iron levels?

[engbulldog]

ok last night at work the red cross was there and every yr I donate, the lady pokes my finger to check my iron and says its kinda high ,she says normal is 12 and mine was 17 , should I worry , yes I know I could do a google search but most of what I read doesn't apply to me , any help would be great

 

[Stewie]

That's hemoglobin, not iron. Phlebotomist aren't to understanding of the difference. That's ok though.

Your hemoglobin is fine at 17. Again she's uninformed.

 

[john161]

Run an anemia panel to be safe, TIBC, serum iron, Ferritin, iron saturation, transferrin, MCH, MCHC.

although you levels aren't bad, they may indicate future liver congestion when the hit double that level.

 

[eatliftsleep]

17 is towards the upper high range. If you hit double those youd have huge problems. I wouldnt worry at all about 17. Especially if you just donated.

 

[mike036]

Like the other guys said 17 is in normal range for hemoglobin .it is the high end of normal but still normal .you can donate every 56 days to lower your hemoglobin so keep an eye on it and try to keep donating to keep it in normal range

 

[j.ho]

You're Fine

Did you eat a ton of meat the night before?? My doc has ran an iron panel on myself before because he thought I might not be absorbing iron like I should, due to the high count. Turns out I was just eating "too much" meat. As if there was such a thing... Either way, your numbers aren't too high. As long as it doesn't get any worse, you'll be fine.

 

[john161]

Calcium is the one substance that’s able to interfere with the absorption of heme iron. If you drink 1 cup of low-fat milk with your meal, its 314 milligrams of calcium are just enough to have an influence.
Also Vit C may increase iron absorbtion 3X, so avoid that a bit.

 

[Stewie]

Did you eat a ton of meat the night before?? My doc has ran an iron panel on myself before because he thought I might not be absorbing iron like I should, due to the high count. Turns out I was just eating "too much" meat. As if there was such a thing... Either way, your numbers aren't too high. As long as it doesn't get any worse, you'll be fine.

The Red Cross does not check one's iron status. Some facilities check hematocrit, others check hemoglobin. Not iron.

You can be iron deficient with a high hemoglobin/hematocrit. This would be termed "iron deficiency without anemia". The same holds true visa versa, high iron, low normal hemoglobin. With that said, hemoglobin and hematocrit values will vary throughout the day, in part due to changes in hydration, O2 uptake. I've mentioned this before that chronic sinus congestion will cause habitual mouth breathing, therefore increase the demand of EPO stimulus, resulting in a minute rise in ones HH. This is rarely considered when addressing possible causes of an increase in ones HH. Commonly overlooked.

Generally to measure ones iron levels, it is obtained by centrifugation of blood. The Red Cross isn't spinning your blood to check Fe2+ and Fe3+ (iron). Rather they use the finger prick method using a spectroscopy method or a hemoglobinometer. These two methods are looking at hemoglobin, not iron.

I'll say it again. The phlebotomist do not know the hematological differences between hemoglobin and iron.