Message #24650

[mccoy]

By the recent revision of my diet it turns out I almost invariably eat more than 100% RDA of Iron. Vegans who weat lots of legumes and whole grains on top of vegetables, especially green leaved, may be even higher than me. It is told that about 200% RDA non-heme iron should equal 100% RDA heme iron.
There is another aspect though, and it's that too much iron is probably very bad..

Guys who eat lots of red meat may incur many health issue and may need to donate blood or even undergo phlebotomy to lower blood ferritin.

to the following list of issues, we should add damage to pancreatic beta-cell by iron excess.

From Dr. Mercola website

Iron overload is incredibly common and likely as dangerous to your health as vitamin D deficiency. Elevated iron creates excessive free radicals that damage your mitochondrial DNA, cell membranes and electron transport proteins.

If left untreated, it can damage your organs and contribute to cancer, heart disease, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases and many other disorders.

The serum ferritin test measures your stored iron. I strongly recommend all adults to get this test done on an annual basis.

Ideally, your serum ferritin should be between 20 and 80 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL); somewhere between 40 and 60 ng/mL is the sweet spot for adult men and non-menstruating women.

If your ferritin level is above 80 ng/mL, the solution is to donate your blood. If it's over 200 ng/mL, a more aggressive phlebotomy schedule is recommended.