DEAR DR. ROACH: Recently, I was rejected from donating plasma (not blood) because my iron that day was 57 mcmol/L, and the maximum allowable was 54 mcmol/L.
I was rescheduled to get retested in a few days. The technician said to eat beans and similar foods to lower my iron levels.
I checked my own records and didn’t find any results that fell below the cutoff. My red blood cell count was 5.15; my white blood cell count was 6.0; my hemoglobin level was 16.1 g/dL; and my hematocrit level was 48.5%, all within the healthy range. Which test results could they be referring to, and how do I lower my iron? — S.L.
ANSWER: Blood banks typically screen donors for anemia, which is frequently caused by iron deficiency, but I’m confused as to why they are screening you with iron tests because that is typically not done. Moreover, they are telling you that your iron is too high, which is the opposite of the iron-deficiency anemia that is usually looked for.
I recommend that you see your own physician and get retested. If we take the blood bank at their word, and your iron level is too high, that raises the possibility of hereditary hemochromatosis (HH), which is caused by a defect of iron absorption. With this condition, your body absorbs as much iron as possible, even if it doesn’t need any.
This causes iron overload, which damages the heart, liver, bone marrow, adrenal glands, skin and joints, just to name a few.
HH is easy to treat once the diagnosis is made.
However, making the diagnosis requires thinking about the possibility, and it’s uncommon enough that a lot of healthcare professionals don’t think about it right away. Your doctor should test your iron and iron-binding capacity, as well as your ferritin level, which tends to correlate with the total amount of body iron stores.
But I don’t want to jump to conclusions, which is why your own doctor should test you to see if you really do have excess iron.
Dr. Roach regrets that he is unable to answer individual questions, but will incorporate them in the column whenever possible.
Readers may email questions to ToYourGoodHealth@med.cornell. edu.