What is ferritin iron test?
What is ferritin iron test?
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 does high ferritin iron mean?
Higher than normal ferritin levels can mean you have too much iron in your body. Conditions that cause increased iron levels include liver disease, alcohol abuse, and hemochromatosis, a disorder that can lead to cirrhosis, heart disease, and diabetes.
What diseases cause low ferritin?
Summary of Diseases Associated With Lower Ferritin
- Anemia [2]
- Fatigue [3]
- Hair loss [4, 5, 6, 7]
- Fibromyalgia [8]
- IBD [9]
- Hypothyroidism [10]
- Depression [11]
- Anxiety [12]
How do you treat high ferritin levels?
Iron chelation therapy involves taking oral or injected medicine to remove excess iron from the body. Medications can include a drug that binds the excess iron before the body excretes it. Although doctors do not tend to recommend this as a first-line treatment for hemochromatosis, it may be suitable for some people.
Is ferritin the same as hemoglobin?
Serum ferritin is a measure of iron stores and is the most sensitive biomarker to test for early stages of iron deficiency as well as iron deficiency anemia. Sensitivity of ferritin test is 89% for diagnosis of iron depletion compared with hemoglobin, which is only 26%.
What is considered a dangerously high ferritin level?
Ferritin levels that are too high can indicate certain conditions. One example is hemochromatosis, which is when your body absorbs too much iron. Other conditions that cause high iron levels include: rheumatoid arthritis. hyperthyroidism. adult-onset Still’s disease. type 2 diabetes. leukemia.
What are dangerous ferritin levels?
The disease causing dangers of high iron levels. Most laboratories list the normal range for this test to be roughly 30 to 400 ng/cc. A ferritin test reflective of truly normal iron stores should be in the 25 to 50 ng/cc range, as long as there is no evidence of an iron deficiency anemia having developed.
How to test your iron level at home?
You should examine the tone of your skin regularly to notice if there is any change.
What does an elevated ferritin level indicate?
Elevated levels of ferritin can mean that the body has too much iron. Hereditary hemochromatosis is an example of an inherited iron storage disease in which there is excessive accumulation of iron in the body (iron overload).
