From: < (f27846532@mindspring.com)
Date: Sat Dec 09 2000 - 11:46:18 MST
>I've heard before of the idea of donating blood to reduce iron. Are there
>any studies that show it's successful? The blood centers usually remind
>you that you replace the whole blood fairly quickly.
Your *blood* levels of iron should return pretty quickly, but it's your
ferritin level (the measure of *stored* iron) that gets depleted like you
want. *Stored* iron doesn't serve much of a purpose except for back-up, and
it does a lot of damage. It's your ferritin level (and not nessecarily
plasma level) you want to test when you are working to lower iron levels.
Some life-extensionists have ferritin levels as low as 12, with no observed
negative effects. (Normal men sometimes have ferritin levels as high as
300--very pro-aging!)
GM
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