Iron Supplements- Friend or Foe?

I've had low ferritin most my life and felt fine. Could even donate blood and blood tested fine in the finger prick hemoglobin test so I ignored my doctors telling me I needed to take iron for about 15 years. Then one doctor (that used to be a GP but started working in hormones, antiageing, beauty) who I trusted a little more told me she wouldn't work with me unless I took iron supplements. My ferritin was 7 and that was the only thing she could see wrong with me. I said well I can eat dried approcots and she said "No, you HAVE to take this. I"ve taken it and it is not that bad." Looking back I think she just didn't know what else to do with me so she told me that. I went to the pharmacy and got the iron supplement (I hadn't touched pharma for 15 years) so it was creepy getting that order filled. I had been harmed by pharma before and don't trust it.

I looked at the bottle and all kinds of red flags went off: blue dye and all kinds of synthetic nasties. What the hell were these doing in there? But over a month I took that damned supplement like that damned doctor told me thinking maybe this "low iron" is what is wrong with me afterall.

Of course I didn't notice any positive changes. I did however, notice a whole bunch of chronic, serious issues creep up within a short time of completing this bottle of iron. We're talking leaky gut/food sensitivities so when I eat chocolate now and other foods I get tendonitis and inflammation in my body. I now have serious genetic sulfur intolerance. This is caused by a gene I'm homozygous for but was turned off all my life called CBS C699T. Now when I eat even small quantities of sulfur I get serious reactions as my body produces large amounts of ammonia now when metabolizing sulfur. I can't eat out at restaurants because sulfur in chemical form (like ferrious sulfate, or chemical sulfur preservatives are far worse that food forms of sulfur). Get severe reactions from these. I once applied DMSO gel to treat my tendonitis (this was the first reaction I had to sulfur and before I knew I had a problem with it). Next morning I got up, started to feel funny, passed out on the bathroom floor and then vomiting and vertigo (room spinning after getting up). Vertigo lasted a month. I was also taking sulfur crystals before I figured it out and developed what one doctor thought were MS symptoms (tongue went completely numb, pins and needles in feet and hands, feet felt like they're vibrating, brain zaps, etc.) My naturopath looked at my 23andme and said no, you've got a problem with sulfur, stop the sulfur. And the "MS symptoms" went away.... Only to re-appear when I get too much sulfur or get a chemical sulfur and then I'll get throbbing (pulsing) in my brain like after sprinting when sleeping or brain zaps.

Later I found out that free iron (such that is in those damned pills) is very toxic, and causes inflammation and oxidative stress. Oxidative stress turns on these bad genes in our body and makes them go haywire. So it turned on my CBS gene and now my transulferation pathway is messed up. So I have problems with eating sulfur but also now also develop itching and spots if I touch sulfur based chemicals such as in elasitc (they use sulfur based chemicals called accelerators to make elastic), so found I can't buy new undies, bras, socks now. Even if I wash them 20 times.

I also found out iron feeds pathogens, and I've also had chronic infections in certain areas of my body in the three years since taking the damned iron. Coincidence? I think not.

While taking the iron my thyroid functioning went down and then down again. It went back up to normal after stopping the iron (the only thing that went back to normal so far). Free iron also damages organs. Free iron does not stay in the blood because it feeds pathogens and the blood can't have that as it would cause sepsis so it pushes it off into whatever corner of the body it can and whatever organ it lodges in it damages.

The main way to get rid of iron is through the monthly cycle if your female or through blood letting or blood donation. There are other ways, such as wheat grass juice, which I heard chelates iron, CBD oil my block oxidative stress and may have properties in chelating iron, tumeric or curcimin, quercetin (cranberries) and lactoferrin may also help regulate iron and bring up ceruloplasmin (needed to make iron useful to the body). High ferritin may cause heart problems. Men tend to accumulate iron and women after menopause and it is thought that those who donate blood 2-4 times per year are more healthy than those that don't because it gets rid of excess iron. Remember free iron doesn't always show on a blood test as the blood can't keep it there. My blood tests always come back normal but that iron went somewhere and I have not been well since taking it.

Ceruloplasmin is a word that I had never heard before even though I had been following natural health for years. Ceruloplasmin is necessary to make iron work! Also needed is bioavailable copper as copper is needed as a co-factor to put iron into hemoglobin. Yes, you can't dump free iron into a body that is low in ceruloplasmin or copper as the body can't use iron like this. This is why grassfed beef liver is a safe way to get iron. It comes in a bioavailable form complete with the right ratio of copper and also vitamin a which is needed to produce ceruloplamsin. Ceruloplasmin makes both copper and iron bioavailable so the body can use it. Without it copper and iron are free and toxic. Also beef liver comes with vitamin b12.

I also found out that ferritin is pretty much a meaningless test by itself. It is a storage form of iron. It is like looking into your trunk if you have car trouble instead of the engine (ceruloplasmin and bioavailable copper are the engines). Pharma docs don't test ceruloplamsin (by design?). I don't think pharma docs are trained to get at the root of the problem or make people well. I don't think they intend to hurt people, they are trained by the wrong people (pharma).

Buy anyhow I also found out that there are some doctors out there that say when ferritin appears in the blood (in a blood test) it is a sign of inflammation as ferritin is apparently not supposed to be in the blood. If it is leaking out of cells into the blood serum, high ferritin is a sign of inflammation (means cells are leaking). High ferritin is also a maker for heart problems.

Remember they put iron shavings in flours cereals or ferrous sulfate. You can actually pick up some cereals with a magnet or search for videos of them blending the cereal in water and using a magnet through glass to pick up and move the iron. Bill Gates supports food supplementation and funded the push to put iron into salt in India: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/double-fortified-salt-university-of-toronto-india-anemia-epidemic-1.3989346

I'm sure Gates knows how toxic it is and loves every opportunity to poison people while pretending to give them something healthy. This kind of iron is toxic and not useful to the body. There was also that iron fish that they were using to get iron up in poor countries. Again this is iron metal! http://www.luckyironfish.com/
Be careful with cereals if you eat them and make sure with the manufacturer they don't have iron fortification. Sometimes you can find quinoa and rice pasta or another whole grain pasta that is not fortified but you have to ask. Whole grains are not always required to be fortified.

Been working past few years to get rid of this damned free iron my doctor gave me. Been working with Morley Robbins as he seems to understand iron and studies the research. I've learned everything I know about iron from him. Never will I ever again trust pharma docs again. Hoping that gene will turn off and I can eat sulfur freely again and wear new clothes with elastics and eat chocolate and not have infections in certain areas of my body!!! Why didn't that doctor tell me to eat grassfed beef liver as it is the safe and right way to get iron!