Kresser Institute

Tools, Training & Community for Functional Health Professionals

Home
Knowledge Base
Blood Chemistry

Blood Chemistry

From the Oregon State University study, the anemia of iron deficiency is usually characterized as microcytic and hyperchromatic, i.e., red blood cells are measurably smaller than normal and their hemoglobin content is decreased such that they are more pale than normal. I was under the impression that red blood cell width increased in iron deficiency. What am I missing or confusing here?

Dr. Amy Nett: Yeah. So I think you’re talking about RDW. So the RDW increases in iron deficiency, but RDW...

Ferritin goes up in times of inflammation and infection because the body up regulates hepcidin, which gets the body to store the iron and ferritin to sequester iron from the potential pathogens and starve them of iron so they can’t thrive. As a side effect of this is that in the storage form it’s unavailable to ourselves too, and we can become anemic. Is that correct or have a oversimplified?

Dr. Amy Nett: Okay, so I think very generally, yes. What you’re saying is correct. There’s probably a little more...

If I’ve understood this correctly, with metabolic syndrome, iron stores increase so hepcidin increases, which causes more iron to be stored, which is obviously a very unhelpful move by the body. Why might this be?

Dr. Amy Nett: Okay, so I think what you’re saying is again there is an association between high ferritin and...

Aside from inflammation and iron overload, what other factors can elevate ferritin? I seem to recall learning that elevated testosterone is one possibility.

Dr. Amy Nett: I don’t think I know of other causes of elevated ferritin other than high iron and inflammation....

Commensal flora, 3+ alpha-hemolytic strep, no yeast. The only marker that was out of range was fat-stained many red blood cells. I’m thinking she has insufficiency of dysbiosis, I’m planning on putting her on MAT protocol. My concern is about the red blood cells. Yeah, this lady started having dizzy spells a couple months ago and her blood pressure varies from about 100/75 to 80/60 with a pulse in the low 60s and she gets very weak. Her pH is 6.2, negative occult blood, not complained of hemorrhoids. I think my question is, would intestinal bleeding cause the dizziness? And with this view red blood cells, results point to that. She’s seen a cardiologist, but no one is looking at the gut but me.

Dr. Amy Nett: Great question. I think that red blood cells and occult blood tend to be over-called on the...

Prev Next