Iron itself is not the most accurate test as it fluctuates with food intake and inflammation. So it is tested with other blood values for a comprehensive assessment.

Iron

Is the amount available in the blood for the body to used. Remember this maybe caused by direct blood loss, whether that be monthly or abnormal bleeding inside the digestive system – stomach by ulcers, NSAIDS, intestines by hookworm, and large bowel by tumours, ulcerative colitis and haemorrhoids.

Or you may not be having enough iron in your diet or unable to absorb it due to low stomach acid or the use of Ant-acids.

Transferrin

Tells us how hungry your cells are for Iron and we can think of this like an Iron Taxis

High levels may indicate that the cells are looking for more Iron and have the Iron Taxi’s at the read and waiting to be filled with Iron.

A high transferrin may indicate:

• Iron deficiency
• High Oestrogens
• Using the OCP
• Pregnancy
• Hypothyroidism
• B12 or folate deficiency
• Acute liver disease

Low Levels of the Transferrin are usually because there is a drain on the supply, just like at midnight when you want a Taxi home and there are none available.

• Chronic inflammatory and liver disease
• Malabsorption
• Malignancy
• Kidney disease
• Thyrotoxicosis
• Steroid therapy
• Haemochromatosis       

Transferrin Saturation (%)

Shows the amount of Iron that is going to the tissues and it’s like the number of passengers in each Iron taxis (Transferrin).  This should between 10-50%. The closer to 50% the is result is the better. 

Ferritin

Is your iron stores.  The optimal result is 100 to 150.  This is also affected by inflammation.  Think of this as the Iron at the depot waiting for a taxi

Low levels maybe from the same as low levels of Iron as they are draining the Iron stores.

Reasons for a high level of Ferritin is:

• Iron overload like genetic haemochromatosis
• Fatty liver
• Alcohol
• Liver disease
• Malignancy
• Renal failure
• Thyroiditis
• Anorexia
• Blood infusion

As mentioned, Iron levels and Ferritin can be affected by inflammation, so it is always a good idea to have a C-Reactive Protein (CRP) test done at the same time as your Iron to double-check that you are getting the right information before an accurate assessment can be made.

Pathocize (exercise for your pathology)

Ensuring you have good levels of Iron, check for anyone with haemochromatosis in your family. This can be masked while still having your menses and is revealed during menopause.

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Inspiring Wellness

Beth  

There are a couple of different markers that indicate inflammation in the body.

Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR)

This is non-specific, which means that there is some chronic inflammation in the body, just what or where is an unknown. Basically the blood is shaken up and allowed to sit and it time that is measured as to how long the red blood cell sediment takes to settle. The longer it takes, the more inflammation there is. As this is not a specific measurement reasons can be varied from bacterial infections, to collagen or vascular disease, cancers and lymphoma.

CRP C-Reactive Protein

Good to find acute illness as it rises quickly 4-8 hours after any tissue damage. It becomes it’s highest at 24-72 hours and returns to normal after 2-3 days.
It depends on the result level as to interpret the results. It could be something like an upper respiratory infection, sinusitis, pneumonia, appendicitis or post operative sepsis.

While there are similarities, there are significant differences of ESR to CRP and CRP maybe low when ESR is raised in certain illness.

Basically you want both of these to be 0 because you don’t want any inflammation in the body.

Ferritin

Is your storage of Iron stores and should be at 100. It also is affected by inflammation and may be seen high in Iron rich tissues like the liver, Gut, spleen and lymph system.

Pathocize (exercise for your pathology)

Identify cause of inflammation and address illness
If a specific dis-ease is unknown and there is general inflammation it maybe dietary.
• If you do nothing else, stop eating gluten
• Remove all grains from your diet
• Reduce or cut out dairy
• Eat fresh vegetables daily
• Have fresh fruit – 1 or 2 pieces daily (make one a older variety apple)
• Consume good quality proteins and vary these during the day
• Make sure your bowels are open and you are ‘moving’ everyday
• Drink purified water and lots of it generally 35ml per kg of weight
• Breathe, get outdoors and take in some lovely fresh oxygen
• Exercise, walking, swimming, yoga, if you don’t move it, you lose it
• Stress reduction, taking time out for you, meditation
• Sleep, put in good sleep routine practices
• Supplement with anti-inflammatories like Tumeric, Fish Oil and use Probiotics

If you’d like to know more about this or other topics, you are welcome to join my free membership on face book. Thyroid, Metabolic, Hormone Harmony Hub. 

