Marker · Educational ranges, not diagnosis
Ferritin
Also called serum ferritin.
A storage-iron protein in blood. It rises when iron stores are high, and it also rises as an acute-phase reactant when something is inflamed.
Read this first
- Coach, not doctor. Aaron Cuha is a coach, not a doctor. No clinical credential is claimed for him, or for these pages. A number on a panel is a conversation starter with a clinician, not a DIY diagnosis. Nothing here is a prescription, a protocol, or a reason to start or stop a medicine. Educational use only. This database summarizes published research and is not medical advice. Where a dose appears it is a record of what a trial or clinic ran, or what people describe doing, with its source attached. Nothing here is a recommendation for personal use.
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Why a longevity audience asks
This is the exclusion marker on the owner's stack. His published ferritin is 435, and the rule is no iron, including inside a multivitamin. High ferritin is also how iron-overload disease is watched. Low ferritin is a different conversation and still not a reason to self-dose iron without a clinician.
How a coach reads it
Labs publish their own intervals, often roughly 30 to 400 ng/mL depending on sex and method. The owner's 435 is above the top of many of those intervals. A very high value, especially over 1,000 in treated HFE hemochromatosis, tracked with a higher risk of death in one 422-person cohort. That is clinician territory, not a supplement decision.
Units on this page: ng/mL, ug/L
When it is low
May mean stores are low. Confirm with the rest of the iron panel and a blood count before anyone talks about a bottle. Pregnancy, bleeding, and gut absorption problems change the work-up.
When it is high
Do not take iron. Do not take a multi that hides iron. Inflammation, alcohol, liver disease, and iron overload can all raise ferritin. Get a clinician to sort which one.
Easy ways to misread it
- Ferritin is not a clean iron-only number when CRP is up.
- A greens powder or 'men's multi' can still contain iron.
- One high value is not a diagnosis of hemochromatosis.
What to ask a clinician
Ask for ferritin with an iron panel and CBC. If ferritin is high, ask for hs-CRP and whether HFE testing or referral is on the table. Do not start iron first.
Related supplements
Related when-playbooks
Sources on this page
- Increased risk of death from iron overload among 422 treated probands with HFE hemochromatosis and serum levels of ferritin greater than 1000 ug/L at diagnosis.
Treated HFE cohort. Ferritin over 1,000 at diagnosis tracked with higher death risk. Not a consumer cut-off.
2012PMID 22265917 - Clinical guidelines: HFE hemochromatosis-screening, diagnosis and management.
Guideline review of screening and management. Clinician document, not a self-protocol.
2010PMID 20811364