also help. It is a technique that draws venous blood from the patient. You have to repeat this several times so that the ferritin value is reduced. In addition, frequent blood tests are needed to control the results.

It is generally important to get regular medical exams and blood tests. With this simple measure, many parameters important for health can be controlled, including ferritin levels.