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do we really need vitamin K2
@r-2 "Can I still donate blood on 36 ferritin" The point I was making about only having haemoglobin tested prior to giving blood is that provided your Hb is good you can withstand a certain amount of blood loss without problems regardless of your ferritin.
If you want to give blood to support the medical need for blood products then the blood transfusion service would be happy to take it with that ferritin level. They would not consider it dangerous. If your aim is to lower your iron stores then I'm not sure it is necessary with a ferritin of 36.
I'm not an expert but the estimates of how much your ferritin drops per unit of blood taken is just that, an estimate. I'm not sure how much it alters things when you are in a state of marked iron overload but people with haemochromatosis having regular (usually weekly) phlebotomies don't see a linear drop in ferritin, it bounces about all over the place. Sometimes it goes up, you may get a couple in a few in a row with a really small drop and then a week later see a big drop. It is not predictable in reality. It also varies from person to person.
Mine never drops by regular amounts. We just do a best guess of how many phlebotomies I need following a ferritin test and then re-check it and re-evaluate. What they do, do is keep a close eye on my haemoglobin each time.
"I only did the TIBC and ferritin test" Have you got the lab results? When my Dr orders TIBC, they actually do a range of tests. I've attached a photo of what I get back from a TIBC test. Serum iron / TIBC x 100 gives you transferrin saturation as a percentage.
Uploaded files:
I find it highly unlikely that your diet of meat and egg whites has led to selenium toxicity (or sub-clinical toxicity) unless you have been taking a selenium supplement in either high doses or for a long time. Also, do your symptoms even match those of selenium overdose/toxicity?
There are only two other connections I can make about egg whites that may be causing you troubles.
- Egg whites contain a protein that binds to biotin (called avidin), which over time can cause a biotin deficiency. However, meat and nuts contains biotin, so that would not support your experience that eating meat or nuts makes you feel worse.
- Egg whites are high in an amino acid called tryptophan. Meat is also high in tryptophan. Nuts (like Brazil nuts) are high in tryptophan. Maybe you are sensitive to tryptophan for some reason? Or maybe there is an imbalance of the amino acids? I am just speculating here.
You could look into either biotin deficiency or tryptophan excess and see if any studies report symptoms similar to yours.
Did you get your selenium tests back yet? I missed it if you did...
Quote from mmb3664 on July 26, 2020, 6:26 amI find it highly unlikely that your diet of meat and egg whites has led to selenium toxicity (or sub-clinical toxicity) unless you have been taking a selenium supplement in either high doses or for a long time. Also, do your symptoms even match those of selenium overdose/toxicity?
There are only two other connections I can make about egg whites that may be causing you troubles.
- Egg whites contain a protein that binds to biotin (called avidin), which over time can cause a biotin deficiency. However, meat and nuts contains biotin, so that would not support your experience that eating meat or nuts makes you feel worse.
- Egg whites are high in an amino acid called tryptophan. Meat is also high in tryptophan. Nuts (like Brazil nuts) are high in tryptophan. Maybe you are sensitive to tryptophan for some reason? Or maybe there is an imbalance of the amino acids? I am just speculating here.
You could look into either biotin deficiency or tryptophan excess and see if any studies report symptoms similar to yours.
Did you get your selenium tests back yet? I missed it if you did...
@mmb3664
Thank you so much for replying ,
Wow these are some of the things I didn't know , for sure consuming lot of egg whites are a bad choice. Yeah I dont think its biotin , but for sure I will try to supplement and see if I feel better . About tryptophan, I have had meat and eggs since I was a kid , breakfast was always eggs for me .Even if It was tryptophan excess, then I should feel way worse on lentils , buckwheat , oats or anything like that I consume nowdays and they dont cause me any symptoms . But Still Something to consider , , but highly unlikely
I checked the symptoms of both biotin deficiency or tryptophan excess , and they dont relate anyhow to my symptoms . The symptoms that I had ,
1 : peripheral neuropathy , tingling and pins in hands and feet ( thumbs and fingers )
2 : Fatigue
3 : diarrhea
4 : Insomnia
5: Garlic Breath ( I still have that sometimes )
Most of this symptoms relate to many mineral deficiencies , but I ruled them out by taking supplements . Then finally checked
selenium toxicity
https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/profs/puarticles/sel.htm#:~:text=Symptoms%20of%20selenium%20toxicity%20include,is%20no%20known%20effective%20antidote.
