#139 | Finding your Iron Sweetspot for Performance and Health | Grant Fraser MD

Pro Level Supplements & At-Home Tests for WiseAthletes We’ve all heard about anemia and iron deficiencies hurting our athletic performance and our overall energy level. But the latest thing is iron overload and dumping iron. So is iron good or bad??…the answer is yes.  Iron is both a toxin and a nutrient.  What I’ve learned for myself is the older athlete needs just enough iron but no more. So the right question is …how to tell where you are on iron storage in your body, and how can you help your body not hold too much iron while avoiding having too little.   We all need 3-5 grams or 3000-5000 mg of iron in our bodies every second of every day and we only can absorb 1-2mg of iron per day from our food and supplements…plus or minus a bit using various techniques to raise or lower iron.  Too little iron can mean chronic fatigue, brain fog, and breathlessness.  Diets low in animal proteins, frequent hard workouts, low stomach acid, gut issues causing poor nutrient absorption, and of course bleeding can lead to lower iron.  Too much iron, unless dramatic, is harder to feel and more likely for older athletes. Without blood loss, iron tends to accumulates in organs during aging and leads to dementia, heart disease, T2D and much more, and is worsened by drinking alcohol.  Donating whole blood can lower iron but moves the needle very slowly as only 100-250mg of your total 3000-5000mg of iron is lost at each donation. That’s the equivalent effect of not absorbing iron from food for 3 months, so it’s something.  The key is to plan ahead.  So how to know if you are low or high?  Or on the verge of being low or high?  How to know if donating whole blood every 8 weeks is a good idea or a bad idea?  How can you make donating blood less unpleasant?  And what else can you do to stay in your iron sweetspot and to avoid both of these terrible outcomes for athletic performance, quality of life, and overall health? To answer these questions and more today on episode 139 I am joined by Dr Grant Fraser who is board certified in the United States in anti-aging and regenerative medicine and in family medicine.   Listen in while Dr Fraser helps me to sort out what is going on and how to plan ahead to get into the iron sweetspot.  Grant E. Fraser MD, ABAARM, DABFM, FRACGP, FACRRM, GEM Grant E. Fraser, M.D. is Board Certified in Anti-Aging & Regenerative Medicine, and more and is passionate about helping patients improve their quality of life, reverse health conditions, and live longer and happier. Bullet points What is iron? Iron is a very common mineral on Earth It has a highly stable nucleus and is capable of accepting and donating electrons easily, which makes it react with water to form rust and is very useful for biological organisms.  We use it to grab oxygen from air and carry it around the body, we use it in the chemical chain that makes ATP or energy the body uses to power itself, and iron is a necessary part of many proteins.  Our bodies need iron every second of our lives, so we keep extra on board just in case… we have 3-5grams in our bodies and we absorb about 1-2mg a day.  That’s 1-2 mg vs. 3000-5000mg…we can’t get much very fast.  So mostly we recycle it, and we keep some stored away in protective cages that keep the reactive iron from damaging our cells. So it’s like calcium (stored in bones) and proteins (stored in muscle and elsewhere) that we scavenge when we need some.  But iron is so reactive it will damage our cells, so we lock it away and convert it to less reactive forms?