What does ferritin level tell you?
Ferritin is a blood protein that contains iron. A ferritin test helps your doctor understand how much iron your body stores. If a ferritin test reveals that your blood ferritin level is lower than normal, it indicates your body’s iron stores are low and you have iron deficiency. As a result, you could be anemic.
What is considered a high ferritin level?
Many laboratories consider serum ferritin levels greater than 200 ng/mL in women and greater than 300 ng/mL in men to be abnormal. However, a large percentage of the general population has a serum ferritin level between 200 and 1,000 ng/mL.
What causes high ferritin level?
The most common causes of elevated ferritin levels are obesity, inflammation, and daily alcohol intake. The most common causes of genetic-related elevated ferritin levels is the condition hemochromatosis.
Is it bad if my ferritin is low?
What do the results mean? Lower than normal ferritin levels may mean you have iron deficiency anemia or another condition related to low iron levels. Iron deficiency anemia is a common type of anemia, a disorder in which your body doesn’t make enough red blood cells.
How does low ferritin make you feel?
If your ferritin levels are too low, you may feel fatigued and run down. Fatigue can often be linked to inadequate iron in the blood. And since ferritin is a marker of long-term iron intake, it’s perfect for determining whether that worn-down feeling can be linked to your diet.
What diseases can cause low ferritin levels?
However, ferritin levels are unreliable in:
- Acute or chronic inflammation.
- CKD.
- Heart failure.
- Liver disease.
- Excessive alcohol intake.
- Malignancy.
- Hyperthyroidism.
How long does it take to get ferritin levels up?
With double dose, 7 of 9 showed a ferritin rise in 2 days with return to subnormal levels within 6 days of discontinuing iron. This study indicates that standard treatment of iron deficiency anemia in adults does not cause a rise in serum ferritin until hemoglobin levels are normal.
What is the average ferritin level for a woman?
The results may vary slightly among laboratories, but in general, normal ferritin levels range from 12 to 300 nanograms per milliliter of blood (ng/mL) for males and 12 to 150 ng/mL for females.
What causes ferritin levels to drop?
When the level of iron is insufficient to meet the body’s needs, the level of iron in the blood drops, iron stores are depleted and ferritin levels decrease. This may occur because: Not enough iron is consumed (either foods or supplements)
How do you fix low ferritin?
Doctors treat low ferritin levels with oral iron supplements. For severe cases of anemia, a person may require treatment with intravenous iron. For the best results, people should take oral iron supplements with a source of vitamin C to increase iron absorption.
What is a critically low ferritin level?
Serum ferritin is typically less than 10 ng/mL in severe iron deficiency associated with anemia. In iron deficiency without anemia, ferritin is typically in the range of 10-20 ng/mL.
Can stress cause low ferritin levels?
Decreased iron storage could lead to reduced hemoglobin resulting in iron deficiency anemia (IDA) (Beguin and Jaspers, 2014). Studies have shown that chronic stress in rats results in decreased serum iron, serum ferritin, and BM iron (Wei et al., 2008) .
What level of ferritin is considered anemic?
Serum ferritin levels closely correlate with total body iron stores. The range of normal in most laboratories is 30 to 300 ng/mL (67.4 to 674.1 pmol/L), and the mean is 88 ng/mL (197.7 pmol/L) in men and 49 ng/mL (110.1 pmol/L) in women. Low levels (< 12 ng/mL (27 pmol/L)) are specific for iron deficiency.
Can stress cause elevated ferritin?
In contrast, chronic inflammation and oxidative stress may act as a link between elevated serum-ferritin levels, which may contribute to cellular or tissue damage [10].
Can low ferritin cause neurological symptoms?
Even in adults the first symptoms of iron deficiency are often neurologic, as those affected will frequently complain of fatigue, brain fog, and also restless legs causing insomnia.
Can low ferritin cause joint pain?
Furthermore, headache and muscle and joint pain associated with iron deficiency are repeatedly considered migraine and fibromyalgia syndrome, respectively 3, 19. The multitude of symptoms is commonly associated low ferritin concentration without anemia 1, 17, 20, 21, 22.
Does Low Iron affect your brain?
“Iron deficiency early in life confers a risk to developing brain structures, neurotransmitter systems and myelination that result in acute brain dysfunction during the period of deficiency and long-lasting abnormalities even after complete brain iron repletion”
Can low ferritin cause dizziness?
Symptoms of low ferritin levels include fatigue, weakness, dizziness, shortness of breath and headaches.
How can I raise my ferritin level quickly?
Getting more iron-rich foods can help increase iron stores and ferritin levels. Heme-iron from meat is easier to absorb, but upping your intake of leafy greens and vitamin C can also be beneficial.