Gonna ask this again, please respond

Had a multitude of tests done recently and they said that my iron levels and my ferritin levels are on the low side but my Total Iron Binding capacity is very high!  I have looked this up and have found nothing, how can these tests be so off?  Also, I don't understand them, please help.

[billm57]

from what i can find you may be iron deficient -

http://www.labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/tibc/test.html

[kenneltech]

Thank you for the link, I couldn't find it anywhere.

[billm57]

youre welcome - it did take some searching to find something substantial - i saved it in my hep folder

[IMstacie]

Yes, it sounds like you may be iron deficient but, folks with Hep C don't want excess iron  and want to avoid it . Iron is needed by the virus to survive. Excess stores of iron in the blood and liver can cause the virus to progress with further damage to liver cells, which then could turn into fibrosis.

[HCVguy]

Where could I find supporting evidence for the statement, "Iron is needed by the virus to survive."?

Thanks

[IMstacie]

Now that I'm reading what I typed - I probably worded that wrong.  I am trying to say (in a not so technical way) that high iron seems to supports the replication of the virus.

This is a good site:   http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10847480

[HCVguy]

Thanks for the link.

[billm57]

iron deficiency causes many problems with hep c patients too - the key is finding the balance
the virus does not need iron to survive - excess iron can weaken the immune response - in which the virus does well

[kenneltech]

Thank you for this information because I need to make my hepatologist aware of this and ask what I should do about it.  I am wary now of just taking the word of my family doctor who wants to put me on large doses of iron.  Before I do that, I better tell the hepatology lab.

[Diane12855]

You are sooooo right to talk to your hepatologist first. If you are on tx, you shouldn't take anything new given by the family doctor or anybody else without the hep doc knowing about it. Too many things have to be processed by the liver, and you don't want to add to its work load right now.

Diane

[kenneltech]

Boy, it seems like EVERYTHING is processed through the liver!  I didn't realize how much you had to watch what you ingested until all of this happened.  Thankfully, I've been at stage 1 for many, many years and it isn't doing anything, but I am not going to push it. I ask my doctor all the time about most things I take.   Thanks.