At my clinic I regularly see patients who are trying to heal their liver and overcome a liver disease. A common blood test finding in these patients is elevated ferritin. Ferritin is the storage form of iron in the liver. Having a liver condition can promote the accumulation of ferritin, but also high ferritin can cause harm to the liver.

I have found there is a lot of confusion about this condition. People are usually uncertain about which nutritional supplements and which foods are okay to consume. If you have a liver problem but have not had a blood test for ferritin, I suggest you ask your doctor for one.

Can I take a vitamin C supplement if I have high ferritin?

Yes, you can but many people are told incorrectly that they should avoid vitamin C if they have high levels of ferritin in their blood. Doctors and naturopaths often erroneously tell patients with high ferritin to avoid supplements containing vitamin C.

Vitamin C is essential for good health and will not cause ferritin levels to rise more and vitamin C is perfectly safe in such cases. If your ferritin levels are high but your serum iron level is normal and your iron saturation levels are normal, this is not due to the genetic disorder of hemochromatosis. Isolated elevations of serum ferritin are a sign of liver inflammation so the treatment is to improve your liver health and liver function, and your ferritin levels will gradually come down. You also do not need to stop eating foods high in iron such as red meat and eggs. You do need to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables but you can continue to eat foods high in iron. Increase raw salads and raw fruits in the diet and do some raw juicing. Take a powerful liver formula such as Livatone Plus to help liver function and liver repair. You can also become a blood donor, as blood with high ferritin levels is excellent for blood transfusions in anemic patients.

Furthermore, patients with hemochromatosis do not need to avoid vitamin C supplements or red meat, because having their blood removed regularly cures their elevated iron levels and diet has very little effect.

The most common causes of high ferritin are –

  • Syndrome X and fatty liver caused by high insulin levels
  • Liver disease of many types
  • Diabetes
  • Obesity
  • Cancer
  • Infection
  • Problems with the immune system causing excess inflammation
  • Excess alcohol intake

If blood tests show your ferritin levels are too high (between 300 to 1000 mcg/L), you have too much iron stored in your body and you could have any or several of the above causes.

For more information see our article on iron overload and hemochromatosis.

Testimonial from a patient

I had sky high ferritin levels and a fatty liver when I first saw Dr Cabot. I had a blood test for hemochromatosis and I did not have this. My ferritin levels and liver enzymes were so high they were off the chart.

The results revealed I needed to adjust my nutritional intake to assist my liver to heal. This was accomplished by cutting down on alcohol and carbohydrates, eliminating gluten (which goes hand in hand with the low carbohydrate diet), stopping taking statin drugs which were contributing to my liver problem and replacing trans fats with good saturated fats and supplementing nutrients for liver health. Much of what I did to heal is to follow sound up-to-date nutritional advice which unfortunately a lot of doctors are not familiar with.

I used two LivaTone Plus  and two NAC capsules twice daily over a year and now one or two a day of each for maintenance. My latest blood test results showed that my liver enzymes and ferritin levels were completely normal.

I have been told that the body has no mechanism for removing iron and because I did not have hemochomatosis I donated blood twice during the year.

I am happy to report that my last check up proved that Dr Cabot’s advice was on the money and should be valued.

The above statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.

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