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.

Blood Thinning and MGUS - again.

One of the frustrating parts about MGUS is that there is so little information, both about MGUS proper and about things you can do around MGUS.  But something that sticks out to me as something which must be dangerous ... is the thickening of the blood. No, I know that Dr. Kyle told me that doesn't happen except in advanced cases of MGUS, but, I don't believe we are talking about the same thing. I believe he is talking about thickening of the blood that is dangerous and requires medical intervention and I am talking about ANY thickening of the blood.  

It is well-known that thicker blood is more associated with cancer.  All blood thinning medication and blood thinning supplements are associated with less cancer.  This includes blood thinners like Warfarin and Supplements like Tumeric. Diabetics have thicker blood and in fact, the American Diabetes Association recommends 1 baby aspirin per day.  

And someone just gave me a big tip as to how that can be. 

Anti angiogenesis plays a role in starving cancers. Thin blood can cause anti angiogenesis. Pruning off blood supply to cancers. Thick blood leads to angio genesis, where a cancer signals the body to grow blood to feed the cancer cells.

I have asked for a citation to this but my  preliminary looking at it... seems accurate. This came up in the context of discussing fasting. And fasting is known to thin the blood. Though we are not sure why... it could be due to autopahagy or it could be due to messages to produce less red blood cells.  People on blood thinners are warned to discuss fasting with their doctors -- because the dose of blood thinner has to go down.  I know when I do donate blood I cannot fast for the two weeks surrounding it. 

So for me.. it is crucial that anyone who has MGUS keep their blood thin from the moment they are diagnosed. It is like a snowball rolling down hill... Mgus slightly thickens your blood, thicker blood encourages cells to go cancerous..... At the same time MGUS patients are specifically stopped from doing the one thing that is most likely to (and safe) keep our blood thin.. donate blood.  What a perfect recipe for disaster.