Tracey O’Shea: Okay, next question is about ferritin and thyroid, so “In your experience, would you agree that ferritin over 90 is required for optimal thyroid health, as it drives T3 into receptors, and, if so, how [do you] get it there? Supplementation [with] iron with C?”
So this is a question about ferritin optimization and the relationship between iron and thyroid. I would say that this is probably more in the category of optimization and fine little tweaks in trying to optimize thyroid function in relationship to iron, and as you guys probably know or [are] starting to see in your practice, iron metabolism is extremely finicky and rather nuanced, and so trying to kind of move the levers up and down with iron and ferritin and its impact on the rest of the systems is a little tricky sometimes, and we want to make sure that we’re not overshooting when we’re just trying to optimize ferritin level [for] the purposes of thyroid optimization. So I do agree that iron is really important in thyroid function in general. I mean, it’s also involved in producing T4 and T3, the conversion of T4 to T3, and then getting T3 into the cells, so I would say that my first goal would be optimizing iron in general. So, if you have someone with low iron or iron deficiency, obviously the goal is to try to get these ferritin levels up to an optimal range, and our goal here for ferritin, it’s kind of a wide range, as you guys have seen on the conventional standpoint, like, 30 to 400 is the range conventionally where ours normally, we’re more concerned about it being too high or too low. So we’re trying to make sure that a patient doesn’t have iron overload and also doesn’t have iron deficiency. So, from a functional standpoint, our ferritin range is a little bit more narrowed between 30 and 200. I know there are a lot of arguments with functional endocrinologists, especially [those] that say a ferritin below 90 or 100, like this person has asked [about], can indicate that the thyroid is suffering because iron levels are not optimized. I think that this is a great place to try. If you have optimized everything else and you still suspect that the thyroid is not functioning well, the patient has hypothyroidism, is on thyroid replacement, or even if their thyroid labs are just kind of functionally off, like a subclinical hypothyroid, and you see that the ferritin is below 90 and you have a little bit of wiggle room, I think this is a great thing to test. I think there’s probably a little risk. I’ll get back to this. I think it depends on what you’re using to support the iron level, which can really change what your risk is, so, if I’m trying to optimize iron, like, just kind of bump it a little and not really worry about, like, true iron deficiency where the person is really depleted, then I would probably actually start with, like, a desiccated liver or desiccated organ complex first and maybe also try some of these iron repletion protocols. You guys should have a handout when we get to that in that section about, like, using cast-iron pans and taking vitamin C, like, with iron-rich meals, and that’s probably where I would start before doing, like, a full iron supplement, especially if the patient is close to that optimal ferritin level and we’re just trying to optimize, I would first start with maybe some more whole food type versions of trying to increase iron and iron storage. That’s where I would start. If you’re really, really low and you do have iron deficiency, then I think it makes sense to use iron supplementation. We’re generally using Proferrin as a heme-based iron,but, in that case, I would just make sure that you’re really following those iron levels pretty consistently, tracking every three to four weeks to make sure that you don’t overshoot, but yes, so I think this is a great option to try and experiment and see if getting that ferritin level up a little bit can help with the thyroid symptoms as well as thyroid labs. I think for the desiccated organ complex and the desiccated liver, right now we’re using Ancestral Supplements as our brand, but there’s a lot, Paleovalley, lots of different options, but right now we’re using Ancestral Supplements because there’s a lot of different organ complexes that are available.