Your liver makes transferrin. When your body's stores of iron run low, your liver produces more transferrin to get more iron into your blood. Iron plays many important roles in your body, including helping your red blood cells carry oxygen to the cells in your body.
Nearly all the iron in your body is normally attached to transferrin. Normally, your body carefully monitors your iron level and tries to keep it from rising too high or falling too low.
This test can give your healthcare provider more information about health issues like anemia that are affecting your body's iron supply. You may need this test if your healthcare provider suspects that you have a certain type of anemia. In general, anemia means you have a low number of red blood cells.
One type of anemia is iron-deficiency anemia. If you have this type, you don't have enough iron to properly make hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is the substance that helps your red blood cells carry oxygen. Anemia usually happens because of blood loss or because you aren't absorbing enough iron from your food. Pregnant women are also at higher risk of developing this problem. Test results may vary depending on your age, gender, health history, the method used for the test, and other things.
Treatment for iron deficiency anaemia usually involves taking iron supplements and changing your diet as well as treating any underlying cause. Foods rich in iron include red meat, pork, poultry and seafood. The body is less able to absorb the iron found in plant based foods such as spinach, lentils, beans, and so supplementation is often required for vegetarian and vegan diets.
Transferrin saturation is increased when excess amounts of iron are present, as in iron overload or poisoning hemochromatosis. A high transferrin saturation results indicates you have too much iron in your body. Potential causes include excessive intake, possibly from iron supplements or multivitamins.
In some instances, it could also indicate genetic condition called hemochromatosis. This is an inherited disease in which the body absorbs too much iron, even on a normal diet. This disorder is most common in people from northern europe and is one of the more common genetic disorders. Treatments to reduce levels of iron are available, but the disease must be investigated and treated by a doctor. Save time on interpreting lab results with the largest database of biomarkers online.
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Interestingly enough, I took a look through my prior lab tests from years past. No doctors or health care practitioners that I saw in the previous decade had ever checked an iron panel, much less my ferritin level , transferrin saturation, or TIBC. I had no reason to fear iron, or so I thought…. I searched further back and came across lab tests done by a naturopathic doctor on me when I was in my mids.
To his credit, he ordered a full iron panel for me. My serum iron, ferritin level, and TIBC were all within the normal lab ranges. Alas, no further diagnostic workup was ordered. However, the warning signs were present, and I was only in my 20s when iron panel levels should be perfect… not bordering on elevated. Hindsight is always , yet my ferritin level, transferrin saturation, and lab tests are a good example of how potentially confusing iron overload lab tests can be, and how the circumstance of the person, their environment, their symptoms, and their age all factor into the equation.
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