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Inspiring Wellness

Beth  

This section of Pathology is found in the Haematology below the Haemoglobin section.

White blood cells are your immune defence system. If any results are raised it means some sort of invasion – bacterial, viral, parasites or auto immune responses. There are 5 types to take a look at.

Neutrophils (think bacterial)

Neutropenia is having too little of these white blood cells. That opens you up to bacterial infections. It also maybe because you have just fought off a bacterial or viral attack.

Low neutrophils may be B12 or folate deficiency, hypertension, thyrotoxicosis or malignancy. Some drugs also lower these immune cells including chemotherapy.

Neutrophils may also become high (Neutrophilia). This can be a current bacterial infection, or virus like Chicken pox, a recent injury or burn, heart attack or surgery. Malignancy, smoking and vigorous exercise and some drugs like steroids, epinephrine, heparin and cytokines can raise neutrophils.

Lymphocytes (think viral)

Stress commonly causes low Lymphocytes (Lymphopenia), other causes may be kidney failure, AIDS, drugs or some sort of immunosuppressive therapy.

A high amount of Lymphocytes (Lymphocytosis) may reflect an infection by a virus like epstein barr virus (EBV), hepatitis, herpes and whooping cough. It may also be from smoking, some anti-depressant drugs like SSRI’s and hormone gland diseases like hyperthyroidism and addison’s disease.

Monocytes (think detective)

Are the largest of the White Blood Cells. They are in force when there is bacterial, parasite and Rickettsial infections. Will show high in inflammatory disorders like ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease and chronic skin conditions like Psoriasis.

Eosinophils (think allergy & parasites)

These are mainly seen as a result of drug reactions, allergy or parasitic infestations of the gut like hookworm, eczema and psoriasis.

Basophils (think allergy & parasites as well)

Not as common as Eosinophils.  High levels may indicate allergic or inflammatory reactions from drugs or food sensitivities, ulcerative colitis or hormonal issues like hypothyroidism and oestrogen supplementation.

Pathocize (exercise for your pathology)

Look after your immune system with Zinc and Vitamin C
Reduce Stress
Look after your gut function with pre and probiotics
Note what is going on with your gut – do you need to do a parasite cleanse?
If you are having allergy type reactions you may need to look at what exposures you are having to histamines. You may need to support the histamine pathways with B3, B12 and folate.

This downloadable PDF from Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance is a great reference for histamine foods.

If you’d like to know more about this or other topics, you are welcome to join my free membership on face book. Thyroid, Metabolic, Hormone Harmony Hub. 

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Inspiring Wellness

Beth  

What is your cholesterol like?

As the major fat going through the arteries it is super important to keep this within range.  Risks of having high cholesterol are a heart and blood vessel disease.  Arteriosclerosis (hardening of the blood vessel walls so they can no longer contract), vascular thrombosis (a blood clot in the vein going back to the heart) or stroke (where there’s a blood clot or blood vessel bursts in the brain) are diseases of the blood vessels. 

LDL Low Density Lipoprotein

LDL usually makes up about 80% of total cholesterol in a normal person. Having high cholesterol is seen as a risk marker for heart and blood vessel disease.  Two main reasons are that a family member has it (hereditary) and diet high in saturated fat.  It is lucky you can change the later within weeks. 

Having a low thyroid function, drinking too much alcohol or a disease of the liver or kidneys can be a reason for high cholesterol.  Also some drugs like steroids, clyclosporin can cause raised LDL levels.

HDL High Density Lipoprotein

I always remember this as the good cholesterol because it has a higher amount (density) of protein.  Because of this it doesn’t have much room to carry cholesterol as it returns to the liver. But the LDL Low Density Lipoprotein has a smaller protein amount and more room to carry cholesterol.  This is often called the ‘bad’ cholesterol and it takes fat into the tissues.

Triglycerides

Tri (meaning 3) gly (for glycerol) is the framework on which the fat is stored.  These are made from the fats and  carbohydrates that you eat. They are either used up for energy or stored in the body in fat cells.

