High Ferritin

[Dana100880]

Hi I just wondered if anyone could possibly help me please. I have graves disease but am currently on Carbimazole 1.25mg I seem to have this under control now and my latest levels were really good so should hopefully be completely off tablets soon and hopefully will stay in remission. Last Sept my hair started falling out really badly. I did have a lot of stress around this time and thyroid levels at that time were not the greatest so put it down to that. I had some blood tests and my Ferritin was 32 so I decided to supplement with iron tablets. My hair loss after about a month or so then started to get a lot better and I have loads of regrowth. I have been on iron tablets for six months and thought ferritin was slow to rise so only just got my ferritin level checked and I'm really shocked but has come back at 332 but the last week my hair has started to shed a bit more now and I'm terrified that I'm going to lose my hair like I did last year because I've heard high ferritin can cause hair loss. I just wondered if there is a way of reducing my ferritin levels. I cannot give blood as I'm still on Carbimazole so this is not an option. I've heard turmeric can help lower ferritin.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Dana

[bluebug]

The only thing you can do is stop taking the iron tablets and wait.

Tumeric actually causes inflammation if too much is taken* and one of the reasons ferritin gets/stays high is inflammation. The body stores iron as part of your immune response as if releases it during periods of inflammation and/or infection you will get sicker.

In regards to your hair stress can make if fall out.

*Too much is individual

[Dana100880 in reply to bluebug]

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply to me I really appreciate it.

Dana

[humanbean]

If you don't absorb iron well you might be amazed at how quickly it drops when you stop supplementing.

I overshot (not by a huge amount) last year or the year before. I stopped supplementing iron and in just 4 months my ferritin level went from nearly 170 down to 81.

[Dana100880 in reply to humanbean]

Thank you humanbean. I hope that I am like you then its my fault for not checking it sooner. I just thought it would take many months to get it up. I obviously absorb iron quite well.

Thank you once again for taking the time to reply to me I appreciate it.

Dana