Symptoms of selenium toxicity include a garlicky odour in the breath, fatigue, gastrointestinal symptoms, transverse lines on the nails, alopecia, and peripheral neuropathy
One thing that made me curious was the fact that a certain type of fortified cereal was making me feel better the very next day I consumed it . I would feel 80% better the next day and with 2-3 days the symptoms and fatigue would completely vanish including peripheral neuropathy . That breakfast cereal was fortified with Iron , b2, b1 , calcium, folate . As iron was something which I would have been impossible to be deficient , as I was eating tons of red meat . I tried supplementing with b2, b1 , calcium and none of them actually made any difference . I even tried copper, managense , magnesium to check for the rest of mineral deficiencies , but all of them didnt make any difference . Finally One day I tried eating egg white again , and immediately the symptoms came back , so It must have been something in egg whites which was actually making me feel worse , Culprit was either B2 or selenium , apparently B2 wasnt the case , so it must have been selenium .
Now It all made me wonder if its selenium toxicity , why was that fortified cereal making me feel better
This cereal happens to be fortified with ferrous Sulfate , and Sulfates chelate selenium from body , that's how I came to my theory .
Now Since a month I have stayed away from selenium rich foods , My symptoms have gradually disappeared, neuropathy has completely disappeared , but a bit of fatigue is still there . Btw my selenium results came back , but they are in normal range , but we have to consider the fact that its only high in acute cases , selenium is not stored in serum . but mostly in liver , heart and brain .
I brought a Zinc Sulphate supplement , I will have small dose for a week or two to see if it speeds up the recovery , but for sure I will consider the important points you mentioned about biotin and tryptophan, what do you suggest ? Shall I try biotin supplements to see if I get better , also may be take a tryptophan pill to see if it makes it worse
Thank you 🙏
Quote from Jiří on July 25, 2020, 11:40 pm@r-2 Why would you donate blood with 36 ferritin? Also why are you taking iron supplements? If your haemoglobin is ok you don't need to worry about low iron. If your ferritin is around 50 you don't need to worry about iron toxicity..
I was thinking about donating blood to speed up the vitamin A detox, I think many have suggested that here
Quote from Rachel on July 26, 2020, 3:02 am@r-2 "Can I still donate blood on 36 ferritin" The point I was making about only having haemoglobin tested prior to giving blood is that provided your Hb is good you can withstand a certain amount of blood loss without problems regardless of your ferritin.
If you want to give blood to support the medical need for blood products then the blood transfusion service would be happy to take it with that ferritin level. They would not consider it dangerous. If your aim is to lower your iron stores then I'm not sure it is necessary with a ferritin of 36.I'm not an expert but the estimates of how much your ferritin drops per unit of blood taken is just that, an estimate. I'm not sure how much it alters things when you are in a state of marked iron overload but people with haemochromatosis having regular (usually weekly) phlebotomies don't see a linear drop in ferritin, it bounces about all over the place. Sometimes it goes up, you may get a couple in a few in a row with a really small drop and then a week later see a big drop. It is not predictable in reality. It also varies from person to person.
Mine never drops by regular amounts. We just do a best guess of how many phlebotomies I need following a ferritin test and then re-check it and re-evaluate. What they do, do is keep a close eye on my haemoglobin each time.
"I only did the TIBC and ferritin test" Have you got the lab results? When my Dr orders TIBC, they actually do a range of tests. I've attached a photo of what I get back from a TIBC test. Serum iron / TIBC x 100 gives you transferrin saturation as a percentage.
Here are my test results
Uploaded files:
