Fasting and Iron

So I found a new You Tube Channel that I thought was quite good.

But the first thing I noticed was that he had the same problem I did. After fasting, his Ferritin blew up - mine was a paltry 270. But I was only doing Alternate Day Fasting. His was in the 1000 range. But that got me thinking... both of us...

1. Fasted. Though his fasting was much more intense than mine - he went 30 days at one point.
2. Didn't really eat that much red meat so that it would seem unlikely to be getting excess iron in the diet.
3. Did not see our Iron on our blood tests go very high... so why would iron be relatively low.. while our Ferritin blew up?

Looking at several other websites I found a commonality. Many people noticed a jump in Ferritin -- only -- with fasting. 

Then I kind of found it.. I think. It seems to be related to your iron stores... your body keeps iron for later in the liver.  The liver: conductor of systemic iron balance But for some reason, believed to related to the hormone Ghrelin ... (your hunger hormone) when you fast your body lets go of the iron. Fasting Increases Iron Export in the Liver. There is also some suggestion based on a study with pigs that it is the weight loss that increases iron.  Effect of Prolonged Fasting on Iron Stores and Blood Constituents in Young Swine  So it seems that when you are losing a lot of weight and or fasting for a long time (not time restricted eating) your body gets the message to release the iron stores in you liver and your body's Ferritin must jump into action to collect up all that extra iron before you do damage to your organs.  So in theory this is how the iron in the blood stays low... but Ferritin goes up. 

I also found this study Weight loss may have contributed to hyperferritinaemia in up to 11%. My guess on this is that the fast you lose weight the more you body releases iron. 

Then this "Table 1: Causes of raised serum ferritin without iron overload [19]." Ferritin without Iron And one of the Causes of Raised Ferritin without Iron Overload is.... "Check for weight loss, anorexia."

This is, imho, just another example of medical incompetence.  When I was doing a medically monitored diet previously, they never ever ever tested Ferritin.  Even my you tube buddy had his doctor write it off to a cast iron cooking pan. Of course that might have been part of it -- but it wasn't the problem. It took me about 20 minutes on Google to find the issue. Grr.