If you have on going high triglycerides it is useful to check out the other blood results too. 

Reasons for high triglycerides can be that it is in the family and also that you are overweight.  Not having much physical activity, diabetes, enjoying a lot of fats and carbohydrates in your food and drinking too much alcohol can all cause high Triglycerides.  There maybe some other reasons like Hypothyroidism, liver, kidney and pancreatic  disease.  Pregnancy can also cause raised triglycerides. 

CVD Risk

Finally the Cardio Vascular Risk

This compares the ‘bad’ cholesterol (LDL) with the “good’ (HDL) cholesterol to give an estimate of your cardio vascular risk.  It is a ratio from fats going to the tissues and the fats back to the liver.

Pathocise (exercise for your pathology)

Your doctor may recommend drugs like Statins, Beta-Blockers or ACE inhibitors. Oestrogens and Selective estrogen receptor modulators like Tamoxifen, Thyroid hormones with neomycin (can result in a 25% fall in cholesterol)

Ideally get onto the right diet and remove trans-fatty acids.  These are high in deep fried/fast foods. Fill yourself with better options:

Saturated fats – are solid at room temperature, like butter and coconut oil, animal fats like lard or tallow.

Good sources of polyunsaturated fats – these stay liquid at room temperature like wild-caught fish, pasture-raised meats and eggs.

Here is a guide from https://coconutsandkettlebells.com/good-fats-vs-toxic-fats/

You may also need to take some CoQ10/Ubiquinol, particularly if you are taking Statins or Beta Blockers.

Keeping the bowels open with good amounts of fibre and stabilising your glucose levels can help.

If you’d like to know more about this or other topics, you are welcome to join my free membership on face book. Thyroid, Metabolic, Hormone Harmony Hub. 

I’d love to see you there

Inspiring Wellness

Beth  

You may have had a liver function test come back out of range and the Doctor has asked you to have a repeat test in a month or so. This is because the enzymes maybe raised due to lifestyle choices rather than any significant disease process.

AST Aspartate Transaminase

These enzymes don’t float around in the blood for long and it’s only 16 hours before their amounts are halved. The main cause for raised AST is liver damage. The enzyme can also be found in muscles surrounding the bone, and the heart and in organs like the kidneys, pancreas, spleen and lung. It is useful to know what the AST level is to help work out the most likely cause of the raised result.

ALT Alanine amino transferase 

Most of this enzyme comes from the bone and liver and is seen high in times of growth – childhood, puberty, breast feeding and menopause and when a broken bone is mending.

This enzyme is more likely to be related to bile flow rather than the liver itself.
It takes about 16 – 60 hours for this enzyme to reduce by half

GGT Gamma Glutamyl Transferase

The liver produces most of this enzyme and is the biggest reclyer of Glutathione the most important detoxifier. This liver enzyme result is not too helpful on it’s own as it is in the kidneys, pancreas, heart, brain and prostate as well, so other signs and symptoms need to be checked out before drawing any conclusions.
Reasons why it may be raised are: Alcohol, some drugs like NSAIDS, statins, antibiotics, H2 Receptor blockers, anti-convulsants, antifungal agents, antidepressants and testosterone. It may also mean issues with cholesterol and a fatty liver.

Pathocize (exercise for your pathology)

AST depends of Vitamin B6
AST depends on Vitamin B6
ALP depends on Magnesium and Zinc and good amounts of protein
GGT Minimising alcohol intake and unnecessary medications. Eating a healthy ‘good’ fat diet

Ensuring your bowels are open daily

Liver protective herbs like St Mary’s Thistle, Globe Artichoke, Blupleurum and Andrographis can be helpfu

Vitamin B6 Foods https://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/vitamins/vitamin-B6

*A three-ounce serving of meat or fish is about the size of a deck of cards.

Magnesium Foods

https://www.algaecal.com/algaecal-ingredients/magnesium/magnesium-rich-foods/

Zinc Foods https://www.healthbeckon.com/zinc-rich-foods/

If you’d like to know more about this or other topics, you are welcome to join my free membership on face book. Thyroid, Metabolic, Hormone Harmony Hub. 

I’d love to see you there

Inspiring Wellness

Beth