Aug 204 min read

Reduce Your Ferritin for Longevity

Dr. Harshfield told me that giving blood is as effective at renewing your blood and body as is getting transfusions from much younger people. In the donation process, you are getting rid of senescent cells along with excess iron. One benefit is the lowering of the ferritin iron storage protein.

You can donate blood without a recommendation from your doctor. However, if you have elevated ferritin, you should get a comprehensive iron/hematology test. If you have "anemia of chronic inflammation," your iron butfrn is not necessarily high, and you probably should NOT donate blood until your ferritin to iron ratio and your total free iron are normalized. Get a blood test to know for sure.

In general, if you do NOT have anemia of chronic inflammation, anyone with a ferritin level above 200 should consider donation. People with levels about 100 may also consider donating as well - but less frequently.

Anemia of chronic disease (anemia of chronic inflammation) is characterized by lower than normal free iron and higher than normal ferritin. However, you should get a complete hematology lab panel.

I learned about another way to donate blood today, from a participant. It is called "Power Red Donation."

https://www.redcrossblood.org/donate-blood/how-to-donate/types-of-blood-donations/power-red-donation.html

What is a Power Red Donation?

Power Red is similar to a whole blood donation, except a special machine is used to allow you to safely donate two units of red blood cells during one donation while returning your plasma and platelets to you.

Why should you do it? You may already know about the ongoing need for blood and the importance of your blood donations. Whole blood donations contain red blood cells, platelets, plasma, and white blood cells. Red blood cells are the most frequently used blood component and are needed by almost every type of patient requiring transfusion. If you meet certain criteria, Power Red allows you to safely donate two units of red cells during one appointment as an automated donation process. It is as safe as whole blood donation.

If interested, I suggest you read the entire article because not everyone is eligible.

Question: does red blood cell donation get rid of senescent cells

Ai Answer: Yes, donating pure red blood cells (RBCs) can decrease the proportion of senescent cells in the body. A study found that preoperative autologous pure RBC donation decreased the proportion of senescent cells, ROS, p53, and p21 more than preoperative autologous whole blood donation. The study also concluded that pure RBC collection and transfusion may be better for patients' postoperative recovery than whole blood transfusion.

Normally, senescent RBCs are removed from circulation through phagocytosis, which mainly occurs in the spleen's macrophages but also in the liver and bone marrow. Macrophages recognize senescent RBCs by a variety of senescence markers, including:

Loss of membrane
Impaired deformability
Oxidation of membrane proteins
Appearance of neoantigens
Exposure of membrane phosphatidylserine
Changes in enzymatic activity
Decrease in the activity of the thrombospondin-1 receptor (CD47)

Ferritin as an indicator of early mortality risk.

This appears to be a valid article on the problems with high ferritin and iron overload. Dr. Mercola has also produced a lot of content on the perils of high iron burden with Morley Robbins.

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/health/practitioner-professional-resources/bc-guidelines/iron-overload

Here are a couple of excerpts.

Key Recommendations*

Ferritin is an acute phase reactant released by activated macrophages and damaged hepatocytes.
High ferritin levels are most commonly caused by inflammation, infection, liver disease (particularly non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)/fatty liver), renal disease, alcohol excess, metabolic syndrome or malignancy. In these cases, a high ferritin level does not accurately reflect iron stores (1.)
The first-line investigations for a patient with a raised serum ferritin are:
- History taking: alcohol intake and other risk factors for liver disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, obesity, hypertension, symptoms and signs of an underlying inflammatory or malignant disorder, transfusion history, and family history of iron overload.
- Lab tests: repeat serum ferritin, transferrin saturation (TSAT), complete blood count, serum creatinine, and liver enzymes (ALT and GGT) with consideration of viral hepatitis screening and abdominal ultrasonography (if suspected liver disease or elevated liver enzymes). Check blood glucose and lipid studies if not recently performed.
Hereditary hemochromatosis is an uncommon cause of hyperferritinemia and testing for HFE-HH is not recommended in patients of non-European ancestry because its prevalence is very rare.
Individuals of East Asian descent have ferritin values 1.5-2x higher than the upper limit of normal reported.
Iron overload can generally be excluded when TSAT <45%.

1. Cullis JO, Fitzsimons EJ, Griffiths WJ, Tsochatzis E, Thomas DW. Investigation and management of a raised serum ferritin. Br J Haematol. 2018;181(3):331–40.

Here is a sampling of papers that show an association between elevated ferritin and early death - many of whom, in these studies, have co-morbidities. So IT IS NEVER JUST ON THING.

This is a google scholar search if you wish to reproduce it.